By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Triple H NXT Conference Call Highlights
February 10, 2015

-- (McMahon): Triple H said that Vince McMahon does watch NXT, but he has yet to sit down with McMahon to watch the show together."Getting him to sit down and watch (laughs) is the difficult part. I've never actually sat down with him to watch it. I do know that he's seen it," Hunter said.

"He's proud of it. He's excited for the future. He's proud of the system and the athletes we have down here. I think in a lot of ways for him, a lot of what we're doing down here is a vision from what we've talked about. This isn't just all dropping out my head. I've picked up so much from him over the years on what needed to happen in Developmental to continue to expand the business."

-- (NXT at Main Roster Level): Triple H said he does not want to lose sight of what NXT's goal is - a developmental system to feed the main roster, but he wants NXT to reach a level where it's a good place for main roster wrestlers to work for a while without it feeling like a step down in their career.

"I'm not saying it's ever going be on the same level, but I think there's an opportunity when guys have been on the main roster for six, seven years and you need a bit of a refresh, hopefully it's not seen as a demotion. Come down here, work a program, do what you do with a little bit looser guidelines, and go back up fresh again," Hunter said.

On the flip-side, Hunter said he wants the general population of wrestling fans to become more aware of the NXT roster so they can "fantasize" about potential match-ups down the road like Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan or Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns. Hunter added that he's not sure yet how close they are to something like an NXT Title match at WrestleMania.

-- (Hideo Itami/KENTA): Triple H noted to Jason Powell of Prowrestling.net that Itami is still going through a transition phase - both in the ring and out of the ring - getting acclimated to the WWE style, a new country, and a language. When the light bulb goes off, he thinks Itami will begin to show what made him a special wrestler in Japan.

"It's a hard transition," Hunter said. "Every time I see him, I say, 'Let go. Let loose. I brought you here for a reason, let me see it.' There's going to be that moment: 'Yeah, that's the guy.'"

Whereas, Kevin Owens (Kevin Steen) had that "light bulb" moment the night before the previous NXT special when he made his debut. Hunter coached Steen to "feel it," not think about it and the next day there was no hesitation. "He got past it, but you never stop learning," Hunter said.

-- (Women/Divas): Triple H said he believes there has to be that moment where "everyone seems to get" the paradigm shift in how women's wrestlers are presented on main roster television. He said it's similar to UFC going from no female fighters to suddenly Ronda Rousey being one of the top fighters in the industry.

Hunter said he has one vision down at NXT, where Charlotte and Sasha Banks are thriving, and there is another vision at the main roster level where there are 2-3 minute TV matches.

"It's tough just to wholesale change everything. When you look at Raw and Smackdown compared to NXT, they are a little different audiences. There are a lot of general, casual fans that watch Raw and Smackdown and they perceive the business slightly different. It takes a while to change those perceptions. I think we're doing that (at NXT) and showing what our women can do. It takes time to change people's perceptions. Part of that is vision, part of that is execution," Hunter said.

-- (Using the Past): Triple H talked about not wanting to shy away from wrestlers's past on the independents or internationally. He said they have the chance to embrace things like Kevin Steen vs. El Generico (Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn) and build on what most of the NXT fanbase knows about. Then, if NXT reaches a certain level, they can take that story and keep it going on the main roster.

"As you tell that story, that becomes our story. Hopefully five years from now there's another version of a similar strain of this same story happening on the main roster or at WrestleMania," Hunter envisioned.

-- (Roster Size): Hunter said they currently have about 65-70 wrestlers on the NXT roster. He said they can train 65-100 at any given time, but they are comfortable in the 70-80 range.

Roster broke down the roster as an elite group, an advanced group, a third tier of talent ready for more opportunities, and a bottom rung group who are just getting in the mix or - if they don't have wrestling background - learning what the business is about. Then, there are wrestlers like Solomon Crowe (Sami Callihan), who WWE is waiting for the right Creative competent to fit in on television.

-- (Alex Riley): Alex Riley, who has done interviews on NXT TV, is now off the Raw pre-show, and Hunter was vague about what's next for Riley in WWE.

"We're making some mild transitions with Alex. He's expressed some different interests. You'll see Alex get some cool opportunities coming up," Hunter said.

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