Triple H NXT Conference Call Highlights: NXT’s move to Tuesdays, simulcasting TakeOver on Peacock, Jericho’s WWE Network return, Omos debuting at WrestleMania, Bad Bunny’s training, more

This afternoon, WWE Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul Levesque (Triple H) held a media conference call ahead of next week’s NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. Levesque talked up the “special” nature of the two-night event and took calls from an international array of outlets.

Levesque opened by framing his excitement for “one of the biggest events in NXT history,” and how the first night of that event will be simulcast on both USA and Peacock in the US; still on the WWE Network internationally and with partners depending on where you are.” He announced that Sam Roberts will host a one-hour pre-show featuring Mickie James and other guests before each night of Stand & Deliver, and that TakeOver talent will be involved with a press event Tuesday, April 6 with details to come.

Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net inquired whether pro wrestling being on five days in a row every week is beneficial or overkill. “No one forces you to watch anything,” said Levesque before opining, “It’s availability. With the Internet, with the Network, with Peacock, with YouTube, you can watch any content you want any time you want to watch it pretty much from anywhere in the world on any device. That availability and that accessibility hasn’t seemed to damage people’s appetite or desire for anything. The world is becoming less and less of a ‘you must watch at this time.’ I don’t think that’s an issue for me at all. There’s a sitcom on TV somewhere every night. There are 24-hour news channels. It is what it is.”

Kenny McIntosh of UK Sport asked for Levesque’s reaction to The Undertaker calling today’s locker room “soft” on the Joe Rogan Experience. Levesque replied, “The business always morphs and changes, and people have opinions. Taker has always been one of those guys who’s always bluntly honest. The great thing about him, though, is he’s bluntly honest with an opinion: ‘here’s how I think it should be and here’s how I can help you to get there.” His comments are always with the best of intent or desire to improve. There are certain guys in the business that if they speak, they’ve been around a long time, seen a lot of things, and they’ve earned the right [that] if they speak, you listen and you take their point of view and you work with it. He’s one of those guys for sure. If he says it and believes it, there’s something to it. Then again, every generation is different from what people are willing to accept. Everybody believes certain generations of music are better than others, too.”

Gary Cassidy of Inside the Ropes mentioned today’s announcement that Chris Jericho will appear on the next “Broken Skull Sessions” on WWE Network, and asked whether WWE will go on to work with more wrestling companies in the future. “We’re open for business,” Levesque said after commenting that he’s not sure he sees the connection made in the question. He continued, “Vince has been very adamant in that, right? Open for business – what’s best for business. It’s a funny thing that people sometimes create their own situation in their head. I hadn’t heard the Jericho thing today but it’s not shocking to me in any way, shape, or form. People make comments about, you know, people ask when they leave, ‘oh, they received a nice call from Vince,’ or whoever that is. Yeah. Yeah. It’s not shocking to me at all. The perception and the creation of what people believe in their heads when they have zero knowledge of it personally is amazing to me.”

Mike Johnson of PW Insider brought up the potential challenges a two-night, simulcast TakeOver could bring, and inquired as to strategies in approach. Levesque answered that “in essence it’s almost like two TakeOvers happening within two days of each other, one being on USA, with potential commercial breaks, and also simulcast at the same point in time on Peacock where there won’t be those breaks.” Regarding those commercial breaks he went on, “It’s still a process that we’re working through. In some manner this is a new partnership for us, and trying to figure out the split of how we’re working USA, Peacock, and a live event is still a work-in-progress, and in my honest opinion will probably be a mild work-in-progress at 7:59 on Wednesday.”

Alistair McGeorge of Metro UK asked what we can expect from Omos’ televised match debut at WrestleMania. Levesque gushed, “He’s a sponge. When you’re as big as he is and unique as he is, the spotlight is bright, and people just can’t wait to see what you can do so you have to be cautious with it and how you do it. Hopefully we’re giving him just enough to chew on at each moment in time that it works wonderfully. He’s got a bright future. Again, just a quality person. Great guy. Humble. Just loves what he’s doing. He’s one of those success stories that when I see him it makes me smile. He’s an incredible athlete. He’s worked really, really, really hard. The thing is, it’s funny that people just see what he does on TV, so they see him the one time a week on TV or whatever. They don’t see him in the gym at the PC, they don’t see him in the ring at the PC, they don’t see him training every day still to be something special.” Levesque summarized that wrestling is not a business many people immediately excel at and that a lengthy training process does not indicate failure, then concluded, “He’s not just the big dude standing there. I think he’s going to shock a lot of people.”

Michael Morales Torres of Lucha Libre Online mentioned the involvement of crossover stars Bad Bunny and Logan Paul on Raw and SmackDown, respectively, and asked if there is potential for more of that on NXT. Levesque said, “There’s always opportunities to do the one-offs or the things here, especially when it’s with somebody who loves what we do and is engaged.” Segueing to the subject of Bad Bunny, he testified, “I’ve watched fans sometimes that say, ‘Oh I wish these celebrities would stay out,’ or something like that. What they don’t get is he’s been at the Performance Center for the last three or four months, training every day. He wanted to do this; he moved himself to Orlando. He’s been there every day working, I mean, hard. He’s earned my respect on every level. I have respect for him for what he does, but he’s earned my respect for what we do.” Levesque brought up Pat McAfee, calling him “the next level of athlete. Scheduling for him is always the issue with us, but you saw it. Pat, continuing with us, has a lot of things he’s going to do with us in the future, and it’s a very bright future, but his in-ring stuff was second to none because he worked so hard at it. For me, if you have passion for what we do and passion for what we do in the ring and you’re willing to work hard to get there, then great, let’s go.”

Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT asked whether it’s true AJ Styles has been “pestering” Levesque for a WrestleMania match. Levesque laughed, admitting, “He did! He pestered with me every time I talked! He would ask me about it, and ask me about my schedule. Oh man, I’ve said this before – getting ready for WrestleMania is a different thing, and the older you get the harder it gets. You try to stay in the best shape you can but that’s not WrestleMania shape. When he very first came to me I said, ‘Man, AJ, I’m not going to tell you no. To be honest with you, personally I’d love to work with you, and at this point you could carry me to something. The performer side of it would love nothing more. The reality of it is I am not going to have the bandwidth or the availability schedule-wise to be able to pull that off.’ And then he would come to me like every week or every other week when I would see him and say, ‘How’s that bandwidth coming?’ Look, I’m flattered by that. I really am, and humbled by it. I wish I had the bandwidth to do it, and I’m not saying I won’t do it in the coming year if it’s right and everybody believes that it’s what should be done. I’m at a point where to me the in-ring stuff is bonus. It’s funny, Flair calls me all the time to tell me, ‘You have to have that closure! You have to do this, you know, whatever, retirement match!’ There’s a part of me that wants to do it, then there’s just a part of me – and it’s a bigger part right now – that just goes, man, I am so busy 24/7.” Levesque then described how the level of training he’d want to undertake to get in proper shape simply does not fit his current schedule.

Finally, Connor Casey of ComicBook.com asked Levesque to rate NXT’s run on Wednesday nights on USA. Levesque stated, “Very successful,” before continuing, “For me, we went from a very small platform of the Network, with a lot of buzz outside of it, to jumping to USA, from one hour to two hours, from pre-taped to live, to everything in between. Talent call-ups, and injuries, and pandemics, you name it. In the course of that period of time I am incredibly proud and happy of what we’ve done with the brand. When we first did it, it was about maintenance of a consistent time slot – day of the week and time – so that people could find what they were used to finding, even in that smaller group. Now we’ve established a consistent viewership. Obviously we just renewed multi-year deals; the network is very happy. The ability to jump to Peacock and have more visibility for our larger tentpole events, and be able to create more interest in the product in that manner – it’s all for the right reasons. The Tuesday lead-in from Monday night and the promotions from Monday night to Tuesday is going to be great for us. It’s all good. To be honest if you would have asked me a year and a half [ago], ‘hey, how would you see this going,’ I would see it going about what it is now – the ability to establish a fanbase and then decide the best place to put it. As far as further changes, you make them every week. It’s constantly looking at what you do to try to give fans the best possible shows. Not just in that moment. They don’t write ‘Game of Thrones’ and go, ‘how do you give them the greatest episode possible every single week?’ You have to build to things; you have to build long-term. You have to think long-term. That’s going to ebb and flow in what the episodes themselves look like. It’s all about long-term; it really is. It’s hard for people to garner but I think we’re on the exact path I would like to be on.”

Levesque also fielded questions on the effects of crowd-free shows on wrestlers’ psyches, the potential for the NXT UK Heritage Cup to be defended in the United States, and more. He closed with a reminder of the April 6 press event with talent, and a declaration of his anticipation for further communication following TakeOver: Stand & Deliver.