WWE COO Paul Levesque, better known to fans as Triple H, spoke with members of the wrestling media this Friday to promote the upcoming NXT Takeover: New Orleans live special taking place during WrestleMania weekend.
During the call, the self-proclaimed “King of Kings” discussed the newly announced NXT North American Championship that will be unveiled at Takeover when six of the brand’s biggest stars face off in a ladder match. He also talked about the women’s division and how he treats the talent compared to the men’s division, potential for a secondary singles title or tag team titles for the ladies, and more.
You can check out the full audio from the NXT Takeover conference call at this link.
ON THE CREATION OF THE NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP:
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“The timing is right. The North American Championship is a long-term expansion play, much like the UK Championship is part of a long-term strategy play with the brand. It’s something that I see growing as NXT is doing multiple tours and doing over 200 live events per year, doing multiple tours in Florida and more out-of-state touring…”
“There will also be some follow-up announcements coming soon based around the UK and that championship. It’s all to me about long-term expansion, and sometimes I think it’s difficult – people see it happen, they think about the moment now. Sometimes that expansion plan takes a little bit longer than we initially anticipate, but all of these things are happening for a reason. Most of them are longer-term reasons but they also fit the narrative of today, so it’s kind of a double benefit.”
ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A SECONDARY TITLE FOR THE WOMEN’S DIVISION:
“I think time will tell. We always want to make sure the quality is there for the brand, and the amount of talent that we have in the pipeline is matching what we’re putting out there for the creative. Before I would do that I would want to make sure we have enough depth to it to make sure that it could cover all the bases it needed to cover, but absolutely.”
“As much as sometimes the strategic plans take longer than you would like, I also am very careful to not put things out there that we aren’t confident that we can execute in a timely matter. We don’t like them to take longer than they need to, so I wouldn’t want to put something out there that wasn’t the right fit immediately fo the brand. That being said I think all those options are on the table.”
“I don’t look at the women’s division any differently than I look at the men’s division, realistically. It’s all about the amount of talent that we have, and how can the talent fill the pipelines that exist, whether that be tag team championships or secondary singles championships; it depends on the amount and what we have in the pipeline.”
You can check out the full audio from the NXT Takeover conference call at this link.