Though some are still desperately hoping to see the return of “The Bruiserweight,” Pete Dunne, now wrestling as a diminutive bulldog of the Brawling Brutes, Butch, is loving his current run in the WWE. Sure, he isn't wrestling singles classics against the likes of Tyler Bate, WALTER, or Trent Seven anymore as he used to during his run in NXT and NXT UK, but the Brutes have been very well-rated for their matches in WWE proper, with Butch earning three matches with a four-star rating or higher as part of the group on SmackDown, according to ProFightDB.com.

Who does Butch credit for this success? While he's certainly heaped credit on Sheamus in the past, on a recent trip to the Out of Character podcast with Ryan Satin, Butch heaped some serious praise onto Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who has helped to take his career to new levels, as transcribed by Fightful.

“It's great, he's a great boss to work for, no bad things at all to say,” Butch said. “I love the time with him in NXT, NXT UK was a blast. He's always been great to me, super approachable. I was really happy to see him back in any capacity when he came back from his troubles. It was great to have him around, see him in some capacity and back to work. Now, being head of creative, it's even better because he's there every week and he's so approachable. I can go to him with any small thing. A lot of times, I can leave him to it, I have full trust in him. That whole UK tournament, the trust he put in me to do that. To that point, he probably saw me have one tryout match. He probably had watched footage separately, but I hadn't met him until the press conference, which was a few weeks before the UK tournament and never worked with him until the UK tournament and he had full trust in me to have three or four matches that weekend, to be the ongoing story that weekend, and build the UK title around me. Myself, Tyler (Bate), Trent (Seven), Mark Andrews, others. The trust he put into me there, ever since then, my full trust is in him. I try not to bother him too much, but I know he's there and approachable and I know I'm always going to enjoy the creative and I'm going to do the best I possibly can with it.”

Considering how prominently Butch has been pushed on SmackDown and the fact that Bate is maybe the most underrated wrestler in the NXT Universe, it's clear the dream of NXT UK is alive and well in the greater WWE Universe, even if the brand is currently being reworked for a future, more European-focused follow-up.

Butch is standing on the shoulders of WWE legends of the past.

Elsewhere in his interview with Satin, Butch told the story about how he met current Ring of Honor World Champion Chris Jericho and discussed how veterans like “The Ocho,” Triple H, and the true champion of NXT UK, William Regal, helped to shape the early stages of his career.

“I definitely met him briefly, me and Tyler did a dark match to test the cameras in Glasgow where we had our tryout. Regal picked us two to wrestle,” Butch said. “He was on his phone or whatever, and we were in there and taking it as a job interview. We were out there putting on the best match we possibly could. Halfway through, he puts his phone down and starts watching. I remember him watching the whole thing. After, me and Tyler hung around, he was talking to Chris Jericho and we stood by the rail really awkwardly, we thought, ‘We have to get five minutes with him if we can.' Eventually, Jericho turned around and asked us if we were okay or what we needed. We said, ‘we just wanted to make sure everything you saw was okay and if there was anything we could do differently, improve, get your thoughts.' Triple H basically just said, ‘No, it was great' and Jericho said, ‘Give me five minutes, I'll come talk to you.' We had a good chat with him and he had kind words to say. That was the only brief encounter I had with Triple H. Between that and Regal, I'm sure, was a big part of it and that's what led to the UK tournament and that was where I built more of a relationship with him. Even now, he was so busy and it was so brief, I was UK Champion by the time that we actually sat down together and had a more casual conversation. That was quite a long time after. Like I said, the trust he put in me, I will always have trust in him.”

While Jericho and Regal are currently killing it in AEW, it's nice to know their impact is still being felt in the Fed, especially among some of the best young performers in the industry right now.