Though its proverbial doors have been shuttered since all the way back in September of 2022, the fingerprints of NXT UK have been all over WWE's on-screen product, with Paul “Triple H” Levesque booking ex-NXT UK Champion Gunther like a god with the Intercontinental Championship, Noam Dar officially bringing the UK Heritage Cup to Orlando, and a number of British stars, notably JD McDonagh, Isla Dawn, and Alba Fyre, all being drafted out of developmental onto Raw and SamackDown respectively.
Needless to say, the organizational legacy William Regal helped to assemble has paid dividends for WWE to a pretty impressive degree, but that doesn't mean Trips is done with the idea of a developmental system in the UK. Speaking with Joe Otterson of Variety, Levesque explained the importance of WWE building out its developmental system not just in the UK but around the world, as it could lead to even bigger success moving forward.
“There’s been a lot of progress on it. We are very excited about the prospect of taking NXT in a larger global direction,” Levesque said. “I would like to be able to find the best athletes and the largest personalities and the most entertaining people from every place in the world, and bring them into what we do,” he added. “Because when you begin to create those characters and those stars from every region, those regions become more engaged in what we do. If you can begin to go to all these places, and begin to find athletes there that can resonate on a global stage, some will make it big, some will make it small, some won’t make it at all. But that Indian talent, let’s say, that you have that main events WrestleMania and is a native of that country, that wholesale changes how [that country] views the product.”
“NXT UK was based mostly on independent wrestling workers, guys that worked their way up and found their way to us,” Levesque said. “We’re starting the process there doing the same thing we’re doing here. There isn’t an NCAA collegiate level of athletics in Europe, but there’s a lot of athletes that are training in a lot of places like Loughborough or whatever, for specific sports. We’re beginning to engage with them now and finding the same interest level that we’re finding in NCAA athletes here.”
Would WWE be smart to build out their developmental roster using talent from all over the world? Most definitely; WWE pushes plenty of stars from all over the world, from Sami Zayn, to Finn Balor, Rhea Ripley, Asuka, and obviously Gunther, and adding even more talent, even if they aren't lifelong wrestling fans, could lead to a few more diamonds down the line.
Triple H explains WWE's creative plan to build fan engagement.
Taking part in WWE's Q1 meeting with investors, Triple H commented on his strategy to build out further viewership and get more fans to watch the brand's weekly programming. In the opinion of “The Game,” it all starts with assembling a “world-class” team.
“That really comes down to us just having assembled the right team,” Levesque explained via Fightful. “Across the board, we have world-class superstars and that continues to grow every day through our developmental system, through NIL, through international and domestic recruit, so the pipeline coming in is very strong. You just saw that in the recent draft and the amount of talent we had to draft and coming up from NXT, and through that pipeline. The writing team is world-class and Kevin Dunn’s production team, there’s nothing like it in the world.”
“As far as what we’re focused on, we’re focused on character development. I think you see that across storylines where our fans are super engaged in the talent. Let’s take Sami Zayn and The Bloodline over the last, couple of years really, but especially in the last six to eight months, where that story and the character development has reached a whole new level. It has our fans invested and excited in the content like they haven’t been in a long time. For us, extending the planning of the event horizon. Looking out year over year, where we want to be next year and then backtracking from there, so that we’re always ahead of the curve and always thinking ahead. That allows us to have better planning and then it’s just trying new things and getting outside of a box of what we do and seeing what works and what doesn’t. I don’t consider something not working a failure, I consider it learning. Really excited about the future and where we can take all of this.”
To Triple H's credit, WWE has been knocking it out of the park from a creative standpoint, with the story between The Bloodline and Sami Zayn arguably one of the greatest stories ever told in the square circle regardless of the year, the promotion, or the performers. If WWE can continue to produce that sort of drama moving forward, Levesque may be discussing banner quarter after banner quarter moving forward.
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