After overseeing a successful running of SummerSlam in one of the biggest venues the show has ever occupied, Paul “Triple H” Levesque took questions from reporters about the card, his wife, and… TNA wrestling?
That's right, while most wanted to know about Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and Stephanie McMahon, the logistics of the TNA-NXT partnership came up too, with folks wanting to know how WWE benefits from the pairing when they draw so much more attention to what goes on in the Impact Zone.
In Levesque's opinion, the answer is simple: reps.
“I think, as we've said before, we're open for business. Whether that's what you see in NXT with TNA or whether that's the different International opportunities. We're going to look at what's best for WWE, but how does that benefit us? How does it benefit them? How does it benefit us? I think there's opportunities,” Triple H told reporters via Inside the Ropes.
“As you look at NXT, a lot of those kids are young, and what they really need is repetitions. They need opportunities to go to. We can only create so many of them. So when we have opportunities to partner with others to help their business. At the same time, you know, get them on a platform that is seen by so many more people and use the strength and the power of our brand across social media to help.
“I think you'll see more of that right so when we have the opportunity to help them while at the same point in time getting the future of not just us, the future of this business more opportunities and more reps to approve what they do as performers to improve what they do on every aspect of what they go out day in and day out and do. The world is different now.”
Honestly, makes sense; other than Joe Hendry, Jordynne Grace, and maybe The Rascalz, TNA really doesn't have many household names in their primes right now, at least not ones WWE wants to showcase on their developmental show. If allowing the NXT stars to work more shows in front of non-PC crowds is worth putting over a rival, then the real winner of it all has to the the wrestling fandom as a whole.
Triple H reveals why major matches were left off of SummerSlam
While few fans were complaining about the length of the SummerSlam show, as the seven-match card clocked in at roughly four hours, give or take, there were some who questioned the decision to have not one but two Tag Team Championship matches on the go-home edition of SmackDown, with The Unholy Union retaining their titles via DQ against Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, while #DIY lost their belts to The Bloodline, Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga, despite the match taking place in Johnny Gargano's hometown.
Asked about leaving these matches off the show during the press conference, Triple H let it be known that the decisions came down to content maximization, which is why SummerSlam will soon be shifting to two nights in 2026, even if he isn't ready to say the show will forever be a two-hander.
“Please, let's take it one step at a time [laughs]. Who knows what the future brings? But I do think that, even tonight, seeming this SummerSlam, seven-match card goes almost four hours, and yet there was a lot of stuff we could have put into this. Some people say, ‘Why wasn't that in there?' Because it would have been eight hours, right, and you still need stuff for RAW, you still need content for SmackDown. You still need all that stuff. As we continue to grow, we'll take it step by step,” Triple H explained via Fightful.
“So is this the last SummerSlam that you see that is one night? I think so. But we'll see where that goes long-term. I'm excited about that opportunity. As far as other PLEs going that way, you can never just say this is what we do, and then that's it, and that's locked in, and that's what we do. If you go back five years, who would have thought we would have been doing two-night WrestleManias, let alone two-night WrestleManias and two-night SummerSlams. So we'll see where it goes. That's an important part of where we go with it, but an important part of where we go with that also is bro bringing these events around the globe. We are truly a global company. There is no place that WWE has not seen. There is no place where we don't have a massive fanbase and following. We want to bring WWE to the world, not just been seen as a US-based company, but that's seen everywhere else. We want to literally be everywhere else and be as big as we possibly can be everywhere, so it's always sort of a moving target. But it makes for a hell of an exciting ride, so I'm excited.”
If WWE can continue to move tickets at a massive rate and fill out football stadiums with tens of thousands of fans over two straight days instead of one, why wouldn't they expand their offerings in order to maximize these financial opportunities? Wrestling is a business, after all, and as a result, Levesque and company will certainly take things as far as they can in that pursuit.
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