Triple H Addresses Transition To WWE NXT 2.0

Major changes were made to WWE developmental in 2021 as the company moved away from Triple H's vision for NXT, rebranding the developmental system as NXT 2.0 with Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard providing the overarching vision. 

WWE have also moved away from predominately recruiting independent wrestlers, turning their attention to bringing in college athletes and training them to be wrestlers at the WWE Performance Center. 

Speaking with The Athletic, Triple H addressed the developmental brand's revamp. 

"There was this point where it was on the (WWE) Network, had this cult following, and we needed to get on television. How do we do that? We need more experience, need to professionalise this a little bit to make the product to where fans want to see that. We got them to that place. The pandemic (messed) it up a little bit because it was right when we went on TV and we had to shift our focus, doing it in front of no people. It completely altered what we were doing," Triple H began.

"We couldn't recruit or train talent for almost two years.... But the show stayed. Then we said, okay, let's reboot it and go back to what we originally were. Some of these people won't be ready for television, but we're gonna put them on television, and we believe the audience is invested enough that the numbers might come down, but a core group of them will stay, and now you're creating fresh stars all the time. That's where we are now. The numbers have stabilised.

"People like Bron Breakker, he's been training for a year. Half the women, they've been here a year maybe. There's a lot that's just so fresh and new. People used to say the constant churn of NXT was a negative. The churn is what's great about it. The people here now, hopefully a year and a half from now, none of them are even in NXT anymore, and the ones that make it will be on to Raw and SmackDown. That's the magic. It truly is the developmental league, the college football, Triple-A baseball. Yeah, they're not all quite ready to be in that major-league role yet, but you're discovering them before they become household names," The Game continued.

"We were talking about this shift anyway. That's where we were headed. It happened at a period of time where I had to leave for a bit. Luckily, Shawn (Michaels) had been doing it with me all that time, so it was a seamless thing. I stepped out, did what I needed to do, but that team has killed it. They've really created a show where you can really say that's the next generation of stars."

Triple H was previously heavily involved in the day-to-day running of NXT but he went into heart failure in September of 2021. Since returning to work, the former WWE Champion has focused on his role as Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development.