Speaking with The Athletic, Triple H said he liked all the people who left NXT to go to AEW and he’s happy for them, noting that he still keeps in touch with most of them.
“They helped us get where we needed to get, and I’m thankful for it. The truth is there was a period of time where we were trying to build NXT. We built NXT,” Triple H said, adding that transitioning those men and women to Raw and Smackdown wasn’t his sole decision, but mostly Vince McMahon’s.
“If they have great gigs, I’m happy for them. I stay in touch with almost all of them. I like to think they came into us here, we taught them a lot, got them to (a higher level) where they learned how to do television, how to be professionals and all that to be successful there,” he continued. “At some point, they might come back with us, or they might never because they don’t fit our brand as well, but that’s OK.”
Triple H commented how these individuals got the brand to certain places and he’ll be forever thankful and while they left, it “doesn’t stop the train,” noting how people leave football teams and move to different ones.
The Game also discussed the evolution of NXT and what is NXT 2.0. He said that there was a point where NXT had this cult following and they needed to get on television.
“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. We couldn’t recruit or train talent for almost two years,” Triple H said.
He talked how they all decided to eventually reboot NXT to go back to its roots.
“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 stabilized,” he said regarding the ratings.
In this same interview, Triple H also discusses All Elite Wrestling and what it does for competition, creating new stars, scouting new talent, and much more.