Triple H Discusses NXT and Developmental, Hulk Hogan Praises Him

Triple H is seen as the unofficial “father” of NXT, as he is the one who spearheaded the move to the structured developmental system in late-2011. With his endeavors have come major success, as NXT has become one of WWE’s true gems over the past year or so.

USA Today profiled Triple H, real name Paul Levesque, and looked inside his mind in what it took to develop NXT.

In the piece, he talks about how he began to become interested in the backstage portion of the business:

“I’d get up extra early and I’d go to the production meeting three hours before I actually needed to be in the building as a performer — not because I was being paid to, but I liked the process,” Levesque says.

“It was a natural transition for me when I started to get out of in ring to continue down the path that I was on.”

He talked about how the idea for a revamped NXT came about:

“It was the thing that was lacking to me,” he says, “and I said to Vince, ‘Twenty years from now, where are we going to get all these guys from?’ And he said ‘What do we do about it?’

“I started putting together this plan in my head and he and I worked on it, and he said, ‘I think this is a great thing. Go do it.’ And that’s what we’ve done there.”

WWE legend Hulk Hogan is also quoted in the piece, where he gives Triple H credit for his success:

“There’s a rumble there. Paul is doing a lot of stuff right,” Hogan says, adding that there was “a glitch in the system” and no NXT-like program in place during his heyday in the 1980s. “That next generation wasn’t there, so Hulk Hogan, ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savageand Ultimate Warror continued being stars into the ’90s where they should have been the next Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior or Macho Man.

“Kudos to Paul,” Hogan adds, “because he’s the guy who’s grabbed the bull by the horns and made this possible for the legacy to keep on going.”

The entire piece can be found here.

Editor’s Note

NXT is no longer a hidden secret. Much success is ahead.

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