Triple H has opened up about the many hats worn by NXT talents – with many trying their hand at producing matches for younger stars.
Inside The Ropes’ Gary Cassidy asked Triple H and Shawn Michaels on the post-TakeOver media call about Pete Dunne’s role as a producer, if that’s continued – and if any other stars have gone on to do the same.
Triple H paid tribute to Dunne before noting many others who have worked with youngers stars as mentors, and helped produce matches.
“Johnny Gargano produces matches sometimes, especially with the younger guys for other shows and when we were on the live tours doing what they would call the coconut shows in Florida, a lot of those talent, Johnny, [Tommaso] Ciampa, Candice [LeRae] has done it before. People like that where they would produce matches for younger talent coming up and work with them and sort of mentor them to that next level. Pete Dunne does it, Damian Priest has done it. You know, different people.”
The Game went on to say former NXT Champion Finn Balor also has a keep interest, and that WALTER is doing it in the UK – saying it can only help improve their own in-ring work too.
“I know Finn Balor has an interest in it. I think Walter’s done some of that with you guys in the UK. So, you know, any time you can do that, I think it’s no different than being an actor and then dabbling in directing a little. It just makes you think about it from the other side of the camera a bit differently and then it makes you a better performer because of it.”
Shawn Michaels would note how they give anyone who wants to try a go at it, as it can only help them in the ring.
“We’ve had a number of guys who have just asked and the people who show interest in it – yeah, we give it a whirl if they want to listen on the headsets and it does, it helps them. Every one of those comments that it gives them a little bit of a better understanding from a performance standpoint of how they can accentuate everything that it is that they’re doing.”
The Heartbreak Kid said Pete Dunne did a “phenomenal job” when given the opportunity.
“Clearly, when we were in the UK, Pete was one of the people have shown interest in that. Lately WALTER has as well and we’re always more than happy to certainly give them the opportunity to to do that. And of course, Pete did a phenomenal job and then, of course, we were beginning to transition him over here. So you aren’t going to use him on TV as much over there but, while the wait was happening, we utilised him as much as we could and we’ll continue to do that with with the people that show interest in that respect.”
One night previous, Triple H told Gary Cassidy how Raquel Gonzalez has “capitalised” on every minute she’s been given to establish herself in NXT, and become the new Women’s Champion, while paying tribute to former champion Io Shirai, with Shawn Michaels calling her the “best in the world” on a post-TakeOver media call.
NXT airs next Tuesday live via USA Network in the US and BT Sport in the UK. Full results from Night 1 of TakeOver: Stand & Deliver are available here and Night 2 results are here.