Interview: Triple H on Indie Promotions Shutting Down Due to NXT’s Expansion Plans

A recent episode of the After The Bell with Corey Graves podcast had Triple H and Shawn Michaels as the guests.

Triple H gave his thoughts on NXT’s worldwide expansion plans and argued that the negative impact it will have towards some indie promotions is actually a good thing for wrestlers in the end.

“I think all of that is important in that this feeder system of what the business is. People that have misunderstood, like when we went to the UK, what we were trying to accomplish there because of small thinking or short sightedness. Yes, some of these indies are going to go away. The ones that are going to go away, the ones that were paying you $25 when they promised you $75, the ones that have a ring that wouldn’t hold up and didn’t have medical care, the ones that didn’t care about you. [They] cared about booking you because they were hoping to sell some extra tickets because you had a little bit of a buzz. We wanted to work with the ones that were cultured, that were cultivating talent, the ones that were encouraging them to get better with promos or giving them guidance, right or wrong, on their matches and had equipment that was functioning and medical care in case you got injured while you were there that at least you weren’t lying there for 45 minutes while trying to figure out if they could get an ambulance in here or call an Uber. All those things were important to us and those were the people we partnered with and let people work for. From what I’ve been told, the system has changed a lot and there’s a lot more of them policing it and the talent being able to police it. There are reasons some [promotions] thrive and some don’t.”

Since NXT UK’s arrival, a notable amount of British indie companies have shut down or have scaled back due to a variety of reasons. The scene itself has also seen a noticeable decline in popularity and ticket sales compared to the wrestling renaissance the region had been experiencing prior to WWE’s involvement.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com