WWE: Triple H on Plans for NXT Europe Brand Launch Still Happening, CM Punk on “I Don’t Think WWE Wants Us Being Outwardly Political” & His Stance on Politics, More on NXT April 15, 2025 Viewership, More News

Triple H Comments on Plans for NXT Europe Brand Launch Still Happening

As noted before, WWE had worked on plans in 2023 for the potential launch of a new NXT Europe brand that would replace their NXT UK brand that was eventually shut down in late 2022.

The Daily Mail held a recent interview with WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque. One of the topics discussed included Levesque’s thoughts about if WWE still has plans to launch a new NXT Europe brand in the future and the reason why WWE has yet to launch the new brand.

“It is. I’m still a big believer that the U.K. was going to work. The product was there, the interest level was there – the pandemic squashed it. For years, we couldn’t move people, we couldn’t bring people in and it just shut it down. I still believe it’s there. I still believe in the expansion of what we’re doing. It’s about the opportunity for people. The opportunity in this industry, what we do is few and far between outside of WWE where you’re kind of just trying to do it on your own. It’s as if you have an instrument but no one is teaching you how to play it and you’re just trying to start a band. You’re just kinda winging it and there’s no other stuff so people will come and pay to see it. But if you have somebody teaching you, showing you the ropes, showing you how to play, mentoring you, it makes it so much easier. That’s what this is about. The future of the business for us is going to Japan, the Middle East, Australia and all of these places where we can help support and grow a thriving industry. The people who don’t see that don’t see what we do.”

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CM Punk Comments on “I Don’t Think WWE Wants Us Being Outwardly Political, It’s Obvious What My ‘Politics’ Are”

A recent episode of The Ringer Wrestling Show podcast featured CM Punk as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts about his stance when it comes to politics and if WWE is a MAGA supporting company. Punk stated

“I don’t think the company wants us to be outwardly political. I don’t think, and I do feel there is probably different rules for different people. I don’t talk about politics with Triple H, Paul Heyman, Roxanne Perez. It’s 24/7 wrestling. I think it’s pretty obvious what my ‘politics’ are. I’ve never understood Democratic or Republican glazing President. [The] President should just do his job. If you’re wearing hats and shirts promoting the President and all that stuff, and we have very much seen recently all these people who have voted against their best interests because they thought this President was just going to do bad stupid shit to the people they don’t like. I can sort of draw a line in the sand and say when Elon Musk is throwing Sieg Heil up and the podium, and I see people make excuses for that, nope. We saw what you did. Don’t gaslight me, I’m not as fucking stupid as you are. I know what you did so I know what you are. Now I know where you stand, and this is where I stand. It’s a strange, ugly world out there. The only thing I can do is be true to myself and implement and be a voice for myself and my family and my community, and then the world. I don’t know what people want from us as entertainers. I’m just supposed to quit my job because somebody on Twitter says WWE is a ‘MAGA company?’ Okay. You’re on Lord Elon Musk’s fucking Twitter saying stupid shit. Shut the fuck up. What have you done? I’ve done a lot, I just don’t broadcast it. I put my money where my mouth is, and the money I make goes to helping impoverished people. I don’t need to write my name in on a fuckign GoFundMe to make me feel better about the shity person I am. I will always move as myself. Sometimes I can crash like water and sometimes I can be still.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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More on NXT April 15, 2025 Viewership

The April 15th episode of WWE NXT saw NXT suffer a small decline in overall viewership and key demographic ratings.

NXT drew 663,000 viewers and a 0.14 key demographic rating on The CW.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the main reasons for NXT’s decreases this week was due to a combination of stiff sports competition from the 2025 NBA Play-In Tournament and the large decline from their overall key demographic viewership group, which was down 17.6% compared to last week’s show. Of NXT’s key demographic viewership decrease, their younger key demographic viewership group was down 16.7% compared to last week’s show.

In terms of head-to-head competition, the 2025 NBA Play-In game of Atlanta Hawks vs. Orlando Magic drew 1,621,000 viewers on TNT and 204,000 viewers on truTV, the NHL game of Washington Capitals vs. New York Islanders drew 237,000 viewers on ESPN, the MLB game of Cleveland Guardians vs. Baltimore Orioles drew 250,000 viewers on TBS, Curse of Oak Island drew 1,669,000 viewers on History Channel, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta drew 260,000 viewers on MTV, Chopped drew 395,000 viewers on Food Network, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills drew 906,000 viewers on BRAVO.

In terms of key demographic viewership, NXT had 187,000 viewers. Meltzer reported that NXT’s male/female viewership skew was 67.9% in favor of males.

In terms of yearly comparisons, NXT was up 6.1% in overall viewership and but down 18.7% in key demographic viewership.

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WWE News & Notes

WWE reportedly has sold and distributed around 51,373 tickets for their WrestleMania 41 Night 1 event at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada as of this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Friday’s 2025 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony event in Las Vegas, Nevada featured WWE officially unveiling a new Triple H WWE Legends statue. WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque became the ninth wrestler in WWE history to be honored with an official statue.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that the likelihood of President Donald Trump making an appearance at this weekend’s WrestleMania 41 event in Las Vegas, Nevada is very doubtful. Sapp reported that WWE’s creative team has not been made aware of any plans for a Trump appearance on the show nor has there been any additional security measures that would need to be in place for it as well. This rumor originated from comments made by Pat McAfee during Friday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show involving McAfee stating that the ula fala was being transported over from the White House to Las Vegas. Trump was recently honored with an ula fala in a ceremony that the official White House social media account gave in reference to WWE.

During a panel at this past Thursday’s WWE World event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Seth Rollins announced that he will be a guest presenter for a draft pick for the Chicago Bears at this year’s NFL Draft event on April 24-26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

WWE recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a WCW World Heavyweight Championship match of Goldberg vs. Diamond Dallas Page (c) from the April 19, 1999 episode of WCW Nitro.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a “Over one hour of classic WrestleMania entrances.”

In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Naomi gave her thoughts about her upcoming match against Jade Cargill at WrestleMania 41 and being on the card for this year’s event. Naomi stated “It’s hard to even put it into words, because I didn’t even think I would be in WrestleMania this year. The fact that I just caught fire over this last month or two, it’s just crazy.“

As noted before, WWE changed El Grande Americano’s billed hometown of Gulf of America to Gulk of Mexico due to complaints from their Mexican fans. Friday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show featured Michael Cole as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Cole confirming that El Grande’s billed hometown was recently changed. Cole stated “He’s been relocated to the Gulf of Mexico. He’s been relocated.“

Friday’s WWE WrestleMania 41 Kickoff event in Las Vegas, Nevada featured current WWE Intercontinenal Champion Bron Breakker invoking his uncle and WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner’s iconic “Steiner Math” promo for his upcoming Fatal Four-way mach for his title at WrestleMania 41. Breakker stated “They say that all men are created equal. If you look at this fatal four-way and the members in it, you will see that statement is not true. Normally, I’d have a 25% chance of winning. Dominik Mysterio knows that he can’t beat me, and he’s not even going to try. So, I have a 50% chance of winning right out of the gate. You add Penta to the equation. Penta is an incredible superstar but he’s scared of me. He has half of a 25% chance of winning, at best. You add that to my already 50% of winning, I got a 62.5% chance of winning. Then, you add Finn Balor to the equation. Finn Balor’s record at WrestleMania is 1-3, which means he has a 33.3% of winning, a 66.7% chance of losing. You add that to my already 62.5% chance of winning, I got a 129% chance of winning.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)