Nicolas Atkin of ESPN.com is featuring an interview with WWE COO Paul “Triple H” Levesque where he talks about why current NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura hasn’t been brought up to the main roster and the growth of the NXT brand in 2016.
Triple H on why Shinsuke Nakamura remains in NXT
“One of the things that’s funny to me — I always laugh at it — is when people say to me, ‘I watch Nakamura every week in NXT. I don’t know why they don’t put him on Raw so I can watch him on Raw every week. You’re getting to see him, right? You’re getting to see him doing what he does, in a big way. The opportunities are there. He’s got that clean path now to get here, when he gets here he might go there, he might go back.”
The growth of NXT in 2016, why he considers it a third brand
“We say that it’s developmental, but at the same time it’s a third brand — 200 events this year, specials and the weekly show itself which are one of the most popular things on the Network. I think over the years you’re gonna begin to see Raw is its own brand, SmackDown is its own brand, NXT — you’re gonna see people move around. It’s no longer gonna be just, this guy got called up, it’s gonna be maybe ‘this guy got moved over, she got moved here,’ and see that transference of talent. At the end of the day, it’s all content; it’s all product that our fans wanna see. The difference in those products is big, but there’s something there for everybody. I think that’s what’s exciting about it.”