Triple H On Why Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa Headlined NXT Takeover: New Orleans

Ever since Triple H came up with the idea for NXT, he has had a certain vision in mind. For years, WWE would sign top stars in other promotions during the territories era as well as create their own stars from the ground up.

When WWE and WCW got hot in the 1990’s and started the Monday Night Wars, they went after other promotions for their top stars. This led to the independent scene soaking up all of the talents that WWE and WCW didn’t want.

However, when Vince McMahon decided to buy his competition, there became a monopoly in the professional wrestling business. It seems pretty clear what Triple H’s vision for the developmental brand is. Sign athletes, who have no pro wrestling experience and train them to become WWE Superstars.

Also, he wants to sign the best of the best talents in the world and have them learn the WWE playbook then shine not only in NXT but on the main roster. Just look at the main roster in WWE right now.

ESPN has an article about the success of NXT and the level of growth that the brand has had over the past few years with some quotes with “The Game.”

“It’s just a classic story, you know, you don’t even have to say wrestling,” said Levesque. “Classics never get old, it’s authentic and it’s real. It was done with passion and emotion and feel. There’s a ring of truth to all of it, right? We put Gargano and Ciampa together and they weren’t best of friends, but they became it. He was in his wedding and all that is legit.

“And to go forward from there, the injuries and just the story… part of it was the plan, and then part of it was just working around the nuances of life to get there,” Levesque continued. “But it almost made it better in some way, right? To me this is one of those things that I love because it is the classic bad guy-good guy… to me, that’s the art of what we do — and I do consider this an art form, in every sense of it. Sometimes you hit magic.”

As seen at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans event earlier this month at the Smoothie King Center on the WWE Network, Johnny Gargano battled Tommaso Ciampa in the main event. Some believed that the NXT Title should always be in the main event but Triple H explained why Gargano vs. Ciampa was the perfect fit to be the headliner of that show.

“I feel like any of them could have [main evented], and this was a debate. A lot of points of view on it. There’s a part of me that goes, ‘Whoa, the title should close,’ and then there’s a part of me that goes, ‘You cannot pass that emotion.’ You just can’t. No level of moonsault, no level of flip off a ladder, no level of any of that is gonna pass that level of emotion and feeling — that level of emotion of the storytelling.

“I don’t know how you could have gone off the air better than Gargano gets his life back and his wife’s in there,” said Levesque. “Unless I have Ciampa run back in there and piledrive her, that’s the end. There’s always next time.”