Triple H sees money in WALTER.
At NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver - Night One, the NXT UK Champion successfully defended his title against Tommaso Ciampa. The Austrian powerhouse first won the belt on April 5, 2019, at NXT TakeOver: New York, 733 days ago.
Speaking on the post-show media call (seen in the video above), Triple H was asked about the uniqueness of WALTER as a talent, to which he replied by saying the following:
"Everybody wants to face WALTER until he chops them the first time, I'll tell you that. It's the old Mike Tyson, 'Everybody's got a plan until you get punched in the mouth.' That chop sounds good on TV until you take the first one and then you start thinking, 'why did I come here again?' WALTER's a machine. Different level. Different focus. If you were to say, 'What is it he does that's special?' Everything. But what's special about it? He just does it so well. It's not a particular thing or some kind of crazy move or some type of special effect or anything else, he makes the simplest things mean everything. He gets the most mileage out of everything. He has created an aura and an importance to who he is and what he does that very few people can do. To me, he is straight money and he's going to travel back home for a little bit but I'll be honest with you, NXT UK, he's excited to be there, he's excited to be doing all the stuff he is, but I can't wait to get him back here. There's a lot of matchups I'd like to see and realistically when you just put WALTER's name next to a lot of people you just go, 'Oh, I can't wait to see that.' There's a lot of names."
The next question followed up, wondering if there is a desire to pull WALTER from NXT UK, noting that perhaps his importance to the brand prevents that from happening. Additionally, Triple H was asked if there was an arrangement to be made where WALTER could continue living in Europe but still perform on a full-time basis in the United States. Here is what he said:
"Look, here's the interesting thing to me, people always go, 'Well, if you're in the UK, you're wrestling in the UK or you're in the US, you're wrestling here. It's like 7 hours to get to the UK. It's like an hour longer than it takes to get to LA from New York. If WALTER wants, WALTER can stay NXT UK, stay dominant there, stay Champion there, stay doing everything he's doing there and then come over here and chop the bejesus out of a bunch of people and never miss a beat. It really comes down to the restrictions of the time. I think he's in a place in his mind where those challenges are very intriguing to him now. Does that mean he wants to leave home? Probably not, but I think the reality of jumping on a plane, coming over here, chopping somebody until their chest is purple and then flying back home and doing it again over there is very intriguing to him. So, I think you could see WALTER in a lot of places. Really is where he wants to go because the door's open for him to go to all of it. It really just comes down to the logistics of what can we make happen with travel restrictions, but once that lifts, all bets are off."
WALTER had been unable to travel at the onset of the pandemic, only returning to NXT on March 17.
If you missed any of the action from NXT TakeOver, you can check out our full report as well as our post-show review podcast.
If you use any of the quotes above, please provide a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
