Triple H Feels Like Shayna Baszler Is Still With NXT, Says There Was No Edict To Remove Gender Specification From NXT Titles
Photo Credit: Bill Pritchard
Triple H says Shayna Baszler might have made an impression on RAW this week, but she’s still NXT in his eyes until they make some kind of agreement.
Baszler attacked Becky Lynch this week’s episode of RAW, biting ‘The Man’ on the back of the neck to draw blood. Triple H was asked about Baszler’s status with the NXT brand on today’s NXT TakeOver Portland conference call, and initially joked about her blood lust but said until a deal is made with RAW, she’s still considered by him to be an NXT talent.
“I’m scared to see her here, I don’t want to get bitten. She’s got sharp teeth apparently, it’s a scary thing. I’m wearing a big collar just in case. [Laughter] I think that’ll play out. You know, there’s a fascinating thing for me with that. There was a ton of buzz, going into the Survivor Series and building up people for Becky Lynch and her rise to where she is has been insane. I’m so happy for her but you have to have that base of opponents and all those things, so hopefully, that turns into something massive for both of them and we see where that goes.
At this point, I’m not 100 percent sure. As far as right now goes, I sort of look at this like sports teams in a way and where do things net out? You’ve got to make deals to get people to go different places, as far as I’m concerned right now, Shayna Baszler’s still an NXT talent until we make a deal for her to go someplace else. So does that mean there’s a moment where Becky Lynch comes hunting for Shayna Baszler or vice versa? I don’t know yet. We’ll see.”
In addition,Triple H was asked about the reports that NXT was removing “Women’s” from the NXT Women’s Championship as a way to remove gender specification from their titles. He says while they did talk about it, the whole story got a little out of hand and it was more of a case of speculation based on a graphic.
“There were conversations that were had. It was basically about not having to beat it into the ground when you say [the name] but it just got run with. When you have that many people working on a product and something gets taken the wrong way, everybody, in trying to do their job, just spreads it.
“There was never an edict, there was never anything. It really—it was just—if you’re showing a graphic, you don’t have to say ‘the title belt says Women’s, the graphic says Women’s, the announcers say Women’s’—you get it. There’s pictures of women there, you get what it is. You don’t have to beat it into the ground. It was more that it just got run with and speculated on.”