Triple H Firmly States He Won't Turn NXT Into WWE Raw or WWE SmackDown

From the moment WWE announced that NXT would be moving from the WWE Network to the USA Network, hardcore fans of the Black and Yellow Brand have been worried about whether or not the show will slowly transform into a copy of Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown. NXT has always felt a bit different compared to WWE's other programs, thanks in large part ot its focus on in-ring action and longform storytelling spearheaded by Triple H. "The Game" seemingly put those fears to bed during a new interview with TV Insider, saying that if he wanted NXT to just become "Wednesday Night Raw," he already would've done that.

"If I wanted to make it Raw and SmackDown, I would have already done it. But there is no intent in doing that, and there is no benefit in doing that," he said. "I feel in some way we are that band that signs with a major record label, but we're not going to change what we do."

With the network move, NXT also expanded to two hours and switched from being pre-taped to a live broadcast.

"That means al lot of talent will debut and be a part of this brand on a weekly basis but may not be on TakeOver events," Hunter added. "You prove yourself in these storylines, you get to the bigger storylines. You go to TakeOver. This will be the brand where there will be no participation medals. You earn your spot and grow into your spot. We're not going to make TkaeOver events longer because we have the bigger bandwidth for storylines. It's keeping the product for what it is but making more opportunity."

This week's episode kicked off with Lio Rush won the NXT Crusierweight Championship from Drew Gulak mere weeks after he returned from a hiatus. The show also featured Walter picking up a win over Kushida, Velveteen Dream officially challenging Roderick Strong to a rematch for the NXT North American Championship and Tommaso Ciampa announcing his intent on winning back the NXT Championship from Adam Cole.

Matches announced for next week's show include Ciampa vs. Angel Garza, Keith Lee vs. Dominick Dijakovic and Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest. That show will once again go head-to-head with AEW Dynamite, which has two title matches booked for next week (Chris Jericho vs. Darby Allin, Riho vs. Britt Baker) and two matches in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament..