Triple H Says Vince McMahon Loved the First Episode of NXT on USA

NXT's debut episode on the USA Network took place on Wednesday night, causing the wrestling world to turn its attention to Full Sail University to see what Triple H (Paul Levesque) could conjure up with nearly two hours of live television. During a media conference call after the show, he was asked if Vince McMahon had given him any feedback after watching the episode. "The Game" said the WWE Chairman gave the premiere episode a glowing review.

"I received a bunch of texts from him throughout the day," Levesque said. "[He was] excited, and excited to see it, wishing us luck especially as it got close. He was sending people texts counting me down, '20 minutes!' Which I thought was great, it was just fun.

"He sent me a few texts after the show," he continued. "He watched the entire thing. I'm sure he was at the office, probably in a meeting while he was doing it. But he enjoyed it, he loved it. He thought the talent did a hell of a job, thought they knocked it out of the park. He was excited, he sent me a massive congratulations after it was over, and was thrilled with the product."

He went on to say McMahon "embraces the difference" between NXT's programming and what he does with the Raw and SmackDown weekly shows.

"The products should be different, and he embraces that difference," he said.

Fans online noticed how the show felt mostly unchained from its previous one-hour version on the WWE Network. NXT Champion Adam Cole said in an interview with ComicBook.com several weeks ago that he didn't expect the show to change its creative direction.

I think an important recipe for NXT success, and I can tell you that our team feels this exact same way, is we need to keep and stay true to what made NXT NXT," Cole said. "Because this move to the USA Network is not a mistake."

"It's not by accident," he continued. "It's because of what NXT brings to the table already. So I think we very much recognize that keeping that formula and doing more of what this brand does better than anybody is how we're going to succeed on the USA Network. Of course, there's going to be some exciting new things happening in NXT, but at the same time, we know what brought us to the dance, and we're going to stay true to that."