Triple H Defends WWE's Decision to Bring Velveteen Dream Back to NXT

Velveteen Dream made his return to NXT programming last week after being kept off television for more than two months. The former NXT North American Champion has been accused of sexual misconduct twice in 2020 — first in April when he was accused of sending explicit photos to underage boys on Instagram and again in June as part of the anti-sexual harassment Speaking Out movement. Dream, real name Patrick Clark, denied both allegations and NXT officials refrained from commenting on the situation at first. However in a new interview with CBS Sports, Triple H stated that the company had conducted an investigation and found Dream to be innocent.

"You know, in this day today, accusations are made and you take them all very seriously," Triple H said. "You look into them the best you can, and you find out what is there and what isn't. In this situation, [Clark] was also involved in a car accident. That's what took him off TV. In the moment, all this other stuff happens and you look into it and you find that there is a situation that people bring to everyone's attention, you look into it and find that it is what it is and there's nothing there.

"Everything that we have done, we are comfortable with him continuing to do what he does and everything else. But he had a car accident. It stemmed down to people thought we removed him from TV for different reasons. We didn't. He was in a car accident," he continued. "Once he was medically cleared to be able to return to the ring from his car accident, we continued forward the way we did. We looked into what was there and we didn't find anything."

Dream was also involved in a car accident in late June during his absence. Back in May he lost a Backlot Brawl Match against Adam Cole for the NXT Championship at the NXT TakeOver: In Your House pay-per-view. Last week he returned for a triple threat match against Kushida and Cameron Grimes, which the latter wound up winning.

He's scheduled to face Finn Balor on this week's episode, and the winner will advance to the five-way ladder match for the vacated North American title at NXT TakeOver: XXX.

Other matches confirmed for Saturday's show include NXT Champion Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross, Adam Cole vs. Pat McAfee and NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai vs. Dakota Kai.