Another Rumor Killer on Triple H's WWE Future

A report from the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer popped up last month stating that, despite fan speculation, there was no truth to the idea that Paul Levesque (Triple H) might be leaving the company. PW Torch's Wade Keller gave a similar report this week via a source within WWE, stating (h/t WrestlingNews.co), "I was told by somebody in WWE not too long ago that Hunter is not going anywhere," Keller said. "Their familiarity with the family dynamic is such where you know, they are familiar enough with the Stephanie-Hunter-Vince dynamic that Hunter cannot cash out and just leave without it affecting the family dynamic in a way that was just more negative than something Triple H would do. That could change and that person could be wrong but their hunch was Hunter is either gonna work in WWE or not but not work against them in the pro wrestling business."

"The Game" suffered from a cardiac event back in September and reportedly still isn't back to working full-time in his duties as executive vice president of global talent strategy & development as well as the executive producer of NXT. He did however pop up in WWE's latest press release on Thursday regarding WWE's new NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) program "Next in Line."

"The WWE NIL program has the potential to be transformational to our business. By creating partnerships with elite athletes at all levels across a wide variety of college sports, we will dramatically expand our pool of talent and create a system that readies NCAA competitors for WWE once their collegiate careers come to a close," Levesque said. 

During his absence, NXT has undergone its reboot as NXT 2.0, complete with a change in presentation and a greater focus on homegrown talent trained at the WWE Performance Center. Levesque discussed the changes during SummerSlam weekend weeks prior. 

"It's a funny thing, people talk about shifting. It never really shifted," he said. "So if you go back and look at the hiring process, (it's) not the hiring process of a television show, it's a hiring process of who we're looking to train and make WWE Superstars. Long term. If you go back and look at it, it hasn't shifted. It's been the same process. I don't negate anybody from a standpoint of, 'I wrestled some independent stuff,' 'Well all right, you're out!' That's not a factor to me, but it's also not the factor that makes me go, 'Okay, you're in.' When they get in here today, if somebody goes in and hits the ropes perfectly every time, has every roll perfect, does all the stuff, makes it look easy because they've been training, that's not really showing me anything. You should be able to, if you've been training, if you've been working indies you should be able to do all of that.

"To me, what is the potential long-term? What is that potential? And are they willing to do the work to live up to that potential. Vince used to always say, 'We're a variety show' — we are. In some manner, you need a little bit of everything," he continued. "That's the key to all of this. But people hear one statement and then make one (assumption). 'Now it's that. No, now it's this.' It always has been."