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Welcome to PWInsider.com's ongoing coverage of Paul Levesque's post-WWE NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver Night One post-show media call coverage!
Levesque thanked everyone for joining them. He was thrilled with the show and thanked Poppy for coming in to perform. He thought the Cruiserweight title match was spectacular. It was one of the nights where there are winners and losers to the matches, but no real winners or losers. Jordan Devlin proved he was one of the best in the world. The women's tag team divison is heating up. The depth of the division is amazing. Indi is coming into her own. Candice is a great veteran.
Bronson and Gargano - Gargano never lets you down. Johnny Takeover put on a master class. Finn vs. Karrion Kross. Kross had an unbelievable setback where everything was going your way and it was gone in a blink of an eye. To have him grind at the level of what he did is a phenomenal feat. Recreating yourself is not an easy task and what Balor has done in NXT is remarkable.
Cole vs. Kyle was a master class in storytelling. They put them both in ambulances after the show to have them checked out. They just got a call.
Everyone is good. No injuries tonight.
Levesque wanted to give an update. Brian James is home and recovering and is healthy. He was on headset the last few days and as he gets his strength, he'll be back. He is gravely missed and will be back soon enough.
Shawn Michaels will be joining him shortly.
Lucha Libre Online asked about Adam Cole and where his defeat leaves him tonight. Is he going up? Levesque said he advises everyone watch on Tuesday. Shawn Michaels joked you lose one fall and you're gone. Levesque said there are moments in time where you tell stories and sometime, you move on. That's not the case for Cole. It's just a chapter in the saga they are telling with Kyle O'Reilly proving himself against someone who said he was the leader and Kyle was the lackey. Kyle is not a lackey anymore and if he's Cole, it's not going to sit well with him. Michaels said that Kyle has put himself on the same level that Adam has had over the last year.
ComicBook.com asked about the challenges of a two-night show and whether this will be a regular thing. Levesque said that he really doesn't know. The two night shows for Wrestlemania last year and Takeover and Wrestlemania this year, it just felt like the right move. It's impossible to know what's going to happen in this pandemic era. Do they do the same next year? Do they run Saturday the night before Mania? Do they do two nights on different nights? They want to be nimble and do the best thing for their audience.
Michaels said he was proud of the fact that they had two strong cards in two nights for their audience, especially since it hasn't even been two years that it's been on national TV. Levesque said they had two shows that could have stood on their own as Takeover and matches where many of them could have been main events on their own.
Spectrum News 13 asked about the presentation for the Cole-Kyle match and that some in security were new class members of PC. They asked who has stood up thus far from the class. Levesque joked they have been moonlighting at the security company next year. He said that there was almost a year and half period where they didn't have the ability to really train at the level they had been. They lost the training center to Raw and Smackdown when they began producing TV out of there. There were times you'd know there were talents. You want to have veterans, new people who are becoming TV ready and then new talents starting out. They started to get thin at the starting out level because they couldn't bring people in due to COVID and now they have started all at once. Watching them, he's impressed and there are athletes who make your jaw drop the first time you see them. They might not bring all of the elements and that's what you focus and work on. This crop they have everything and the men and women are all great athletes. Michaels said that pipeline burst open the last two months. Levesque said he doesn't know if he's seen a more impressive crop of talents at the same time.
Jason Powell was asked how Shawn at 20 years old would have handled life at the PC given the known ups and down of his career. He said he's been asked that and he thinks the structure would have helped him. He said it gets very hands on and personal here. You get to really get to have personal relationships with people and that helps. The job was very personal to him. He had two loves, wrestling and the woman he's married to. It would have helped him to have people who were open and honest with you.
Levesque said you hear a lot and Vince McMahon takes undeserved criticism. There were talents who Vince was the most thing they ever had as a father. He had a strong hand but he believed in them. He let them try and struggle and fail but you hear a lot of them saying he was like a father figure. Vince said it like it was and told them the truth. There are people here in the PC who are here to help you as you struggle so you succeed. He said the PC would have helped Shawn as he would have had a lot of people around him as opposed to just one belt.
They were asked by Sean from Fightful about WALTER's stolen UK title being reported. Shawn said he was chopping people across the UK to find out who did it. He said that the person who returned it had a replica sent back to him signed. Shawn said he never had that happen to him but there was a reason so many guys had the Haliburton they carried on the road to protect it.
Alex McCarthy on TalkSport asked about NXT UK. There is a NXT UK Takeover set for 6/20 tenatively. Are they hoping to do it and if not, what are the plans going forward. Levesque said they would obvously love to do it. It's more complicated than having fans in arenas. They have production concerns. They have to get people from the States there to do the shows. He said there aren't more fun events than when they get to run there. They hoped to get to Ireland and Scotland but the world got in the way. If they could go there tomorrow, they would.
Michaels said they've had that date for awhile but they are subject to the restrictions and they can't. They've done a great job on BT Studio and half of them here but he can't imagine they'd want to do a Takeover in the UK without being there. When the world opens up for business, they can't wait. He said it's great to do it remotely but nothing is like being there and the fans are the best. They can't wait to get the fans back in. Levesque said he can only imagine what the crowds are going to be like there when they can finally pack it in.
The final question was from WrestlingInc, asking about Gable Stevenson being in the crowd. They asked what his WWE status is. He and his father came and enjoyed the show as a guest. They've been talking for a long time. He wanted to come out and see Wrestlemania. He'd hate to say to a guy who is a Junior in college "Let's make some decisions in the moment while you are training in the Olympics." They are a massive fan of what he does and he's a massive fan of what they do. If he decides he wants to be in WWE, Levesque has no doubt he will do it and do it in record time.
Levesque thanked everyone for taking part in the call. They move on to Smackdown tomorrow, then Wrestlemania this weekend at Raymond James Stadium. 25,000 or so fans being there will be incredible. He cannot wait to have everyone performing in front of the fans and everyone doing what they do. Then, Tuesday starts a new chapter. He thanked everyone for their support.
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