With less than a week remaining before this year’s Survivor Series , WWE reportedly has some last-minute plans for the traditional men’s elimination match pitting five-man teams from Monday Night Raw , Friday Night SmackDown , and NXT against each other. These plans, as suggested, might involve the in-ring return of Triple H , who has played a key onscreen role in recent weeks as the leader of NXT’s invasion of Raw and SmackDown .
In a tweet posted on Monday, the WrestleVotes Twitter account wrote that there have been rumors for the “past few weeks” about a “big push from creative” to have Triple H join NXT’s five-man men’s team at Survivor Series on Sunday. As further explained, this idea has drawn “mixed” reactions from people within WWE, with the 14-time former world champion reportedly not interested in stepping into the ring for the upcoming event.
Meanwhile, WrestlingNews.co speculated that the part-time wrestler and WWE executive might have a good reason for refusing to compete at Survivor Series — the company’s ongoing viewership battle against All Elite Wrestling.
“My guess is that some would feel that Triple H would overshadow the rest of the team at a time when the NXT wrestlers need to look like stars as NXT competes with AEW Dynamite every week,” wrote the outlet’s Paul Davis.
At the moment, NXT has yet to announce the members of its teams for the traditional Survivor Series matches at the event of the same name. While Raw and SmackDown have already finalized their lineups and named their team captains well ahead of the pay-per-view, only Adam Cole has been announced thus far as the men’s captain for the black-and-gold brand. The rest of the team members are expected to be confirmed on Wednesday’s episode of NXT.
#RAW , #SmackDown …
The doors are WIDE OPEN for ya this Wednesday. ? pic.twitter.com/7VXRWyXoQ2
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) November 19, 2019
Having turned 50-years-old earlier this year, Triple H remains an active wrestler for WWE despite his more prominent role as an executive vice president, usually saving his in-ring appearances for major pay-per-views such as WrestleMania . But if he ends up turning down the rumored chance to join NXT’s men’s team at Survivor Series , it might not be much of a surprise, as he told talkSPORT in a September interview that he has no plans of ever representing the black-and-gold brand as a wrestler.
“Truth is, [ NXT ] is more about the youth and the next level than it is the yesterday,” Triple H said. “We’re looking forward to be progressive, not live in nostalgia.”