Wrestling superstar Triple H says the WWE’s link with Download festival is a “natural fit.”
The wrestling organisation’s NXT brand will host an event at next month’s Download festival at Donington, with stars including Finn Balor, Bayley, Jason Jordan, Chad Gable and Shinsuke Nakamura set to take part.
And NXT creator Triple H (aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley) says he always hoped the brand would form close links with the world of rock.
He tells Metal Hammer: In Residence on Spotify: “As we started NXT there was a clear vibe of what I wanted to create with the brand. And the natural fit with that, to me, was the aggression and the power of rock and heavy metal.
“That genre of music just fit what we were doing. There’s a rougher, more underground feel to NXT and music creates the emotion and the feel of what you do. There was no better fit than hard rock and heavy metal. I love this collaboration that we have with music.”
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Triple H says his love of metal and his friendship with Motorhead and Black Sabbath, among other acts, helped him get NXT to where it is today.
“When you talk about Download festival and Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, it’s my youth, it’s my growing up,” he says. “It’s the soundtrack to my life.
“In my career I’ve been fortunate to be around those people and those bands – my friendship with Lemmy and knowing Ozzy – it was a natural fit. I had enough of a relationship that I was able to call Motorhead and Sabbath.
“NXT, WWE…what we do is we make you feel something. Music is the same way. You will never forget when you put that first Black Sabbath album on, or Motorhead and the first time you heard Overkill and it blew your mind and you became a fan of that music.
“Certain people are attracted to that power and aggression of heavy metal and I think there’s a great connection to the same aggression and power. When you combine the two and that soundtrack is behind it, man it’s magic.”
The second episode of Metal Hammer: In Residence is available on Spotify now, and also features interviews with Gojira and Letlive. A Spotify Premium account is required to hear the interview segments.
