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Details On Backstage Situation In NXT: Shawn Michaels Praised For Work, No Plans To Bring Back Triple H, Note On Who Vince McMahon Is High On

January 28, 2022 | Posted by Joseph Lee
WWE NXT 2.0 Image Credit: WWE

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has more details on the recent changes to the NXT 2.0 brand after recent talent and staff releases, as well as the absence of Triple H. Longtime staff members like Brian James and William Regal were cut earlier this month. It was noted that while there has been a belief that Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard are running the show, that is not the case.

Shawn Michaels is said to be in charge of creative for the brand. He does follow the instructions he gets from higher-ups, and McMahon has the final say. McMahon is more hands-on in that he looks at run sheets and scripts but doesn’t make the amount of changes he would to RAW or Smackdown. The direction Michaels gets is who WWE wants pushed, which he follows. Michaels has been praised for his work, as the belief is that he has been under pressure to make stars fast and has made strides with Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller and Tony D’Angelo.

McMahon has several talents he is high on. The first is Joe Gacy, as he thinks the character will get WWE mainstream publicity.

WWE is also high on the Creed Brothers and there have been comparisons of Julius to Kurt Angle. It’s believed that Julius is picking up wrestling ‘tremendously’ and is ‘very smart.’ The idea is that both Creeds will be Wrestlemania headliners, a term they use for big guys they think can be stars. Wrestlers like CM Punk or Bryan Danielson, during their time with the company, were never referred to this way, even though Danielson actually did headline Wrestlemania twice.

They are also high on LA Knight, who is set to go to the main roster in the spring as of a few weeks ago. Von Wagner and Xyon Quinn are also looked at favorably due to their look and size, with management being ‘very forgiving’ of their inexperience and they hope the two will “pick things up in time.” Meanwhile, Roderick Strong, Pete Dunne and Tomasso Ciampa are still in the plans for NXT.

There has been talk of having more guest appearances from RAW and Smackdown talent to help the ratings, similar to AJ Styles. There is more talk of doing arena events for NXT with the belief that the talent need more experience in order to progress as workers. There has been some discussion of bringing in outside talent to work brief programs with their current roster, which is how wrestlers like Johnny Gargano, Ciampa and Samoa Joe were originally planned to be introduced. The idea would be to sign the wrestlers to brief six-week contracts which would be non-exclusive and allow them to keep working the indies. The last time that happened, they didn’t want their TV talent working independent dates, particularly with NXT and ROH competing at the time.

Finally, there are no plans for Triple H to return or do any creative due to his health issues. If his health improves and he wants to, that might change. But nothing will happen in the near future.

article topics :

NXT, Joseph Lee