Je’Von Evans Appreciates That WWE Lets Him Be Himself, Talks Relationship With Shawn Michaels

Je’Von Evans loves that WWE allows him to be his authentic self, something he weighed in on in a new interview. The NXT star spoke with The Ringer Wrestling Podcast for a new interview in which he spoke about how WWE doesn’t try to make him something he’s not.

Evans also talked about his relationship with NXT head Shawn Michaels and Leon Slater, the latter of whom he teams with Tuesday in an NXT Tag Team Championship match at NXT Gold Rush. You can check out highlights below:

On His Relationship With Shawn Michaels:

“Yeah, man. Honestly, I feel like our relationship is more like — at first it was just like boss and worker or employee, whatever. But now I feel like it is more like a mentor. Like I can go to Shawn about whatever, you know what I mean? Outside of wrestling, you know, I can talk to him about life situations and he’ll look out for me.

“And of course like wrestling, he’s completely honest with me. If he thinks a match was dog, just ass? He would tell me. He’d [be] like, ‘Yeah, that wasn’t good.’ I’m like, ‘I appreciate you boss man.’ But that’s just the relationship we have. And I feel like some people can’t really take that, that honesty. But he knows that I’m here to work, bro. You know what I mean? I’m trying to be the best wrestler to ever do in the wrestling industry. So I think he understands that. I know that he’s trying to get me to that goal, and the only way for me to accomplish that is honesty. So that’s what he gives me.”

On Being Allowed To Be Authentically Himself:

“It’s literally, they’re letting me be myself and they have no problem with it. The only thing that I have conversations with Shawn about is like, having the fans understand what I’m saying. Not like words-wise, but literally, like… pronunciation. But yeah, and they’re just cool with letting me be me, you know?”

On His Relationship With Leon Slater:

“Honestly, me and Leon are, we’re dogs, man. Like you said, we’re on similar but separate paths. It’s kind of like looking in the mirror, you know? I think we’re kind of like — how can I say it? We know that we can wrestle with any and everybody. But also, I think we both understand that it’s still like a competitive sport. So like, I’ll do something crazy and then he’ll do something crazier. So I’m like, ‘Alright, alright.’ You know, it’s the competition, but it makes us look like we’re one of the best tag teams ever.

“But nah, bro, that’s my dog, man. And I know he’s planning to do bigger things in TNA. I’m planning to do bigger things in WWE. And if anything ever crossed paths again, then we might have another banger one-on-one, you know what I mean?”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Ringer Wrestling Show with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.