Shawn Michaels Says Halloween Havoc Began NXT’s Rebirth

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Shawn Michaels spoke about this past Saturday’s NXT Halloween Havoc and how it was the start of a rebirth for the brand. Here are highlights:

On Halloween Havoc: “NXT has been around for a long time, but the Halloween Havoc show kicked off our rebirth. I hope people are tuning in to see the future of this business give their best.”

On Carmelo Hayes: “Carmelo Hayes, he’s such a talented kid. The first time I saw him at our pop-up PC, I said, ‘He’s ready.’ I worked on getting him on 205 Live as quickly as possible. I remember him saying, ‘I don’t want to be a cruiserweight,’ and I understood. But it was not about categorizing him; it was about getting him in front of people. The goal I gave him was to be classified as only one thing, and that’s a superstar. He’s bright, a hard worker and passionately hungry. I heard him say, ‘Sometimes, Shawn has to hold me back.’ That’s true. I told him what Vince [McMahon] told me a long time ago—to go out there, push the envelope and let me be the one to reel you in. He’s ready to step on any roster in the world, and he’ll only get better when he’s in the ring with people who are better than him. The sky is the limit for him.”

On who he would have liked to wrestle at Halloween Havoc: “I would have loved a Halloween Havoc match against Randy Savage. I got to work with ‘Mach’ a couple times, but it was when I was younger. I certainly wasn’t at his maturity level, professionally or physically in the ring, or knowledge-wise. For me, it’s either Randy or Eddie Guerrero. Either of those would have been fantastic.”