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Shawn Michaels Says WWE Will Keep Reaching Out To Wrestlers With Experience For NXT

September 28, 2022 | Posted by Joseph Lee
Shawn Michaels NXT Image Credit: WWE

In an interview with My San Antonio, Shawn Michaels spoke about WWE still contacting wrestlers with experience to sign to the NXT brand. It had been reported they wouldn’t do that anymore with the creation of the NIL program, but things have changed and Vince McMahon is no longer in charge. Here are highlights:

On the changes to the NXT brand: “It was all very sudden for all of us. I’ve been with the WWE for 35 years and doing live television for almost 30 of them. When it comes to live television it is always a learning process because anything can happen, and a lot of things have happened that we had to adjust to and that is what this was. It was an event where we had to quickly make a lot of changes and get a lot of things accomplished. Getting trained for the fire drill is what working in the WWE is from a live television standpoint. It was a good opportunity for us to come together as a team and learn and grow together. I will say one of the greatest things I had is the phenomenal team that Hunter had put together previously, and I have a lot of great people around me, Matt Bloom, Johnny Russo and numerous others. But with everything you learn to do your best and take it in stride and learn from your mistakes and we have done that here was a team and done that with the young talent. I think the thing I am most proud of is that we are starting to be on the other side of that and we are starting to see the hard work paying off and are very excited for what the future holds for NXT and the WWE as a whole.”

On which talent has developed most in the last year: “I think Bron, obviously, it is in his blood. So some think he has cheated. He gets a free pass, but you take someone like Tony D’Angelo or the Creed Brothers, who have done tremendous work, and I will say this, I am a little biased, but Tiffany Stratton is someone who you see visibly get better each time she is out there. We have more coming in, though, and I think that is what is interesting and fascinating with the young college athletes that come in here. All they know is to grind and work to get better. You don’t have to encourage them to be goal oriented. That is already in them.”

On bringing over NXT UK wrestlers: “They are obviously huge for us in that respect. Even at such young ages, they have a great deal of experience, especially the ones from the UK. They started so young. You have people like Tyler Bate starting at 15 or 16, so now at 24 he is a seasoned veteran. They also have a different style, and I think that is what I enjoy. When I started you had the territory days and you worked with a lot of different people with a lot of styles. I know over the years people get concerned that you only learn one style in this system of NXT and that is certainly not going to be the problem now with the influx of UK talent. Their experience and their expertise with traditional wrestling backgrounds is great. Also their love of the British style really comes through in their performances, and they are able to share it here.”

On acquiring talent from the independent scene like Rok-C: “We are still reaching out to other people with experience that have wrestled on the independent scene or been out in Japan or in other companies. That is something NXT will continue to do in the future. Nothing is off the table. We simply want to continue to find people that are just as passionate about the WWE product as we are.”

article topics :

Shawn Michaels, Joseph Lee