Shawn Michaels on Transitioning to His VP of Talent Development Role for WWE NXT 2.0

– In a recent interview on Instinct Culture with Denise Salcedo, WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels discussed his current role of VP of Talent Development for WWE NXT 2.0 and how their current system works for helping to develop the talent. Below are some highlights (via Wrestling Inc.):

Michaels on his current role as VP of Talent Development for NXT: “I’ve now stepped out of the physical coaching aspect and into the Vice President of Talent Development and focusing more on television, the live show, and creative. The talent pool has gotten very big. To me, the biggest advantage of all of that is the freshness, the newness. When I went from a tag team to a single competitor, I wasn’t given a cookie-cutter ‘this is your character, this is what you’re gonna do.’ I was able to have some time to find ‘The Heartbreak Kid.’ I didn’t know who he was at the time but I had an opportunity to evolve this character and make it mine. That’s the one thing we’re allowed to do now with these new athletes coming in, is have time to sit down, to talk with them, to find out who they are, to get their insight, it really is a collaboration.”

Michaels on how the current system works with the NXT talent: “It’s all of the stuff that I feel like people loved about NXT, is that we’re not forcing things on people, we’re having them find it themselves. We really got a nice little system, a nice little organization going on to where we are allowed to go through these different steps. But then it comes to getting them ready, in-ring ready, and sometimes it’s trial by fire. I have to be honest, but the fact that they are former athletes that have been challenged before that have to worry about discipline, focus, going in there on game time, pressure situations, that is something that at least they come into the WWE having done a little bit, even at a young age they’ve had opportunities doing that. So, it’s amazing how disciplined and focused they can be, and the athlete in them doesn’t like to fail. People like Hunter and I, we’re sort of the same way, we love being put in the toughest spot possible and see if we can succeed.”