Shawn Michaels Explains Why He’ll Never Be a ‘Bitter Old-Timer’

On a recent episode of her podcast, “What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon,”  Shawn Michaels discussed his advice to younger talent, why he’ll never being a bitter veteran and more. Michaels is the head of NXT and he told McMahon that he wants to make sure that talent don’t link their happiness in life to their success in wrestling. Here are the highlights:

On Giving Advice To Talent:

“I wasn’t able to enjoy [his career] because I was so critical of everything that went on, and I just didn’t feel like I had that luxury. There are some talent — I’ve told Melo that. I’ve looked at Melo and said, ‘Look, this business is the way that it is. And sometimes, the best people are not always gonna finish in first place. You may have to work harder than somebody else to get half as much.’ It is [hard to accept], but I feel like they’ve probably heard — I don’t know if it’s my job to teach them about life. I will go ahead and leave that to their parents, but I need to at least do my best to teach them about this job.”

On Talent Not Following His Footsteps:

“I so worry about anybody going down the same path that I went down. So I’m just kind of on them to make sure that they don’t beat themselves up in that respect, or that they’re able to again, find joy or pleasure or comfort in something other than just this job. I didn’t have anything else. I was wrapped up in this, every ounce of my being was wrapped up in who I was in this line of work. They’re a much healthier generation than we were, or I was, and for that, I’m thrilled. “

On Not Being Bitter:

“I’ll never be one of those bitter old timers, or I’m not going to sit there and tell them, ‘Back in my day.’ Back in my day, there were some really cool aspects of it, and some of it I thought was bulls**t and dumb. But I just want them, you can — perspective has taught me this. You can kind of have it all. A lot of that, though, is gonna be your choice.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the What’s Your Story? With Stephanie McMahon podcast with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.