Shawn Michaels WWE NXT media call: Deadline, Logan Paul, Carmelo Hayes
After more than a year without them, WWE NXT media calls have returned with WWE senior VP of talent development and creative Shawn Michaels now leading the charge.
Michaels talked for more than 40 minutes to the media to help hype up Saturday’s Halloween Havoc — a show the WWE Hall of Famer is bullish on as he feels it could be equivalent to their version of SummerSlam and the second biggest event on their schedule behind Stand & Deliver.
He feels like down the road, Halloween Havoc will be more identified with NXT than anything else.
Here’s some highlights with the full audio available below.
- Michaels confirmed NXT will hold an event called Deadline on Saturday, December 10th which happens to be the same day Ring of Honor returns to pay-per-view with Final Battle.
- He sent his condolences to the family of Kevin Nash on the loss of their son this week.
- Michaels said he is not afraid to be a cautionary tale for the men & women that comes through the Performance Center. He wants them to express what’s going on in their hearts & minds. “Tolerance is a huge thing here. Nothing is silly. Nothing is unimportant,” he said. He said he doesn’t care about the current day talent being labeled a “softer generation” and is done with all that.
- Michaels said there was some micromanaging of sorts when NXT 2.0 launched. There were talks that he pushed before the last Stand & Deliver with the Vince McMahon regime on doing things his way while still getting talent ready for the system and taking responsibility for it. He felt like they turned the corner after that.
- He put over Logan Paul as a “bright kid” and jumped at the opportunity to work with him on training because he was curious after seeing him work at WrestleMania. He said they are working on the foundations and fundamentals that will help him bridge with the things he does well.
- He acknowledged that there is more communication when it comes to call-ups, especially when it comes to finishing off a storyline in NXT. He said there is no mistake about it that their job in NXT is to get people ready for the main roster and call-ups are a good problem to have.
- When Veer & Sanga came back down, they wanted to lean into their strengths and who they are and not follow “wrestling tropes” about them being scary, calling them classy and nice guys.