Shawn Michaels WWE NXT media call: Vince McMahon, Royal Rumble, William Regal

Ahead of Saturday’s NXT Vengeance Day, WWE Hall of Famer and NXT head of creative Shawn Michaels spoke with the media about a variety of topics that included Vince McMahon, NXT talent in the Royal Rumble, and Mandy Rose’s departure.

Full audio of the call can be found below.

Michaels was asked if McMahon has been involved with NXT since he returned early last month. He said that he hasn’t and joked that he enjoys his “plausible deniability” of being in Florida with NXT and not knowing what’s happening in corporate. He complimented McMahon in working with him in the past.

Michaels was asked about last weekend’s Royal Rumble on a few different questions including the time his talent had in the match itself. He said NXT doesn’t have any input on how long someone is in the matcha, that it’s the main roster’s call on who gets the nod to go into the match, and how they only wanted NXT female talent in this year’s match vs. none in the men’s match.

Michaels said he caught up with William Regal at Raw XXX, but that Regal hasn’t been at the PC as he’s been busy with other things. He said he is welcome at any time and is really looking forward to having him more involved.

Asked about Mandy Rose, Michaels said he loved working with the former WWE NXT Women’s Champion and that he didn’t directly fire her as he handles the creative. Roxanne Perez was going to get to where she was regardless, but that plan was just moved up a few weeks. “I think the world of Mandy Rose,” he said.

He said they are expecting around 5000 for Saturday’s show and that talent is both excited and nervous to be performing in front of fans outside the Performance Center for the first time in years.

Asked about the whereabouts of Meiko Satomura and Ilya Dragunov, Michaels said he would love to have them anytime but that when it comes to making the commitment, there are issues of relocation, working visas, and the right timing. He didn’t specify which was affecting either talent currently.

He said Paul Levesque and Drake Maverick spoke several months ago about wanting to use NXT talent on WWE Main Event and that the NXT head writer is the one that gets to reveal the news to the talents getting the match. He thinks it’s a great thing for talent in keeping them hungry and encouraged for the future.

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