Shawn Michaels has been making the media rounds to promote his new Peacock documentary, “The Heartbreak Kid: Becoming Shawn Michaels.”
During an interview with The Ringer Wrestling Show, the WWE NXT executive and WWE Hall of Fame legend spoke about the recent WWE main roster call-ups of Oba Femi and Je’Von Evans.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on this topic with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On if there is anyone he ever wanted to keep in NXT forever: “Certainly, Je’Von, obviously was somebody I was begging for. Can we keep this kid for another six months?’ Because we had every intention … from an NXT standpoint we were, in our minds, going to build around Je’Von for the next year, and that was kind of the model.”
On expecting the Oba Femi WWE main roster call-up but being caught off guard by the Je’Von Evans call-up: “And they’re like, ‘Oh, no, no, no. We’re taking him, too,’” he said. “I pushed back a little bit. I was like, ‘Could we get just six months?’ Like, ‘no.’ I’m like, ‘Three?’ Like, ‘no.’ And I’m like, ‘All right, so. fair enough.'”
On being disappointed but taking the news as a compliment: “If that’s the worst news you have to have, is that they’re taking too many of your people, that means we’re doing a pretty good job. And that’s something that we always have to remember. That’s part of my job as well, is trying to remind people that, hey, this is what we do.”
On comparing what he’s doing in NXT to college sports: “We’re like the NCAA. We’re a brand, but at the same time, they are they’re not meant to stay here. We’re not going to build around these people for years and years. It’s just not the reality of NXT. And so, understanding, that you’re going to have these times of setting back and resetting and having to go through a building phase again is just something that you have to do.”
