On the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Shawn Michaels talked about the impact of his role with NXT.
The current Senior Vice President of Talent Development and Creative stated that things began when Triple H invited him to check out NXT, which led to the WWE Hall of Famer working more closely with the up and coming talents of the developmental brand.
[Triple H] wanted me to come down and see the Performance Center…and see what I think. When I talked through those doors, that feeling just sort of came back.
Michaels previously started his own wrestling school during his hiatus from pro wrestling, which includes such names as Bryan Danielson, Lance Cade, and Milano Collection A.T. among its alumni.
Talking about his focus when training new talents in NXT, Michaels related his own career in understanding his approach:
One of my biggest challenges that [I now recognize is] the unbelievable gift that I was given to be able to do this stuff. So much of it came natural to me, so much of it I didn’t have to try to find or to do. I also had the luxury of breaking in at a time when there were so many awesome guys in the territory days that were there for me when I was young, to pass down all this knowledge and they did it to me early, and I started working early to apply to or listen to everything that they were saying.
But it’s more about meeting [the new talents] where they’re at and finding out what’s the best way I can convey what it is I’m looking to get across to them. A lot of it I have to be careful of not going too far down the road, they’re not going to understand a lot of things like psychology.
Michaels would quickly add one more recent aspect of working with the brand, as NXT has begun doing events on the road in cities such as St. Louis and Chicago, stating:
We just found out recently we’re out doing live events now, but now not just the Florida loop because we’ve done those for…as long as, you know, I can remember, but now we’re back out doing live events in different cities and different towns. This is some of our talents’ first time ever getting out of the state of Florida with the exception of PLEs, which again are their own sort of aspect.
The full interview with Shawn Michaels can be seen below.