Published: Jun 2, 2026 by Liam | Last Updated: Jun 2, 2026 by Liam
Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.
WWER
WWE President Nick Khan has revealed the advice from Shawn Michaels regarding the development of the company’s younger stars.
There has been a lot of talk in recent months about the ages of WWE’s main event level talent, with the likes of Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, The Usos, LA Knight, Randy Orton and more all aged 40 years or older.
Speaking at a Sports Business Journal presentation recently, Khan addressed those concerns and stated that WWE management had a meeting about it last year, with Shawn Michaels the one that gave some big advice regarding talent development.
Michaels, who is the lead man in charge of WWE’s developmental system NXT – official title Senior Vice President, Talent Development – pointed out that younger talent needed to perform at more live events to gain experience and figure out what works with different crowds.
Khan explained:
“We will never respond to social media criticism. If ratings are down, if revenue’s down, if relevancy’s down, it’s up to us.
“A year ago, we got together. Triple H, (Chris) Legentil, myself, a guy named Shawn Michaels who runs our developmental system, Hall of Fame wrestler.
“We said, ‘Look, we have John Cena on his retirement tour, Rock came back and now he’s gonna be filming Jumanji and Smashing Machine at the time. Our other big stars – CM Punk‘s 46, we’ve got a number of men who are 40 years or older and they’re performing at the high level. We’ve got to accelerate the next generation of talent. So what do we need to do to accelerate it?’
“Shawn Michaels said we need to take them on the road so they get the crowd response of a live crowd. That’s part of what makes wrestling unique. If you’re getting cheered, great. If you’re getting booed, great. If there’s no response, terrible.
“So you need that live crowd to figure that out, so we made the investment in that. If you look at the acceleration of stars, even the opening match (at WrestleMania 42 night two) – a guy named Oba Femi, former shot putter at the University of Alabama, against Brock Lesnar, it’s probably the most talked about match, and Oba’s only been on our roster for six months.”
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