Shawn Michaels Comments On Recent NXT Departures

Shawn Michaels Comments On Recent NXT Departures

NXT has changed a lot this year. Not only did the brand receive a reboot to focus on ‘bigger, younger athletes’, a number of the brand’s top stars, including Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and Kyle O’Reilly, have left the company.

Speaking on Instinct Culture by Denise Salcedo, Michaels admitted that he does miss some of the names who have departed from WWE in recent years.

The WWE Hall of Famer stated that the stars’ happiness was always important to him, noting that he’s happy to see talents he was close with achieve great things outside of WWE.

Also discussing his relationships with the newer stars of NXT 2.0, Michaels said:

We still keep in contact, but yeah it is bittersweet, those young men were a big part of my life, they were a lot of the reason that I sort of got back into this line of work. I was happily retired. When it came to Johnny, Tommaso, Adam, those guys, even way back, the Revival (FTR), Shawn Spears who was Tye Dellinger at the time, all those young men sitting in a room with them; their passion, their excitement, their desire to be better was just hard not to love. They are the reason that I came back, and fell back in love with Sports Entertainment, with this line of work. As you’ve heard and everyone has numerous times, in NXT at the Performance Center, is where it’s still pure, it’s still all the reasons we get into it before it becomes business, and money and negotiations and things of that nature.
“To fast forward your question, I miss them. One of the things I always try to instil on all of them is ‘Your happiness, your contempt, your peace, is the most important thing to me.’ Because I learned that, yes mine all happened in the WWE but when everything was set and done that’s why I think that leaving and walking away was so much easier for me than it was for everybody else. I got all the answers to the questions that I had coming into this line of work and as long as they are at peace with that, that’s cool. At the very least, I tell them ‘if you’re not gonna be at peace with it at least have a big bank account.” (laughs) at least it makes you feel better a little bit (laughs).
“I do, I miss them, but I am very happy for them. Some things gotta be real life, Hunter and I, we love this stuff, same thing our real lives take precedence over everything else and it’s the same whether its Johnny, Adam, Kyle and whoever else, he’s now Malakai but Aleister, all of those guys I want them to be happy. Do I miss them? Yes. Would I prefer they be with us? Absolutely. But again you’re getting the opportunity to establish new relationships with Bron and Tony, The Creed Brothers, Carmello and Trick; have just been a joy to work with. Gigi and Jacy, I absolutely adore. It’s an ever evolving thing and that’s what this job is but it doesn’t mean that you can’t still have good relationships in the meantime.

Following Johnny Gargano’s recent WWE departure, the former NXT Champion is reportedly ‘heavily considering’ signing with AEW.

H/T to Denise Salcedo for the quotes. 

To make sure you stay updated with all the latest wrestling news, add WrestleTalk.com to your Google Discover feed and follow us on Twitter!

2 years ago by Sanchez Taylor

Trending

Get the latest wrestling news straight to your inbox

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from WrestleTalk