Shawn Michaels Says WWE NXT Planned To Build Around Je’von Evans For The Next Year, Pushed Back When He Was Told He Was Being Called Up

Published: Apr 11, 2026 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Apr 11, 2026 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.
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Shawn Michaels has said that NXT planned to build around Je’von Evans for the next year, and his reaction to his WWE main roster call up.

A number of top NXT stars made their main roster debuts earlier this year, with Oba Femi, Trick Williams and Je’von Evans among the names moving up to the main roster.

Evans’ call up came at a time when he was being prepped to be a top star of the NXT brand after winning the Iron Survivor Challenge at Deadline, only for him to be called up to the main roster a month later.

Shawn Michaels Pushed Back On Je’von Evans NXT Call Up

Speaking to the Ringer Wrestling Show, Shawn Michaels opened up on Je’von’s call up, saying that he planned to build NXT around him for the next year, and how he pushed back when he was told he was getting called up.

He said:

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“Well not forever because you’re not doing a good job if you’ve got them forever. Je’von was somebody I had, I was begging for ‘can we just keep him another six months’, because from an NXT standpoint we were going to build around Je’von for the next year, and that was kind of the model, then they’re like ‘no we’re taking him too’. I was like ‘oh’.

“I pushed back a little bit, like ‘six months?’ ‘No’. ‘…three?’ ‘No’. Alright, fair enough.

“But if that’s the worse news you have is that they’re taking too many of your people, that means you’re doing a good job.”

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More WWE NXT Call Ups Coming Soon

With NXT Stand & Deliver now behind us, we could see a number of new NXT stars making their way up to the WWE main roster in the coming weeks following WrestleMania 42.

Among the names potentially set to leave NXT are Ethan Page, Joe Hendry and Ricky Saints, all of who came up short in the main event of Stand & Deliver and would make good additions to the Raw or SmackDown rosters.

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On the women’s side, Jacy Jayne lost her NXT Women’s Championship at Stand & Deliver to Lola Vice, as well as Blake Monroe coming up short against Tatum Paxley on the show.

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