Shawn Michaels Expresses Interest in Welcoming Outside Talent to NXT

NXT has gone through a ton of changes over the past two years as it has developed a lot under Shawn Michaels’ guidance. Now it appears Michaels expressed an interest in welcoming outside talent to NXT.

The Royal Rumble Premium Live Event commenced with the highly anticipated Women’s Royal Rumble match, delivering on the excitement. As expected, Jordynne Grace made her WWE debut as the 5th entrant, which turned out to be a very successful debut as well.

While speaking to Steve Fall of WrestlingNewsCo, Shawn Michaels was asked about the possibility of NXT working more with outside promotions and talent. Michaels mentioned his past hesitation due to assuming talents from other companies wouldn’t be interested in coming to WWE.

”Well look, I’ll say this, and it’s one of those things where the friendship with Hunter and I gets tough to balance because I’ve always sort of seen her from afar and I’ve always wondered if she’d be interested in coming to NXT or coming to the WWE. My fault for never reaching out because I assume if you’re with another company, that’s not allowed, right? [laughs] It was great to see that door possible open and I don’t know, think about. So, yeah, to answer your question, I think some things that probably we were never even allowed to consider or look at in the past, is at least something that we can begin to look at and think about in the future. I for one am very excited about that, again, those are things on a corporate level that I don’t get the say so in. Very excited about that possibility.”

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However, with doors possibly opening, he expressed excitement about exploring such opportunities. While he acknowledged it’s beyond his corporate authority, Michaels is interested in bringing experienced talents from various places like TNA, Japan, and AAA to NXT, revealing his eagerness to inquire about these possibilities in the future.

”To your point, just to be able to — Look, there’s a number of different talent out there in different places like TNA, in Japan, in AAA, things of that nature to where it’d be great to get some of those really experienced people to swing by NXT for a little bit. But again, above my pay grade to answer, but I’ll tell you this much, I’m really interested in the possibilities and it certainly looks like — Everytime I get mad at Hunter, I go, ‘Oh so it’s okay for you, but it’s not okay for us?’ That’s not a real corporate angle really, but I try to use that as often as I can to see if I can get my way down here. It’s something I’m going to ask about in the not too distant future.”

WWE has already worked with AAA recently after they sent Charlie Dempsey to Japan last month. We will have to wait and see whether more outside talent will make their way to NXT in the future.

What do you think of what Shawn Michaels had to say? Do you feel NXT will grow even more in 2024? Let us know in the comments section below!