Shawn Michaels knows that building long-term stories in NXT comes with one pretty annoying problem — WWE can take one of his stars whenever it wants. And sometimes, he doesn’t even get the chance to properly finish whatever he was doing with them.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Michaels opened up about what happens behind the scenes when WWE suddenly decides it needs somebody from NXT on the main roster. He admitted that unexpected call-ups can throw NXT creative into a loop, but at this point, it’s simply something everyone working on the brand has learned to expect.
“It might sound like a cop-out answer, but it really isn’t. There are certain things in the business that the real world throws us in a loop, but you learn not to sell too much. You gotta understand those things are gonna happen. If you are gonna be here in NXT, you just kinda get used to that possibility happening.”
Michaels said experience has helped him get a better feel for when somebody might be moving up, and getting information ahead of time obviously makes things easier. The bigger problem comes when something unexpected happens on RAW or SmackDown and WWE suddenly needs an NXT wrestler immediately. He used a main roster injury as an example. If somebody important goes down in the middle of a storyline, WWE may decide an NXT talent is the best replacement rather than plugging in somebody who wouldn’t feel important enough for the spot.
“There is a part of you, I will say, after you continue doing it for a while, you will do your best to have a feeling. Anytime you can reach out and get info, that’s helpful. But to your point, when it comes to something like an injury happening on the main roster, and they were going towards a certain storyline, and a major person went out, and they need a person in there, and they don’t wanna make it another person on the roster that doesn’t feel important — yeah, they can pull out another person, and boom, they’re there, and you’re done. And you don’t get an opportunity to finish up a storyline or something of that nature.”
That means Michaels and the NXT creative team have to be ready for a wrestler to disappear from their plans without getting the traditional goodbye match or storyline conclusion. Rather than pretending those call-ups didn’t happen, Michaels said NXT can at least acknowledge them on television and explain why somebody is suddenly gone. The other part is having something ready in case it happens. Michaels admitted that NXT ends up scrambling quite a bit when plans suddenly change, so backup ideas have become a necessary part of running the show.
“So those are always real possibilities. You have to do your best to just put those to the side. I will say that one thing that helps — again, things like this, everyone kinda understands what NXT is now, and so we are at least allowed to be able to go out there and say, from a TV standpoint, ‘This happened, so-and-so is called up, and there we have it.’ But then we also have to have a backup plan when it does happen.”
For Michaels, though, that chaos isn’t entirely a bad thing. Having to suddenly rethink a storyline might make his job tougher, but he admitted there’s also something fun about being forced to figure things out on the fly.
“Look, we find ourselves scrambling a lot, but that’s the joy of it. It’s tough sometimes, but also exciting because it keeps you on your toes.”
That unpredictability is basically baked into NXT at this point. Michaels can map things out as much as he wants, but part of running WWE’s developmental brand means knowing that a phone call from the main roster can change the entire board without much warning.
Do you think WWE should give NXT more notice before calling someone up so Shawn Michaels can properly finish their storyline? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
