Shawn Michaels opens up about the names that have left WWE and NXT in recent years.
When Triple H first started the NXT brand, WWE was the only major game in town. Nearly a decade later, much has changed with the creation of All Elite Wrestling in 2018 and mass cuts on the WWE side of things, Superstars are no longer guaranteed to be staying with WWE for the rest of their careers once they sign a contract.
This year alone, Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Bronson Reed, Johnny Gargano, and Kyle O'Reilly, have all departed WWE, of their own volition or otherwise, after being pillars of the NXT brand.
Adam, Bobby, and Kyle, the former Undisputed ERA are all now in AEW along with former WWE/NXT Superstars like Shawn Spears, Andrade, PAC, and FTR.
For Shawn Michaels, the current Vice President of Talent Development in WWE, this is bittersweet
Speaking with Instinct Culture by Denise Salcedo, Shawn Michaels revealed that he still keeps in touch with the names that have left such as Adam Cole and Shawn Spears. Michaels would even go as far as to say that it was a good majority of those Superstars that helped him decide he wanted to come back to work in professional wrestling after retiring in 2010.
"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 Boys, Shawn Spears who was Tye Dillinger 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 instill in 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."
Ultimately, Shawn Michaels would say he is happy for everyone that has left and found success elsewhere, and while he does wish that they were still a part of NXT, real-life happiness takes precedent over professional wrestling.
"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, Carmelo 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. "
Elsewhere in the interview, Shawn Michaels gave an update on the current health status of Triple H following his cardiac event. Learn more here.
