Shawn Michaels Confirms He Requested For Trick Williams To Remain In NXT So He Could Work On Heel Role

Triple H and Shawn Michaels discuss Trick Williams.

Variety hosted a sit-down chat between WWE Chief Content Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque and NXT overseer Shawn Michaels.

One of the many subjects they touched on was Trick Williams. Levesque recounted a chat he had with Williams, and the current SmackDown talent was expressing gratitude for having a spot on the WrestleMania 42 card. Levesque stated to Williams that WWE was screwing him over by keeping him in development when Williams knew he was ready for the main roster.

Levesque added that he believed Williams was not quite ready at the specific period of time he’s referring to and thought Williams would benefit from staying in NXT longer. Shawn Michaels chimed in and confirmed that he requested that Williams remain in NXT so he could zone in on his heel role.

Michaels stated that Trick, as a babyface, was beginning to become too much about what his opponents could do to push him to the next level. Michaels said he would have loved to build NXT around Williams, but would never keep a talent from greener pastures.

Levesque: “So as far as who’s ready, when, in my opinion, everybody’s different. I just said it to Trick (Williams) the other night. He gets a WrestleMania match and he’s so excited and he was being thankful for all the positioning and I said, ‘Look, I’m thankful that you’re ready to get there.’ I said, ‘So now, look back on the frustration that you had of being in a time where you knew you were ready, in your mind. We were screwing you over by keeping you in developmental, and trying to get you.’ I said, ‘But, we’re getting you ready for this. We believed you weren’t quite ready yet and that you could benefit more, even if it was just slightly from baking a little bit longer, and that time will pass and you’ll be frustrated.’ Almost every talent that has come from NXT to the main roster has come to me at some points and, ‘What am I doing? I’ve been here forever. Why haven’t they moved me up already? I’m losing my mind waiting.’ They all do the same thing but, there’s a certain point in time where you just wanna be sure. No one’s ever 100 percent ready, ever, and you move guys up when you think that they are and sometimes, a guy’s still not ready but you think, well, he’s learned everything he’s gonna learn here.”

Michaels: “You all had made the deal with Trick, and I had mentioned that, ‘Hey, I think he still needs a bit more time.’”

Levesque: “And you were right.”

Michaels: “Yeah, well, thanks,” he laughed. “And I felt like he needed to go back over to the heel side. He was a really good babyface, but it was kind of going down a road to where it was getting very just focused on him being a babyface and what his opponents could do for him to help him continue to grow as a babyface and get more over, and continue to have more success and I had mentioned that, ‘I feel like you need to be a heel,’ and because in my mind, he hadn’t quite understood the benefits of what your heels do for you as a babyface, and I needed him to kind of jump on that other side to try to understand that now he was going to have to be that guy that certainly gets his stuff over and continues to do his stuff, but now has to make that other individual and understand how much work and effort and psychology goes into that.”

Levesque: “And appreciate it. So when somebody’s doing it for you, you appreciate it.”

Michaels: “He’s one that I would have loved to have been able to certainly build a brand around but, I’m never going to keep guys from success. That’s something I don’t ever certainly want to do…”

Williams is scheduled for in-ring action on night two of WrestleMania 42. He’ll be challenging Sami Zayn for the WWE United States Championship.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Variety with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.