Shawn Michaels says WWE intends to take NXT back on the road, at least for premium live events, and the company is trying to figure out the best way to do so.
NXT has been mostly lifted to the WWE Performance Center since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This past April, NXT Stand & Deliver was held in Texas, but this trip away from Florida was a one-off. NXT In Your House and NXT Worlds Collide were both held at the Performance Center. The brand's upcoming Halloween Havoc event will continue this trend.
Speaking with Scott Fishman of TV Insider, Michaels, WWE's senior vice president of talent development creative, was asked whether he sees more NXT shows like Halloween Havoc being held in traditional arenas moving forward. He noted that NXT traveled away from the WWE Performance Center for Stand & Deliver in April, and the company intends to hold more shows elsewhere. Michaels stated that the matter us being discussed, and he explained that the talents need to travel as part of the developmental process.
"Absolutely. As you mentioned, we started with the Florida loop, or the coconut loop, as we call them. We’ve briefly discussed getting out for our premium live events. Do we want to do that at the end of the year or start at the beginning of the new year? We had Stand & Deliver for WrestleMania weekend, which is the first time many of our talents were out of the Performance Center. It’s certainly something we want to get back to. We have every intention of doing that. We’re actually having talks on how we want to go about executing that. This will go beyond shows in the state of Florida for certainly premium live events but regular live events. As you know, that is part of the developmental process. They have to get out there and perform on the main roster all around the world. They might as well get their feet wet in NXT," Michaels said.
In a recent interview, Michaels described how NXT is focused on developing talent, not selling out bigger buildings. Check out his comments here.
The WWE Hall of Famer also discussed WWE's regime change and the way there's more synergy between NXT and the main roster now. More information is available here.
Check out the updated card for NXT Halloween Havcoc here.
