Shawn Michaels was the special guest on WWE Backstage yesterday evening as Renee Young played hosting duties to The Heartbreak Kid. Plenty of topics were covered but the two started off the conversation by talking about Friday Night SmackDown’s segment in which Shawn celebrated 25 years of Triple H with his longtime brother-in-ring.
“So strangely enough the attempt was that it started out as a comedy segment. The only people that knew that were Hunter and I,” Michaels said. He then goes on to reveal that the segment had more humor planned to it, but matters were altered due to someone who didn’t want to play their part. Nonetheless, Shawn was just happy to share the moment with Hunter.
“Look I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus, it just was a – there was a lot more amusing stuff in there. Some people just didn’t want to do their part, but again, look it was still fun, but more importantly again, all of this is always a fun process with me. Getting to work with Hunter, I mean he and I have been friends for that entire 25 years and so believe it or not, there’s always some real life aspect going on between he and I out there, every time we’re out there, so if for no other I enjoy that aspect of it.”
An interesting moment however, happened to be Shawn’s social distancing line, whom he credits his daughter for giving to him.
“That whole social distancing joke at the beginning is actually hers. I came home after doing a taping of NXT and I came home for my usual evening hug and she was like, ‘Hey, easy buddy.’ Yeah, I’ve been quarantined from her for the last 14 days. I have to footnote that joke to my daughter,” Shawn said.
Shawn then began to talk about his time coaching the up-and-coming talent in NXT and reiterates how rewarding it is to see so many stars take further steps in their own personal growth and development.
“I can say without a doubt I’m absolutely behind and supportive of the next generation and love just doing what I can to be apart of it, because it’s an absolute joy to be apart of.
As far as talent he’s really looking forward to seeing flourish?
“Killer Kross, I think, or Karrian Kross I should probably be better about saying that. Yeah, Dexter Lumis, Tim Thatcher, I think there are a number of guys coming up that are going to be very interesting and again, are going to continue to take NXT to that ‘next level’ as they say.”
Someone who he has had a front row seat to seeing that ‘next level’ pay off for is none other than WWE’s top star right now in Drew McIntyre. Backstage ran a clip of Drew giving Michaels major credit in helping him sharpen his wrestling acumen as he made a four-hour round trip to work exclusively with HBK. Shawn talked about Drew, saying what all he truly appreciates about the current WWE Champion:
“That’s the reason why I love this job so much,” he said, getting a little misty-eyed about talking. “He didn’t have to come and he didn’t and he did make that four-hour round trip and was always there, always open and just always willing. Desirous to learn, wanting to improve. Drew has so much ability, so much natural talent and he’s always had that and he had to go sort of all the way back down to the bottom and work his way back up. He was so appreciative and so respectful and what I enjoy most about him, I love that he’s just unbelievably inquisitive which is a blast, is that look, I always used to say, ‘Dude, you’re a six-five Scottish stud. You don’t have to do anything but just stand there.’ In so many respects, that is all he has to do, but he didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to be one-dimensional, he wanted to show range. He wanted to have depth and show levels to him…”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
Check out the rest of the interview between Young and Michaels below:
