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00:00Well, WWE's Memorial Day takeover is upon us.
00:04You're going to get Saturday night's main event.
00:05You're going to get Battleground, Monday Night Raw and NXT on Tuesday,
00:09all in Tampa, Florida.
00:11And here to join us right now, he's one of the GOATs.
00:13Everybody knows it.
00:14He's on the Mount Rushmore of everybody's professional wrestling list.
00:18A Texas legend, Mr. WrestleMania himself and Mr. NXT, Shawn Michaels.
00:23Shawn, good morning to you.
00:24Thanks so much for taking the time.
00:26My pleasure, Brad.
00:27And I appreciate the absolutely phenomenal introduction.
00:32Well, it's true.
00:33It's all true.
00:34I'm flattered.
00:35Well, you know what?
00:36We're talking about everything that's going to be going on in Tampa, Florida,
00:39but I'm so excited about NXT lately.
00:43NXT has been on fire quite literally.
00:46Coming off a stand and deliver in Las Vegas.
00:49You were at MSG earlier this year and now going into this weekend for Battleground
00:55and then NXT on Tuesday.
00:56Y'all are firing on all cylinders.
00:58You have to feel that in the building.
01:01Absolutely.
01:02And again, it has.
01:02It's been just a phenomenal time in NXT.
01:06The excitement and the energy is palpable.
01:09I think everybody finally sees NXT for what it is.
01:13It's just the purest, the best, the most exciting aspect of all professional wrestling.
01:18At the very beginning, when you're, again, you're giving your all, you're passionate, you're hungry.
01:23All you want to do is make it in the WWE.
01:26All you want to do is eventually become a Raw and SmackDown superstar.
01:30And you give every ounce of your being out there when you perform every night of the week.
01:37And so, NXT right now has been enjoying just incredible momentum.
01:42So much of that has to do with the incredible partnership that we have with CW, but also just the young men and women that come to our doors.
01:53They are so hungry.
01:54They are so passionate.
01:55They're all focused on making this life, you know, their dream and their job for the rest of their life.
02:04And so they come in here with nothing but great intentions.
02:07And we're looking forward to Battleground Memorial Weekend so they can go out there and show the world what it is they do and why they should be the Raw and SmackDown superstars of tomorrow.
02:19And they absolutely will be.
02:21And what's great about NXT is that I've been to a couple shows at the Performance Center in Orlando and seen it up close and personal.
02:27And the crowd really is the sixth man there on those NXT shows.
02:31They are as part of the show as some of the performers are themselves, some of the wrestlers are themselves.
02:36But I would imagine for you as kind of the quarterback or the coach for NXT, getting the talent on the road and working in front of different audiences,
02:44knowing what it's like to be in front of a New York audience or a Las Vegas audience, or in this case a Tampa audience,
02:49really helps them further, you know, hone in their craft and figure out how to make reactions happen in different parts of the country.
02:58Sure, absolutely.
02:59Well, again, as you know, again, we are based here in Orlando.
03:03And as you said, look, when we get an opportunity to get out on the road, first of all,
03:08they're just over the top excited about the opportunity to be able to do that.
03:13But it also, to the point that you made, it is so important to their development in what it is they're doing.
03:20And so as we have the opportunity to get out on the road, even if it's down the road in Tampa,
03:26it is just a phenomenal experience for our young talent.
03:30Obviously, you know, we do our best to try to harness that, you know, those they're all like wild stallions.
03:37And we do our best to harness it.
03:39And every now and then they can keep a lid on it when they're in Orlando.
03:42But any time they get out on the road, they're ready to cut loose in that ring and just excite that audience to know when.
03:49And so in Tampa, at Battleground Memorial Weekend, it is going to be a big, big night and an incredibly exciting show because our talent are ready to go.
03:58Again, Saturday night's main event, Battleground, Monday Night Raw and NXT all taking place from Tampa.
04:04One of the great things, I think, too, for the talent at NXT recently is the working relationships you have with other promotions and especially TNA.
04:12Having, you know, people like Fatal Attraction going over to TNA and getting some reps in.
04:16Having the Hardy Boys work Fraxium in MSG.
04:20You know, you work, you hone that craft more.
04:22You get better when you're working people who are, you know, maybe more experienced and have that veteran presence for you.
04:28As somebody who's running NXT, that had to be a really refreshing thing to have the partnership with TNA and other companies.
04:36Absolutely.
04:37Well, again, as you know, you as you stated again, when you're in the ring with people better than you, you're going to improve.
04:44You're going to get better.
04:45You're going to learn things that you didn't know before.
04:48And so that's one of the things that this TNA, you know, collaboration has given us.
04:53And also, again, the partnership with Noah.
04:56Again, having our talent be able to go over to Japan and learn that style, a different style, and have some of their superstars, you know, come over and be a part of our show.
05:08In Amore has just been a huge asset, again, to the WWE roster.
05:12The people love him and we love him.
05:14And so, again, all of these partnerships and collaborations that we've been able to have has done just exactly what you were talking about, has helped our talent improve.
05:23And it has also, again, made NXT the must-see show on WWE programming.
05:31What you've always been referred to as Mr. WrestleMania, in a lot of ways, you're Mr. SummerSlam.
05:36Sometimes you're even Mr. Royal Rumble.
05:38You've kind of done the gambit on all of those, in my opinion.
05:41But there's so much great talent in NXT right now, on the men's side and the women's side.
05:46Who would you highlight?
05:47If you had to pick one right now, and I know you could pick any of them, but who would you highlight as Mr. and Mrs. NXT in these last couple months?
05:54Well, in the last couple months, I think it'd have to be Stephanie Bacare from the women's side, our NXT women's champion.
06:04She has just taken, again, the entire world by storm.
06:08I think she's somebody that already had an international name.
06:12But I think once she got on to, you know, NXT programming, the entire world, the entire globe and her popularity has just skyrocketed.
06:23And look, I think it's a toss-up on our men's side.
06:26I think they'd probably, you know, argue about it.
06:29But I think Trick Williams and Obafemi are two guys with, again, Trick has unlimited charisma, but Oba also has a mystique and an aura about him.
06:40They're two very different individuals, but they're both guys that are easily, you know, superstars that people see are going to be, you know, Raw and SmackDown superstars in the very near future, I'm sure.
06:53But Obafemi has a presence and authenticity about him where you can really see him main eventing WrestleMania one day.
06:58Same with Trick and Stephanie Bacare.
07:00Here's my final question for you, Sean.
07:02Again, WWE's Memorial Day Takeover, Saturday Night's main event, Battleground, Monday Night Raw, and NXT all going down in Tampa.
07:09This is really one for me because it's a personal question.
07:12I've gotten to work with the great Booker T for 13 years down here at Reality of Wrestling in Houston.
07:16I think that the team of him, Vic, and Corey Graves is the most entertaining and helpful commentary team out in all of professional wrestling right now.
07:26Booker with his ah-ah-ah with Stephanie Bacare.
07:30Vic's quick one-liners and Corey Graves' expert acumen when it comes to his analyst role.
07:35They're so good.
07:36They've got to make the show entertaining and fun for you just listening on headset because that's what it is for us as an audience.
07:42For sure.
07:44Absolutely.
07:45Look, and I will, again, just from a personal, I guess, standpoint, it has been phenomenal for me to get to, again, to strengthen and have a much better and bigger relationship with Booker.
07:59Having, you know, gotten to know him so much better since working with him here in NXT and to understand that his passion and his desire to help all of these young men and women, you know, get better and improve.
08:11Obviously, you guys do it there in Houston at Reality of Wrestling, but, I mean, Booker just brings that passion over here to NXT and shares it with our talent week in and week out.
08:22And when it comes to a commentating team, that's one of the things I love about NXT.
08:26We're all, we are, we're all one big family.
08:29We obviously all, you know, communicate a lot.
08:32We have a lot of collaboration between each and every one of us.
08:36And I think, again, Corey was a huge addition to that team.
08:40And I think they've really found their footing now.
08:43And as you say, at the very, very least, it is going to be incredibly entertaining every time you tune in on Tuesday nights on the CW.
08:52Tuesday nights on the CW.
08:53You got a huge weekend ahead of you in Tampa.
08:55Shawn Michaels, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
08:57Really great talking to you.
08:59Appreciate you having me.
09:00Thank you very much for helping us out.