Shawn Michaels Explains the Biggest Difference Between His Booking and Triple H’s Philosophy

Shawn Michaels has been overseeing the booking of NXT since 2021, and in that time WWE’s developmental brand has gone in a variety of directions that differ from the “Black and Gold Era” of the late 2010s. That era was overseen by Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who now has his hands full booking WWE’s main roster. In an interview with Busted Open Radio ahead of tonight’s NXT: The Great American Bash 2023 pay-per-view, Michaels pinpointed the only thing booking-wise he and Levesque tend to differ on — comedy. 

“It’s challenging for me to answer because we are almost aligned all the time, 99.9% of the time,” Michaels admitted (h/t WrestlingNews.co). “I don’t think there’s anything where we are just completely different. There are just times where he’s going to be a lot more serious on things. I’m a little bit more levity sometimes. I like a mix of some humor and some entertainment where he’s a bit more legitimizing and wanting more seriousness and a bit more old school. So those are I think the only areas we will sometimes differentiate. 

“That’s why ‘The Game’ was very serious and the only time he could kind of lighten up is when he was in DX with me. I feel like that’s the only area and those are usually just, you know, small times here and there where I’ll say maybe let’s go for an entertaining laugh and he’ll want to keep it serious. Those are the only areas, but other than that, I don’t think we’ve ever been on two diametrically opposed positions, at least not yet anyway,” he added.

Shawn Michaels on Pushing for LA Knight’s Success

Michaels discussed elsewhere in the interview how he had to go to bat behind the scenes for LA Knight to get considered for a call-up to the main roster. Knight now finds himself as one of the hottest stars on Friday Night SmackDown.

“He’s somebody that when he was here, I will say this. I enjoyed him. I liked him. He’s a grown man. I thought he was going to be a perfect fit for the main roster. There were times when we were having difficulty down here when it wasn’t always maybe my call on some things, that I had to go to bat for some people and really had to make sure that, you know, I impressed on them, like, ‘My goodness, you don’t want to sleep on these people. You don’t want to lose these people. Let’s keep them around. Trust me on this’ I’m very thankful that they did because again, LA Knight is a guy that is enjoying that right now, and again, I think the WWE Universe is enjoying LA Knight right now. He’s somebody that I think’s got a great future. I’m excited for him and I’m happy for him,” Michaels said.

NXT: The Great American Bash (2023) Card

• NXT Championship: Carmelo Hayes vs. Ilja Dragunov
• NXT North American Championship: Dominik Mysterio vs. Wes Lee vs. Mustafa Ali
• NXT Women’s Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Thea Hail (Submission Match)
• NXT Tag Team Championship: Gallus vs. The Family
• Roxanne Perez vs. Blair Davenport (Weapons Wild Match)
• Gable Steveson vs. Baron Corbin
• (Kickoff) Dragon Lee, Nathan Frazier, Yulia Leon & Valentina Feroz vs. The Meta-Four