WWE's Shawn Michaels Says NXT is Only Brand Introducing True to Life Young and Fresh Stars
WWE NXT will hold its annual WarGames event on Sunday night, which will feature a clash of two eras within NXT. Stars like Tommaso Ciampa, Raquel Gonzalez, Johnny Gargano, and Io Shirai represent the black and gold era, while stars like Cora Jade, Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, and most of Toxic Attraction represent the era of NXT 2.0. The shift to NXT 2.0 has been pretty significant, as new talent is heavily featured and newer wrestlers are continually introduced as the brand evolves. This has drawn a fair amount of criticism, both in regards to the product overall and the varying quality of those featured, but in a new interview Shawn Michaels said he feels that NXT is currently the only brand actually introducing fresh new stars to the scene.
In an interview with Jim Varsallone, Michaels said that many use buzzwords like "young fresh superstars", but in some cases the new superstars they are referring to have already been in the business for quite some time. Michaels says that is not the case with NXT at the moment.
"[Tuesday], we had three other new superstars that are coming in. We've been doing this for ten or eleven weeks and still there are new and fresh faces coming in. I recognize that right now one of the really cool buzzwords in the business is 'producing new, young, fresh superstars,' and they are actually people who have been around this job for ten or 15 years and they are just now making it onto television. We are the only brand in the entire world that is bringing real, true to life, young, fresh, men and women that are going to be the stars of Raw and SmackDown in the next five to ten years. It's just that simple. It starts all here," Michaels said.
"Bron Breakker, Tony D'Angelo, Grayson Waller, numerous other people where you are watching their first, second, third, tenth matches. Bron Breakker, Tony D'Angelo, they are going to go out there at WarGames, one of our biggest shows of the year, and it's their tenth to fifteenth matches. Nobody has been thrown into the deep end like these young men and women have. They've done a fantastic job and it's awesome to see," Michaels said.
WarGames is definitely playing up the rivalry between the two eras, and we'll see how it all unfolds this Sunday starting at 7:30 EST.
Do you agree with Michaels? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
H/T Fightful