Nothing would thrill Shawn Michaels more than to have William Regal back in the fold at WWE NXT.
WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels took part in an NXT Deadline Media Call this afternoon to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about the reports of William Regal returning to NXT in the near future, Michaels said he has nothing to announce right now, but he has a great deal of respect for Regal and hopes he has more information to share soon.
“I appreciate the question. Right now, there’s nothing official that I really have to announce,” Shawn Michaels said. “But I will say this, as you said, we love Steven, and we have a great deal of respect for Steven Regal and what he means to NXT and the WWE and, of course, wrestling at all levels. Nothing would thrill me more to give you more information. I would obviously stay tuned because, hopefully, we’ll all know a little bit more as we get down the road, but honestly, right now, I’m the guy that’s been reading it from you guys. So that’s where we’re at for the time being.”
When asked about the thought process and his expectations for the Iron Survivor Challenge matches this weekend at Deadline, Michaels said one of the best things about NXT is having the opportunity to experiment with new match types.
“I’ll be honest to me, that’s the greatest thing about getting to be here in NXT that we do get to try things out and test a lot of things from a television standpoint, programming standpoint, and in this case, a match standpoint, and sometimes they’re hit or miss. But again, I love that process,” Shawn Michaels said. “So this was something for our final premium live event of the year. Could we come up with something different, and there’s just something again that the creative team and myself, we don’t get out of our padded room much.
“And so this was something that we kind of eventually landed on. Honestly, the inspiration clearly came from the Ironman match. But you can’t go an hour, and so there were just different aspects of it. And I always liked the gauntlet aspect of matches. So that’s honestly how it came about. And we were talking last night. There are a number of talents that are excited for the fact that it is the first. You kind of feel like it’s a pat on the back from a talent standpoint when they trust you to do it.
“And these are all people that we believe in, both on the men’s and women’s side. And when you want your new ideas to hopefully have great success, you pick the best people you think can give you that, and that’s what we’ve done in these Iron Survivor Challenges. And look, we’ll see how it goes. I think it’s going to be fantastic. The fact that it’s new and different, I think obviously, is an advantage to us. Clearly, the talent we have in it are capable of turning on something exciting. So I think it’s gonna be a pretty incredible evening, and maybe we’ll have a match that everybody will remember for a long, long time.”
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What do you make of Shawn Michaels’ comments? Are you excited about William Regal returning to WWE to coach the wrestlers of NXT? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the NXT Deadline Media Call with a link back to this article for the transcription.
