In an interview with Sports Illustrated, WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels spoke about which talents from NXT he would prefer to wrestle if he was still an active competitor:
“Riddle, McIntyre, Rollins, Owens, all of those guys. And, of course, the guys I work with: Cole, Gargano, Ciampa, Dream, Strong, O’Reilly, Fish. Any of those matches would be phenomenal.”
Shawn also discussed what it was like to grow up in front of the world in a professional wrestling ring:
“I lived out my life in front of the world on Monday Night Raw. It’s been a wild ride, and I’m really looking forward to tonight. It’s going to be crazy on-camera as well as backstage, a real-life reunion. There is a lot of art imitating life going on tonight.”
“You’ve got to challenge yourself, and if you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect someone else to? It’s hard not to be a little abrasive when you keep pushing and pushing, and that’s certainly what I tried to do. I very much enjoyed it, I’m thrilled the way it turned out, and I certainly surpassed anything I thought I could do. It’s been a sheer joy, and I know I wasn’t always perfect, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
