Lyra Valkyria will be defending her WWE NXT Women’s Championship against Roxanne Perez at this Sunday’s Vengeance Day pay-per-view event, and Shawn Michaels was a recent guest on the “Battleground” podcast to give his thoughts on Valkyria’s run as champion so far, Roxanne Perez’s future, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Valkyria’s run as champion: “I think Lyra Valkyria, I think she’s been an impressive champion. I think it’s somebody who I think came in from the UK, sort of…it’s like a slow burn with Lyra. Over time, people began to really appreciate her ability, her skill, and I think, obviously, her running across Becky Lynch was huge for her and her career…When you come in and you have a time when you’re trying to come into your own, but you’re also sort of dealing with people that you looked up to, it’s a different dynamic than what you’re used to. You have a respect, and you also…whether you’re fanboying or fangirling, you have this admiration that you had when you were younger for these people. But now you believe it’s your time. And I think that it’s been a great growth process to watch in Lyra as she’s gone through that with Becky, and now coming in the road as champion.”
On Roxanne Perez: “I think, when everything is said and done, one of the things I really enjoy and fascinates me about NXT is you’re talking about incredibly young people. Maybe an average age of 24 years old sometimes. And again, so many of the ups and downs, the wins and the losses, the heartbreaks and the victories that they have to do deal with, the longness and how they manage that on a national level, and a global level very early on in their careers. It’s a great deal of pressure to be under as you’re going out there. That’s something that Roxanne has faced a great deal of here, in the last year. You can see it coming out of her Tuesday night on the USA Network on our show. Roxanne, she’s starting to show a different side of herself, a side that’s getting a little less patient, not so much the girl, the sweet girl next door. So again, for me, that’s what I’m excited for Sunday at Vengeance Day, to watch these two.”
