Shawn Michaels Discusses LA Knight’s Rise In Popularity

WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels was recently a guest on Busted Open radio, where he discussed a number of topics. Among them were Gable Stevenson and his role in WWE, LA Knight’s recent rise in popularity, deciding how superstars go to the main roster and more.

Below are some highlights from the interview:

Michaels On Gable Stevenson:

“I’ve only had a short amount of encounters with him, but I will say that one of the things that you can see right away, you know, he is such a premier athlete. He’s very confident. He’s very confident in his ability. Honestly, in his line of work, you know, he almost doesn’t have to try that hard to be as good as he is. It comes naturally to him.”

“Now, we’re very curious to see how he adapts to what we do because as you guys know, it’s very different. But again, I think he’s got a great foundation. He’s going to be in there with a great guy. We’re excited about finally getting to pull the trigger on it. I mean, it’s something that I went ahead, and I don’t know, it’s something he’s been here. He’s been training. I think he’s a real goal oriented individual. A few months ago, honestly, I asked, ‘Hey, can we move on him and give him the green light?’ We’re very excited to see what he brings to the table. I mean, he’s obviously a big name, a brand name, and certainly in a different space, but we are hoping that he adapts much like a Kurt Angle. I think he certainly has that ability, but again, he’s filling big shoes as you know.”

Michaels On LA Knight:

“I’m thrilled for him. I’ll say this. He’s a guy that is very unique. People will bust his chops for one thing or another. He was great for us. I don’t want to divulge more than I probably should I guess, but he’s a guy, he’s one of those guys that thinks about it a lot and it gives a lot of thought. He seems so calm and reserved and cool on the surface, but he’s the guy when you talk to him in private, he’s very passionate about this and he wants to know everything. ‘Is this going okay? Is that going okay?’

“I can remember when he started, we could see that, ‘They like you. We’re going to start moving you in that direction’, and of course, he was very worried because, ‘I haven’t had a good heel run yet.’ I was trying to explain to him, ‘Buddy, they like you. I don’t think that’s a good idea for us to go ahead and fight that. Let’s just go ahead and roll with it. One’s as good as the other and if you sort of get over as a babyface, heck, when you turn, it’ll be that much more heat.’ I am not surprised by it.”

“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 On how Triple H and Michaels decide who goes to the main roster:

“It’s challenging for me to answer because we are almost aligned all the time, 99.9% of the time. 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 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.”

[h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription]

 

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