Shawn Michaels retired in 2010, a few months shy of turning 45.
Having performed against multiple generations of pro wrestlers, he understands how an industry landscape turns. Michaels saw the way a locker room changes—how you go from wide-eyed rookie to a dressing room stalwart. Then, seemingly suddenly, the faces, a lot younger than yours, aren’t nearly as familiar.
This is also all part of the unfolding tale of Tom Brady, whose Buccaneers mustered only three points Sunday in a deflating 21–3 loss to the struggling Panthers. Brady had 32 completions for 290 yards but also 17 incomplete passes and, surprisingly, no touchdowns. The loss drops Tampa Bay to a game under .500, a precarious position for a team that was expected to contend.
Michaels has watched Brady with far more than a cursory glance. While the two arrived at athletic fame in different fashion, Michaels has paid close attention to those criticizing the 45-year-old Brady for his play this season.
“I don’t know if I’m the one to give advice to Tom Brady, unless he wants to step into the Performance Center, but it’s not the worst thing for him to hear a reminder,” says Michaels, who spent the past week holding one-on-one sessions with Logan Paul ahead of his Crown Jewel match against Roman Reigns. “He just needs to remember he’s Tom Brady. Even if he walks off that field never to win another game, he’s still Tom fricking Brady. That’s never going to change.”
Most retirements in pro sports do not deliver fairy-tale endings, though Michaels and Brady both appeared to have one. Michaels wrestled one of the greatest matches in pro wrestling history against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26, while Brady was sensational in Super Bowl LV, throwing for three TDs, outplaying younger counterpart Patrick Mahomes and winning the MVP in a 31–9 rout. Yet both came back for more. Michaels returned for another match in 2018 at Crown Jewel, a tag that was not met with anywhere near the praise he received following WrestleMania 26—and, even after briefly retiring last winter, Brady is still playing, two years removed from that Super Bowl triumph.
“In the moment, Brady may not be happy,” Michaels says. “But there is more to your career than how it ends. If it doesn’t end great, that’s not a reflection of who you are. You need to look at the entire picture. And when people do that for Tom Brady, they better make sure to count his rings and MVPs. He’s still the greatest of all time.”
Michaels, who was recently promoted to the position of WWE’s senior vice president of talent development creative, is one of the greatest ever to step inside a wrestling ring. He has a myriad of responsibilities in his new position, including overseeing the NXT brand for WWE.
NXT ran Halloween Havoc over the weekend, which was bookended by a superb ladder match in the open and a triple-threat world title match to close out the night.
“NXT has been around for a long time, but the Halloween Havoc show kicked off our rebirth,” says Michaels, whose brand has shifted away from the colorful 2.0 moniker and presentation. “I hope people are tuning in to see the future of this business give their best.”
Wes Lee put forth an incredible performance to win that show-opening ladder match, crowning himself the new North American champion in the process. That match also included Carmelo Hayes, who delivered another sensational showing.
“Carmelo Hayes, he’s such a talented kid,” Michaels says. “The first time I saw him at our pop-up PC, I said, ‘He’s ready.’ I worked on getting him on 205 Live as quickly as possible. I remember him saying, ‘I don’t want to be a cruiserweight,’ and I understood. But it was not about categorizing him; it was about getting him in front of people. The goal I gave him was to be classified as only one thing, and that’s a superstar. He’s bright, a hard worker and passionately hungry. I heard him say, ‘Sometimes, Shawn has to hold me back.’ That’s true. I told him what Vince [McMahon] told me a long time ago—to go out there, push the envelope and let me be the one to reel you in. He’s ready to step on any roster in the world, and he’ll only get better when he’s in the ring with people who are better than him. The sky is the limit for him.”
With Hayes removed from the North American title picture, it is time to start laying the foundation for a world title program, likely culminating in the spring at Stand & Deliver against another emerging star in Bron Breakker.
“Bron gets better every single day and every single match,” says Michaels, who was proud of Breakker’s main-event triple threat against JD McDonagh and Ilja Dragunov. “Being in the ring with those Dragunov and JD, that helps Bron grow, which he’s already doing in a staggering way.
“Ilja Dragunov has this old-school pro wrestling aura. As a viewer, you see the passion and you know it’s real. That makes him stand out unlike anyone else on the show. JD is so good. From a talent standpoint, there isn’t anything he can’t do. That’s three guys visibly growing right in front of your eyes and climbing to the next level.”
There was plenty of nostalgia embedded in the Halloween Havoc show, which was originally a WCW hallmark in the 1990s, including two “Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal” matches. Michaels never left WWE for WCW, but he knows who he would have liked to have shared the ring with had he ever worked for WCW during the height of the Eric Bischoff era.
“I would have loved a Halloween Havoc match against Randy Savage,” Michaels says. “I got to work with ‘Mach’ a couple times, but it was when I was younger. I certainly wasn’t at his maturity level, professionally or physically in the ring, or knowledge-wise. For me, it’s either Randy or Eddie Guerrero. Either of those would have been fantastic.”
As Michaels leads NXT into its newest era, he is excited to further develop an identity that is rooted in fundamentals and creativity.
“We want to continue to develop talent,” Michaels says. “Creatively, try to round them out as performers, characters [and] athletes. Every time we do that, every positive we have and every step in the right direction we take, that helps us develop our identity.
“It’s always somebody’s NXT, and this one belongs to our talent. We’re all here growing together, we work really hard, and we’re going to learn and grow together. We’re the developmental brand that helps build superstars.”
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
