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Shawn Michaels: Experience on the road is ‘so important’ for WWE NXT roster

Posted: May 21st 2025 By: Joseph Currier

Shawn Michaels believes getting experience outside the WWE Performance Center is vital to the development of NXT’s roster.

NXT will make the trip from Orlando to Tampa this weekend with Battleground 2025 being held at the Yuengling Center on Sunday. In an interview with Brad Gilmore of Reality of Wrestling to promote the event, Michaels explained how excited the NXT wrestlers are when they get a chance to compete on the road.

“When we get an opportunity to get out on the road, they’re just over-the-top excited about the opportunity to be able to do that. But, also, it is so important to their development and what it is they’re doing,” Michaels said. “So as we have the opportunity to get out on the road, even if it’s down the road in Tampa, it is just a phenomenal experience for our young talent. Obviously we do our best to try to harness that — you know, they’re all like wild stallions and we do our best to harness it. And every now and then they can keep a lid on it when they’re in Orlando, but any time they get out on the road they’re ready to cut loose in that ring and just excite that audience to no end. So in Tampa, at Battleground, Memorial [Day] weekend, it is going to be a big, big night and an incredibly exciting show because our talent are ready to go.”

NXT is on the road for all of its PLEs as well as select television episodes. Michaels said NXT having relationships with TNA Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH has also benefitted some talent by allowing them to gain experience outside of the WWE system.

“When you’re in the ring with people better than you, you’re going to improve, you’re going to get better, you’re going to learn things that you didn’t know before,” Michaels said. “All of these partnerships and collaborations that we’ve been able to have… has helped our talent improve and it has also made NXT the must-see show on WWE programming.”

The TNA World Championship will be defended at Battleground with Trick Williams challenging Joe Hendry. Among the other top matches set for Sunday’s event are Oba Femi vs. Myles Borne for the NXT Championship and Stephanie Vaquer vs. Jordynne Grace for the NXT Women’s Championship.

Michaels oversees NXT in his role as WWE’s Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative.