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Je’Von Evans says Shawn Michaels pushed for WWE to sign him

Posted: Oct 8th 2025 By: Ian Carey

During a recent interview, Je’Von Evans shared that Shawn Michaels pushed for WWE to sign him when others were concerned he wasn’t big or old enough.

The 2024 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Rookie of the Year was a guest on the No Contest Wrestling podcast and was asked who has been most responsible for his success. Evans said that when it comes to wrestling, he has to thank Michaels.

Evans said:

“I feel like he was the person that really looked out for me because during my tryout, apparently I wasn’t gonna get signed but Shawn saw something in me. Of course then I was too young, I was smaller at the time, so there were a lot of people that wanted me to get older and get bigger but Shawn was like, ‘No, just trust me.’ And everybody trusted him, and now that’s one of my go-to people. So you gotta thank Shawn, for sure.“

Evans signed with WWE in November 2023 at age 19 and made his NXT television debut the following February. He had been wrestling primarily around his home in Greensboro, North Carolina, dating back as early as 2018. In a previous interview, he said his first contact with WWE came backstage at a GCW show over WrestleMania week in 2023, when he exchanged contact information with Gabe Sapolsky.

Later in the conversation, Evans mentioned that the first time he ever saw Shawn Michaels was in a video game.

Evans continued:

“The more I started playing games, the more I really started understanding who Shawn was. He wasn’t just DX. He’s the Heartbreak Kid, Mr. WrestleMania, all of that. And I really discovered who he was in WWE 13, the Road to WrestleMania. Of course, he’s Mr. WrestleMania so had those matches, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is Shawn Michaels.'”

“Then I started doing my research, and bro, the rest is history.“