Shawn Michaels wanted to keep Je'Von Evans in NXT a little bit longer.
The WWE Hall of Famer was asked if there was any one talent he would have liked to keep in NXT forever if he could during his recent interview with Ringer Wrestling. The wrestling veteran explained that the goal of the brand is to make people ready for the main roster, but he then said that he would have liked to keep Je'Von Evans around a little longer:
Well not forever because you're not doing a good job if you got them forever. But certainly Je'Von obviously was somebody I was begging to like 'Can we just keep him for another six months.'
We Were Going To Build Around Je'Von: Shawn Michaels
The Young OG joined the main roster along with names such as Trick Williams and Oba Femi when he signed with the Raw brand in January this year. Je'Von Evans had made his NXT debut back in April 2024 so his run with the development brand came to an end three months short of two years.
Shawn Michaels revealed he was informed about Evans' call-up very late. He was a little bit surprised by it, as they had plans to make the high-flying star a central figure of NXT programming in the coming months. Though HBK looks at the whole thing positively, as the call-ups indicate a success for the WWE development program:
From an NXT standpoint we were in our minds, going to obviously build around Je'Von for the next year. And that was, you know, that was kind of the model and then they're like, 'Oh, no, no, we're taking him too.'
I pushed back a little bit like, 'Can we just [keep him for] six months?' 'No.' Then I'm like 'Three?' They're like 'No.' Then I'm like 'Alright, fair enough.' But come on, if that's the worst news you have to have is that they're taking too many of your people. That means we're doing a pretty good job.
Apart from this, Michaels also responded to Bret Hart's claim about his relationship with Vince McMahon. You can check out his remarks here.
The quotes in this article have been edited for clarity.
