Shawn Michaels Recently Trained Celebrity Out Of Curiosity
"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels is a certified legend in the squared circle, a two-time WWE Hall of Famer and most recently, the Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative for the "NXT" brand. Within that role, Michales aids in the creative direction and development of many newer superstars in the company.
As revealed by WWE, Michaels recently helped YouTube sensation Logan Paul train ahead of his championship match at the company's upcoming Crown Jewel event on November 5. In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Paul will challenge Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns in his highest profile match to date.
"Working with him, it really was fun," Michaels said on a recent "NXT" media call.
Though Michaels admitted he only "knew of him," he regarded Paul as a "bright kid" and as "somebody that committed" following his performance at WrestleMania this year. "When he jumps into something, he's going to go all in. He works really hard. So I was curious to ... see how much time and effort he was putting into this."
According to Michaels, Paul specifically requested "The Heartbreak Kid" to join his training session, which he then "jumped at the opportunity" for out of curiosity. Michaels noted that Paul had "a great crew around him" ahead of his Crown Jewel appearance.
Learning The Fundamentals Helps Link Everything Together
The social media personality and boxer arrived to WWE from a "big platform," as Michaels put it.
"So he comes in at a certain spot, shall we say, that none of our young talent [at 'NXT'] is going to really come in at. You sort of have to put the cart before the horse with somebody like him," Michaels explained when asked about his approach to training Paul in comparison to developmental talent. "You come in, he's in this match at WrestleMania, so you kind of maybe just train him for what he's going to do there at that one match."
Paul entered the professional wrestling world without any prior training in the sport, but he almost immediately became thrust into in-ring competition. Most notably, he competed at WrestleMania 38 in a tag team match, later moving to singles action against The Miz at SummerSlam.
"Because of his popularity, they kind of start him like at five years down the road," Michaels said. Despite Paul's accelerated track in WWE, Michaels wanted to "go back and teach him some of the fundamentals" that would "better link all of this stuff together." In turn, Michaels believes going back to basic principles of the sport would "really him kind of understand that at a better level."