Shawn Michaels Comments On Creating A Safe Working Environment In NXT
Shawn Michaels has detailed the policies NXT has in place to maintain a safe working environment.
The working environment in WWE has come under the spotlight following the horrific allegations of sexual assault and sex trafficking made against Vince McMahon by a former employee. While Triple H chose to “focus on the positives” rather than directly answer questions surrounding the allegations, Shawn Michaels has been more open on the subject of safeguarding.
During a press conference ahead of NXT Vengeance Day, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful asked Michaels what policies would now be put in place to protect wrestlers. After making clear that he has nothing to do with the “corporate stuff,” HBK said he does his best to foster a safe and supportive atmosphere. He also noted that related policies were updated in 2022.
“It’s an incredibly sad situation. As everyone knows, I have very little and absolutely nothing to do, and gladly so, with the corporate stuff that goes on. We try to focus here in NXT on the men and women that come through these doors and we do.
“I think we foster a safe and supportive atmosphere down here. I know that they reinstalled and upgraded I think in 2022, some of those regulations and whatnot. But look, we’re always conscious about that and one thing that I do, it’s incredibly important to support the talent and give them a safe working environment. I’d like to think that we do that absolutely, but look, we will always continue to try and be better about that and I’m very glad to say that I think we do a really fantastic job down here.”
The Hall of Famer was later asked by Jon Alba if he had spoken to talent about what more could be done to promote a safe working environment. Michaels said they have taken the situation very seriously in NXT and explained they work to encourage openness from talent so that they feel confident to ask questions they might be afraid to.
“Well, so look, we obviously — everyone is aware of the situation and understands it. Like I said, it’s an incredibly sad situation. I can sit here and say it sucks, but we’ve always — and I’ve mentioned it to you all in the past, we take that very seriously.
“I take all of the youth that come through here incredibly seriously because this is a tough line of work, regardless of what’s going on. Leaving home and coming here and pursuing your dreams is a big thing that we take incredibly seriously and we understand that young men and women that come through our doors are impressionable.
“So, we absolutely encourage the openness and again, telling everyone to please tell us the truth and let us know how we can help. That’s something that has been here for a long time and we continue to do our best to improve on that because it is, it’s one of the most important things to me is to be able to ask those questions you’re afraid to ask. We certainly empower them to do that and give them the opportunity to do that.
“Right now, I feel like everybody — I’m not really trying to spin it, coming off of Royal Rumble weekend, and even going into Vengeance Day, I think that the talent in WWE and in NXT are extremely excited about the future. Look, I know we are as well and we’re looking to capitalize that at Vengeance Day. Tough situation like I said, but I got to tell you from a talent standpoint, we feel like the windows of heaven have opened up and we’re ready to go forward.”
“I Like To Think We Do A Great Job Here” – Shawn Michaels On The NXT Working Environment
The last question on the subject came from Stephanie Hypes of BodySlam.net, who asked whether there are safe individuals for talent to talk to about issues that come up.
“We absolutely have all of those policies in place. As I said, we upgraded them in 2022. I have no doubt that they’ll be looking at continuing to improve those, but we absolutely do. We have numerous people on our medical team for outreach to go to outside of the Performance Center.
“We do understand that I can look at a talent and my head writer and my coaches, as they do, we can tell them to tell us the truth or express to us what’s going on. But as you know, they may not feel comfortable doing that, so we also provide help outside of here as well and have people that we can work with to get them in a complete objective environment that isn’t associated with the WWE or NXT in that respect.
“Again, because we, we do. Especially here. Again, we want everybody to be focused on what it is they’re doing and not have any struggles going forward. Again, I like to think we do a great job here and that’s seen on a regular basis.”
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.