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Shawn Michaels Compares NXT Pair To Himself & Kevin Nash

By John Canton • Published 30th March 2024
Shawn Michaels Kevin Nash WWE

Shawn Michaels is running WWE NXT and believes that two of the brand’s biggest stars are reminiscent of his alliance with Kevin Nash aka Diesel.

After Shawn Michaels broke free of Marty Jannetty and their team known as The Rockers, he was paired up with a 7-foot “heater” named Diesel. The pairing would go on to dominate WWE because Diesel was WWE Champion for most of 1995, Michaels had reigns as Intercontinental Champion and they were Tag Team Champions as well.

When Shawn Michaels eventually became WWE Champion at WrestleMania 12, his first PPV title defense was a classic match at Good Friends, Better Enemies with Diesel, who did the job for his friend before going to WCW on a new deal.

Considering the “Two Dudes With Attitude” duo of Michaels & Nash were aligned from June 1993 and feuded until April 1996, that’s a longer association than a lot of pairings/groups in WWE.

In 2024, Shawn Michaels has a much different role because he’s the man in charge of booking WWE’s NXT brand and is WWE’s Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative.

Since September 2021 when the “NXT 2.0” brand launched, former NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams were joined at the hip until Melo turned on Trick in the last few months due to Trick’s growing popularity.

As NXT’s boss, Michaels has overseen their entire run together, so when he appeared on Busted Open Radio to talk about Stand & Deliver, he couldn’t help but praise Trick & Melo as performers.

“As Carmelo has said many times, he and I hit it off right off the bat. After the last half year or year, Trick has been on the rise since he walked into my office and said, ‘I want to give it a shot, I want my shot.’ He’s just one of the hardest workers. I dearly love both those two young men with all my heart. They have been fantastic.”

“They’re a joy to the coaches, and not just me, to everybody in NXT and Performance Center, and have earned this spot at rest at WrestleMania Stand and Deliver as the main event. This is the deepest, most passionate, most intriguing storyline in NXT and I would argue, in NXT history and this is so deserving of the main event. These two guys earned it every step of the way and I’m happy they’re getting this opportunity.”

As mentioned by Michaels above, WWE announced that the Williams-Hayes match will main event Stand & Deliver even though it’s not a championship match.

Shawn Michaels Discusses NXT’s Vision For Trick & Melo

Michaels would go on to talk about the decision to put Trick & Melo together and then naturally mentioned his chemistry with Kevin Nash aka Diesel.

“We definitely had the vision of putting them together. You could see it in their interaction. At the beginning it was sort of putting a more experienced guy with a guy that we knew had promise. You can just see it in Trick Williams, obviously, but then those two, much like Kevin and I, they just became friends and the chemistry was so natural from the get go.”

Whether Melo and Trick end up as two-time Hall of Famers like Michaels & Nash remains to be seen, but they are clearly on their way to big things as two young WWE stars with bright futures.

H/T WrestlingNewsco