Shawn Michaels gives thanks to Becky Lynch and other WWE stars for their work in NXT prior to Deadline... as he insists he puts on 'the best two-hour wrestling show' and jokes that Triple H is 'Debbie Downer'

After going from one of the most popular WWE stars of all time to the head of the company’s developmental brand NXT, Shawn Michaels is preparing for his final premium live event of the year this Saturday.

NXT Deadline will look to close WWE’s 2023 episode of major shows with a bang and will play host to a number of big matches, including the men’s and women’s iron survivor matches, Roxanne Perez versus Kiana James inside a steel cage and Ilja Dragunov facing Baron Corbin for the NXT title.

It’s been another year of progress for the show under Michaels’s guidance, with programming going from strength to strength since it’s redevelopment from the black and gold era to NXT 2.0 to provide more of a pathway for up-and-coming stars.

Part of helping the current NXT stars grow has involved bringing main roster talent down to work on the Tuesday night shows, with multi-time champion and former NXT star Becky Lynch one of those who helped out in recent times.

Michaels, speaking ahead of NXT Deadline, praised Lynch for her work throughout September and October and explained how she helped from a creative point of view as well as in ring during her feud with Tiffany Stratton and Lyra Valkyria.

‘I think the biggest thing is that Becky Lynch is a huge star,’ he said. ‘She’s a WWE superstar through and through.

‘She came down to NXT and wanted to lift up all of the women, and the humility at which she went about doing that to me was just off the charts, and that's what I appreciated so much about her and doing it at the time.

‘Becky carried herself as a humble, unbelievably professional, class young lady, and I thank her for that more than anything else.

‘She, she did a great deal for us. She was good from a rating standpoint, was great professionally to work with, was great creatively for us, and then also did everything that she could to lift up our women's division and also continue to work with a number of the young ladies.

‘She never once didn't have time, whether it was getting in there physically or helping them verbally, and that's something that again, people don't have to do that, they choose to do that. And when the way she went about doing that again was incredibly respectful to me.’

The women’s division in NXT has gone from strength to strength over the last few months, with stars such as Alba Fyre, Isla Dawn, Zoey Stark and Indi Hartwell recently receiving call-ups to the main roster.

But plenty of talent remains, as shown by the line-up for NXT Deadline, and that’s something Michaels was keen to reinstate.

‘I think anybody even with a little bit of brain function, sees our women's division, which is incredibly stacked and it's just amazing to me, our women in NXT, and the depth of the roster that we have,’ he said.

‘You can see it in the Iron Survivor match. We have five unbelievably talented women, but they weren't in it last year, so maybe that, that speaks to the depth. And the women's breakout tournament, we still have people like Lola Vice, Izzi Dame, we have Dani Palmer, so we have so many other women that are not even a part of this.

‘The depth of the NXT women's division, I think is better than it's ever been, and it's only getting deeper. I think for a long time, we've always had most talented women in the world in the WWE performing on the main roster, and I think that's going to continue in the future because the NXT Women's division is so incredibly stacked top to bottom.

‘Our job, strangely enough, is to sort of lose talent. And when we do, there are so many other women chomping at the bit ready to raise up.’

There was time for Michaels to poke fun at his best friend, Triple H, too. His former tag-team partner is running the main roster these days, but Michaels joked that NXT is still the place to be.

‘Baron Corbin comes in like a kid. He’s having so much fun in NXT. And that's something Chad Gable mentioned it last week when we had him, something that everybody mentions when they come down to NXT is how much fun they have.

‘Not to throw a bunch of rain on the main roster because my my best friend in the whole wide world is running the main roster, but ours is so much more fun. I'm Johnny Good Time, Johnny Fun Fun. He's Debbie Downer.

‘I think it takes them back again to their college days, to be perfectly honest, the environment that we have in NXT. And it doesn't always work for some people, some people come into NXT like, oh my God, there's a bunch of kids here. When are we gonna grow up? We’re not going to. That's the whole point of being in NXT. If they come down here, they have fun. And we're the best two-hour wrestling television show on TV today because we have so much variety.’

NXT deadline takes place this Saturday, December 9 from Bridgeport Connecticut and can be viewed on Peacock or the WWE Network.