Shawn Michaels comments on the Dominik Dijakovic tease at NXT Halloween Havoc.
Dijakovic signed with WWE in 2017, and he competed on NXT until he was called up to the main roster as T-Bar, a member of Retribution in 2020. The group had an inconsistent run before it broke up in 2021. T-Bar initially continued to compete alongside Mace, but the latter was repackaged as part of the Maximum Male Models earlier this year. Meanwhile. T-Bar hasn’t competed on WWE programming since the September 8 episode of NXT. During NXT Halloween Havoc, a vignette showed an individual burning the T-Bar mask, teasing the return of Dijakovic.
Speaking on the media call after NXT Halloween Havoc, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful asked Michaels about the teaser and the process of bringing a talent from the main roster back to NXT. Michaels made it clear that he’s excited, and he knows that fans sometimes get upset with the way certain characters are handled in the main roster. He gave NXT lead writer Johnny Russo credit for the vignette before he noted that having a talent from the main roster is like getting a new toy.
“Excited. It’s not like we don’t see what goes on out there in the social media world and the shaking of the fist at different things that were done with different characters over the years, and we do what we can here creatively to kind of, nudge nudge wink wink, we see you and we heard you,” Michaels said. “So look, I would love to be able to take credit for that, but I got a pretty good head writer here that comes up with some pretty snazzy stuff in Johnny Russo. Gotta put you over there, Johnny! [Laughs] But that was just something he mentioned, just a quick tease, and I thought that’s fantastic.
“Look, when you get a talent that one, is very talented, we felt [he] was just coming into his own here in NXT prior. I guess from our perspective, again, the pandemic and everything happened and there were a lot of quick changes and everything happened, and we lost a lot of people. Then over time, they found out like okay, well, we’re not maybe sure how we’re gonna finish the story therein. I think anytime they’re willing to allow us to have the opportunity to have them back, we look at it, again, I don’t mean it in a bad way, we find that as like a fun new toy, to be able to take guys with that much talent.
Michaels also stated that the NXT team doesn’t want to insult the fans’ intelligence by ignoring the performers’ past. Instead, hints like the teaser allow NXT and the fans alike to connect the dots before the eventual reveal.
“I think one of the things that we certainly try to do here, we’re certainly gonna try to do is not insult the fans and not pretend like somebody wasn’t who they were a short time ago,” Michaels said. “But just sort of connect the dots, get you thinking, get you teasing it and making you feel like what’s gonna happen? Then obviously down the road, we surprise you and you think that’s cool and it works.
The full media call is available here:
