Frankie Kazarian sees how lucky the next generation of wrestlers in NXT are by getting to work with Shawn Michaels every day.
The TNA star was a surprise entrant in a 25-man Battle Royal held on NXT over the summer. After his on-air appearance, Kaz shared a picture of himself speaking with Shawn Michaels backstage. He spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard about his recent appearance in NXT and shared more insight about his visit, and his own wrestling fandom.
“I learned an incredible [amount from watching him]. If you want to talk about tape study, Shawn, for my generation is — if he’s not #1, he’s 1A. It’s between him and Bret. Those guys are obviously, very, very connected, but they are connected in a way that they shaped my kind of generation of guys and who we liked. I was a Bret and a Shawn guy. It’s really hard to determine.
“But that whole day in NXT was amazing. WWE NXT could not have treated me and Joe Hendry better. They really rolled out the red carpet, everyone was very, very welcoming. I had a meeting with Shawn that day and it was just cool to sit and chat with him and get to know him a little bit.”
Kazarian hopes NXT knows how lucky they are to have Shawn Michaels
Kazarian had never been to the WWE Performance Center before but left with a great impression. He also hopes NXT talent knows how lucky they are to learn from a revered legend like Shawn Michaels.
“I was very impressed by the PC; I had never been there and I was talking to him about it. I have a lot of friends there. I’m friends with all the trainers and a lot of the wrestlers, but I never got to see it for myself,” he noted. “So, talking to him about it, I was very complimentary of the facility and the job he’s done. And he was in turn complimentary of me and very thankful. He was saying we have everything here except for real experience, because NXT is a training ground by large.
“Even though you have some very experienced guys there, you don’t have a roster whole of guys that have had long runs on television. We just got to chat about that. Those guys there, I hope they realize how beneficial it is to have somebody like that, a legit living legend running the show there,” Kazarian pointed out. “Because that doesn’t happen all the time. Those opportunities were certainly not available when I was coming up. Since being around that atmosphere and getting to chat with him and see how everything works, really really a cool experience.”
Watch our full interview with Frankie Kazarian below:
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