Shawn Michaels is proud to deliver a genuine surprise in today’s wrestling climate like TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace’s unexpected NXT appearance this week.
The NXT head recently spoke to Adrian Hernandez to promote the upcoming NXT Battleground special coming from the UFC Apex, Enmarket Arena on June 10. The Knockouts champion will be challenging Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Title at the show.
During the interview, Michaels was asked what Grace’s appearance means for the partnership between WWE and TNA. Shawn said that he leaves those kind of decisions to people above him, and his focus instead is on delivering genuine surprises:
“Well look, right now, a lot of those things are still being worked out internally. Obviously as I try to be honest with folks all the time, there are people above me that I leave to making all those kinds of decisions. What I enjoy doing is what we did last night, which is having the opportunity to bring real surprises and real ‘oh my God’ moments back to the WWE, back to wrestling, back to NXT. That’s what we had last night.”
We’re Thrilled To Have Her: Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels also talked about Jordynne Grace’s Royal Rumble appearance earlier this year. HBK revealed what he told Triple H about it:
I have been very public about being a fan of Jordynne Grace. I expressed to Hunter [Triple H] privately that I was very jealous that he had her for the Rumble [and] that he owed me one, he owed me a big one. We’re thrilled to have her for Battleground and we’re thrilled to have her next week. This is going to be a huge epic event.
One, for NXT to be the first brand to be out there in the UFC Apex is just really really big for us. We’re so honored to get to be the brand that gets to launch that. Then of course to sort of one up ourselves, like we always try to do, having TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace contend for the NXT Women’s Championship, fighting Roxanne Perez, is going to be really really big,”
Jordynne Grace’s NXT appearance seems to have opened the gates for a bigger partnership between the two companies. Reports suggest that this collaboration will not be one-sided.
A number of WWE and TNA talents have taken part in social media banter since Tuesday and even people like Drew McIntyre have teased a return to the Impact Zone.