The two guys who were in this video are now going to be running around in suits and owning creative for a massive billion dollar corporation and content juggernaut.
The pro wrestling world sure is strange.
At the end of this video, Triple H and Shawn Michaels try to work a computer and just can’t seem to figure out how to do it. Hardy har har … isn’t that hilarious! It’s like your two 50-something year old uncles trying to figure out how to record a TikTok video. Sure, hand them the keys to a entertainment kingdom. Why the hell not?
Reports this week revealed that WWE Executive Director of Creative — Bruce Pritchard — was going to be leaving his post and retiring after WrestleMania 43 next year. Pritchard has seen a couple things in his day and has helped steward WWE from it’s first national expansion to it’s global dominance and worldwide content takeover of the current day.
After the news broke, the next story was exactly what you think it was. Who was in line to take Pritchard’s spot? It didn’t take long to get an answer.
Shawn Michaels gets called up the corporate ladder
PWInsider reported that Shawn Michaels would take the baton from Pritchard and join his fellow technologically challenged buddy, Triple H, in the main roster corporate offices. Yes, THAT Shawn Michaels. The Heartbreak Kid, Mr. WrestleMania, and the greatest in-ring performer in the history of WWE. DX brethren reunited! Two guys who booked their territory to pass the time in the back of vans while traversing the country on the road now hold the actual proverbial “book” for the biggest wrestling company in the world.
Triple H has been in the role for a while and learned it from Vince McMahon. He’s as suity as they come at this point. Admittedly, it’s funny to think of Shawn Michaels — the guy who can’t work a computer — in any corporate position, but Triple H made the right move in elevating Michaels to the corporate main roster.
If you think of WWE as an NFL team and Triple H as the head coach, Shawn Michaels is the new offensive coordinator. A former player that knows ball, can teach it, but may be a little rough around the edges at the weekly pressers with NFL media.
Michaels knows ball. He’s seen everything. Michaels can also teach. Some of the top main roster stars in today’s WWE are guys that Michaels carried along and educated. Oba Femi, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, Stephanie Vaquer, Blake Monroe. Those are all key future players that Shawn Michaels has worked with, developed, and coached. That experience alone makes him the right man for the job.
The creative part of WWE creative
What’s more important than that experience is his creativity. If this Michaels move works, it’ll be because he’s got a better creative head on his shoulders than Triple H does.
Since he took over WWE creative from Vince McMahon in 2022, Triple H has built up a poor record of writing interesting storylines across Raw and SmackDown. Creative? I’m not sure Triple H has it in him fully. We haven’t seen it yet.
The Triple H creative formula has been to take two stars, toss them in a ring, have them both run the other down and bicker about semi-meta nonsense, and then wrestle on big shows. It’s been fruitful. Very fruitful. And my tongue isn’t in my cheek.
For four years, Triple H has booked hours and hours of WWE programming across the globe using that pattern. It’s drawn money and it’s made for some good matches. The stories? Those have been weak and that formula is running out of steam. Just look at last week’s episode of SmackDown. It was a flat show because it’s guy, another guy, arguing, fans cheering the one line zingers, repeat. The show lacked audience investment and that was always the Shawn Michaels specialty.
Ahead of the curve
I don’t know if he still has it in him now that he’s wearing bifocals regularly, but Michaels was a cutting edge talent in the wrestling industry. He was ahead of the curve. Before Vince McMahon, it was Michaels that saw the need to lean into “attitude” and pushed the boundaries on television with DX. He was a match innovator and over the years, kept his character mostly fresh by working in front of the staleness that can come with legendary pro wrestling stars.
All of that is an asset to Triple H as he figures out how to book more and more hours of creative. Plus, they’re buddies. The Kliq. Remember?? Of course Triple H is going to elevate his bro — they’ve run that play for decades.
Michaels is a wrestling guy. Always has been. He wears a suit now, but you know he wants to throw on some boots and superkick someone in the damn face. This creative leadership position in the WWE has to have that. Regardless of what Nick Khan and others inside of TKO Group may think, WWE is a wrestling company and still needs people of influence that come directly from that side of the house.
I can hard believe it either, but that’s Shawn Michaels.
Now that Shawn Michaels is leaving NXT for main roster corporate glory, someone new will have to lead WWE developmental. Who should that be? Let us know in the comments!
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AJ Styles would be good to fill Shawn’s shoes. He’s been cutting his teeth producing matches on NXT in Terry Taylor’s absence. I can see Punk and Bayley being more hands-on over there, too.
A lot of call-ups in the last twelve months from Jordynne Grace to Fatal Influence to Sol Ruca to Fraxiom to Je’von Evans to Oba Femi are gonna gain the most by having Shawn around.
I’m hesitant to believe anyone can tight this ship but Shawn was the architect of the NXT 2.0 period that was some of the best work the company has done this decade