Nick Khan Reveals Conversation with Triple H & Shawn Michaels on Developing Younger Superstars Post-WrestleMania 41
WWE President Nick Khan recently revealed his conversation with Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Shawn Michaels regarding creating future male stars.
Over the past few months, several wrestlers have transitioned from NXT to the main roster. From the male side of things, Trick Williams, Oba Femi, and Je’Von Evans made their main roster debuts at the start of 2026 and are now set to compete at WrestleMania 42. Femi will go one-on-one with The Beast Brock Lesnar, while Williams and Evans will challenge for the US and the Intercontinental Championships, respectively.
During a recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Nick Khan said that he and Triple H had a conversation after WrestleMania 41, during which the two agreed that they needed to focus on building new male stars. Khan revealed that they then went to NXT and asked Shawn Michaels and Matt Bloom why it was taking so long for the NXT talent to develop. Shawn replied that the introduction of house shows of NXT talents could fast-track their growth, as they’d get real-time insight from authentic fans about what’s working for them and what’s not, something that’s not always possible while performing solely at the PC.
Khan said that the NXT house shows got underway a month after Shawn made the request, and this led to the likes of Oba, Trick, Je’Von, and many others honing their skills and swiftly transitioning to the main roster.
Below are the highlights:
On his conversation with Triple H regarding developing future superstars
“A year ago, right after WrestleMania last year, Triple H and I got together and said, ‘Let’s take a look at the future. Let’s look at our top male superstars.’ Cena, it was obviously his retirement year. We have Roman, Cody, Punk, Seth, and Brock. You can put Drew in there. You look at their ages, all 40 years or older. We said, ‘We have to make sure we’re preparing for the future here.’
On what Shawn Michaels suggested during Khan’s and Triple H’s visit to the WWE PC
“We went down to the Performance Center to see Shawn Michaels and Matt Bloom, who run NXT, and said, ‘Let’s take a look at the talent here.’ How come, when DX first started to pop, Triple H was 26, why is it taking longer?’ Shawn said there is one thing we could really use the company’s help on: We need to be able to tour NXT. Doing it from the studio every week, we don’t get the authentic fan response that young wrestlers need to know if their work is working well enough. ‘We need to be able to take NXT on the road.’ ‘No problem! Give us a week.’ We came back to Shawn and took NXT on the road in a month. Then, you saw the quick acceleration of Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, soon-to-be others coming up in NXT.”
Check out his comments below:
Please credit The Bill Simmons Podcast and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this copy.
