With Vengeance Day rapidly approaching, Shawn Michaels afforded media members a chance to ask him questions ahead of NXT's Premium Live Event of 2024.
Normally, this would have served as a chance for wrestling media members to ask about the members of the NXT roster, like Bron Breakker, Carmeo Hayes, Roxanne Perez, and Tiffany Stratton, all appearing at the Royal Rumble, and the recent pushes for new performers like Oba Femi, OTM, Lexis King, but in the wake of the resignation of Vince McMahon, those sort of questions were mere footnotes to the most pressing matters at hand.
Amid questions about the McMahon lawsuit and how he plans to keep NXT a safe place, Mr. Michaels was asked about his own allegations of impropriety, with Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake famously accusing The Rockers of using “H Bombs” on women and throwing them out of hotel rooms when he was finished with them. While Michaels put down a strong denial of everything “The Barber” said about him, he did address the situation expansively and opened up a bit about his own issues.
“I'll say this, I've never shied away from the stupid stuff I did in the past. If you go back and ask Brutus Beefcake, he'll tell you, one, never seen any of that actually happen. Again, wrestling stories. He's also retracted that after saying it. I can say this. I've had a lot of struggles in my life, and I don't know how to say this without sounding shameful, but being with a lady was not something Shawn Michaels had a difficult time doing. I've never been in a situation where it was not consensual in any way, shape, or form. I've never taken advantage of someone in that respect,” Shawn Michaels explained on the Vengence Day media call via TJR.
“Those things are done for two reasons, and I've had a lot of counseling in my lifetime. The reason you do that stuff is because you dislike women or you have power issues. Shawn Michaels did not have those. He had insecurity issues, and he had problems feeling like he wasn't enough. That's why you go to drugs and downers. The other stuff is built on power and disrespecting women, which is something I've never had. Any accusations against me as far as non-consensual time with a woman simply is not true. That's why they've never come up in anything other than, and I don't mean to be mean to you guys, but it's never come up in anything other than wrestling stories. Back in the day, it was dirt sheets and those things start from guys spinning a lot of stories that weren't true.”
Did Beefcake actually retract his statment about Shawn Michaels? Yes, actually, when a fan asked him about the situation on Facebook back in 2021, the “Beefcake” admitted the story was just that, writing, “Just an urban legend… Just like Brian Knobs farting in front of Miss Elizabeth or Andre the giant Pooping in a trash bag on a flight overseas!” Regardless of whether anything else will come from the stories of yesteryear, Michaels can at least hold his cowboy hat high that Beefcake's allegations have been proven false by the man himself, leading one to wonder why “The Barber” said them in the first place.
Shawn Michaels discusses William Regal's return to NXT.
While many, if not most, of the 45 minutes Shawn Michaels spent on the Vengence Day media call was spent asking serious questions unrelated to the matches he books in the ring, HBK was asked a few questions about NXT's televised product, including the return of William Regal, who made his televised return in January after a year off of television following his release from AEW.
Was this a one-off return for the former “Lord?” If Michaels has his way, the answer is no, as his fingerprints are all over NXT from the very beginning.
“He came down here recently to endorse our new GM Ava. She's already wielding pretty good power and doing a good job,” Shawn Michaels told the media via Fightful. “As he mentioned to Ava, his phone is always open, he is there for her counsel in any way he can help. Here at NXT, when you have a staple and a foundational person like William Regal, you have to have more than just one shot with him here and there. I think everybody was extremely excited about his brief cameo on NXT television. I have no doubt we will have some other cameos by William Regal in the future as well.”
Would it be cool to see Regal manage the No Quarter Catch Crew, the faction his son, Charlie Dempsey, belongs to? Sure, but at this point, it's hard to know what Regal has up his sleeve moving forward, as being the Vice President of Global Talent Development certainly doesn't sound like what he described to Tony Khan when he asked for his release in December of 2022.
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