With NXT's The Great American Bash rapidly approaching, Shawn Michaels has been working the phones and working his webcam like crazy to help get more eyes on his top stars like Carmelo Hayes, Ilya Dragunov, Tiffany Stratton, and maybe even Bron Breakker, who doesn't technically have a match on the card just yet but could still end up adding another Premium Live Event to his resume before his days in developmental are done.

Asked specifically about Breakker and his recent match with Seth Rollins on NXT Gold Rush in an interview with Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, Michaels had nothing but nice things to say about the second-generation Steiner, comparing the bout to some of his own signature matches from years passed.

“I will say this, all of us in this business got better because we were in the ring, especially when we first started out, with people that were better than us. Now, we're very fortunate to have other men and women that have come from NXT UK and some that have been out there on the independent scene that have been doing it for a little longer that also obviously help our young athletes that come through here from college. At the same time, when a main roster person comes down, that's now seeds of knowledge for them as well. It's great to be out there getting reps, but a lot of times, if you're out there with somebody who needs as many reps as you do, you're still learning, but you're not going to learn at the rate you are if you're out there with a Finn Balor, for instance,” Shawn Michaels said via Fightful.

“That's been huge for us. Again, you think about Bron Breakker being out there with Seth Rollins, for me that was like when I was out there very early on with [Ric] Flair, you just take in so much, it's like getting a Ph.D. in one night. So again, it's a huge help for us here in NXT. To have that synergy now with the main roster.”

Alright, is it a tad rich to compare a televised match between Breakker and Rollins to classic HBK bouts with the “Nature Boy” himself, Ric Flair? Eh, maybe a little bit, but who knows, if Breakker becomes a legit main event star a la Michaels back in his prime, maybe fans will look back at his time wrestling the former NXT Champion at Gold Rush as a sort of sneak preview of an incredible career to come.

Seth Rollins is proud of his match with Bron Breakker in NXT.

Discussing the very same NXT Gold Rush match from his own perspective in an incredibly insightful interview with Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Seth Rollins discussed what it was like to return to his old stomping grounds and go to war with one of the best prospects to come through the developmental system in a very long time: Bron Breakker.

“It was very cool for me to go back and have that moment. One of the things I talk about is helping the younger talent and pushing the industry forward. The opportunity was presented to me to go down to NXT, and I haven’t wrestled a match on the show in over ten years. Obviously, it moved from Full Sail to the Performance Center, and the look, the feel, and the vibe was totally different and it had gone through so many different iterations over the years, but it’s still NXT. I cut a little promo after the show and it didn’t really dawn on me that it would feel sentimental until after when I got out there and I felt the audience and I felt the connection. I hadn’t wrestled in front of a crowd that small and intimate in a very long time. There is something special about wrestling in front of an intimate crowd like that in a small space. You’ll see big bands do that, go back to these small bars and pack them out. There is something about that where you get a different experience as opposed to doing it in an arena or stadium, it’s a lot more personal. It really hit me when I went out there and you could really interact with any person in any seat. It was an awesome experience,” Seth Rollins said via Fightful.

“Bron was a h*ll of an opponent. I was really happy to get down there and get in the ring with him and chit-chat with other guys and girls, and see what they are experiencing on a day-to-day basis. It was cool. I felt a lot of hunger to get to the next level. I was happy to see that. We were going through a period with NXT where there was a lot of complacency and people talking about, ‘I’d rather stay in NXT, I don’t want to go to the main roster.’ That always rubbed me the wrong way. When I went down there this past time, I felt a different energy and I felt people were excited to come to the main roster and take their careers to the next level. That got me hyped.”

While Breakker isn't too happy with the fans who make their way to Orlando each week for NXT tapings at the moment, as he's effectively turned his back on them for being fickle following his loss to Carmelo Hayes at Stand and Deliver on WrestleMania weekend, it's hard to argue that they haven't played a huge part in his development into a five-star recruit, with a chance to compete for championships very early in his career on the main roster when that day comes. If that eventually happens, who knows, maybe Breakker will follow in the footsteps of Rollins and return the favor for the next generation of professional wrestlers in NXT like the “Visionary” before him.