When news broke that Vince McMahon was resigning from WWE after being accused of some truly heinous activities in a lawsuit by former employee Janel Grant, fans, pundits, and professional wrestlers alike all tuned into the Royal Rumble press conference to see what Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the promotion's creative lead and Mr. McMahon's son-in-law, would have to say about the outgoing Chairman of the Board's actions.

Unfortunately, Levesque didn't say much, opting to instead focus on the “positives” while claiming he didn't read the lawsuit while fans around the world were left with more questions than answers.

Afforded a chance to address a WWE official once more, the media tuned into Shawn Michaels' Vengence Day media call to see if he had anything planned to address the situation, as he's in the unique position of overseeing the next generation of WWE Superstars as they work their way through the developmental system. To his credit, HBK did comment on the situation but opted against addressing Vince McMahon by name.

“It’s an incredibly sad situation. As everyone knows, I have very little and absolutely nothing to do, and gladly so, with the corporate stuff that goes on,” Shawn Michaels said on the Vengence Day media call via Fightful. “We try to focus here in NXT on the men and women that come through these doors and we do. I think we foster a safe and supportive atmosphere down here. I know that they reinstalled and upgraded I think in 2022, some of those regulations and whatnot. But look, we’re always conscious about that and one thing that I do, it’s incredibly important to support the talent and give them a safe working environment. I’d like to think that we do that absolutely, but look, we will always continue to try and be better about that and I’m very glad to say that I think we do a really fantastic job down here.”

Asked how the situation has been addressed among talent, Michaels revealed some inner workings on how the promotion is handling the situation, with HBK assuring the media that he's “encouraging openness” among his young talent.

“Well, so look, we obviously — everyone is aware of the situation and understands it. Like I said, it’s an incredibly sad situation. I can sit here and say it sucks, but we’ve always — and I’ve mentioned it to you all in the past, we take that very seriously. I take all of the youth that come through here incredibly seriously because this is a tough line of work, regardless of what’s going on. Leaving home and coming here and pursuing your dreams is a big thing that we take incredibly seriously, and we understand that young men and women that come through our doors are impressionable,” Shawn Michaels noted.

“So we absolutely encourage the openness and again, telling everyone to please tell us the truth and let us know how we can help. That’s something that has been here for a long time, and we continue to do our best to improve on that because it is, it’s one of the most important things to me is to be able to ask those questions you’re afraid to ask. We certainly empower them to do that and give them the opportunity to do that. Right now, I feel like everybody — I’m not really trying to spin it, coming off of Royal Rumble weekend, and even going into Vengeance Day, I think that the talent in WWE and in NXT are extremely excited about the future. Look, I know we are as well, and we’re looking to capitalize on that at Vengeance Day. Tough situation, like I said, but I got to tell you from a talent standpoint, we feel like the windows of heaven have opened up, and we’re ready to go forward.”

While everyone involved in this situation would clearly like to move on from this situation, as both Levesque and Michaels repeatedly attempted to discuss the event at hand instead of, as Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio, arguably the most important story in professional wrestling history, it's clear this is going to remain a hot topic of conversation for months, maybe even years, as the lawsuit unfolds. For Mr. Michaels, all he can really do is make sure NXT is a safe environment for the performers he's tasked with educating, which he ensures media members is the case.

Shawn Michaels wants to move NXT past Vince McMahon's culture.

Continuing his conversation with the media about Vince McMahon and the culture he cultivated in WWE, Shawn Michaels was asked the very same question as Paul Levesque at the Royal Rumble press conference: how does NXT keep wrestlers safe?

Unlike Levesque, who didn't have any concrete answers regarding the policies he has in place to ensure a safe working environment, HBK was more prepared for the question, noting that he's “upgraded” the PC's safety policies in 2022, when Velveteen Dream was in the news for all of the wrong reasons.

“We absolutely have all of those policies in place. As I said, we upgraded them in 2022. I have no doubt that they’ll be looking at continuing to improve those, but we absolutely do,” Shawn Michaels noted. “We have numerous people on our medical team for outreach to go to outside of the Performance Center. We do understand that I can look at a talent and my head writer and my coaches, as they do, we can tell them to tell us the truth or express to us what’s going on. But, as you know, they may not feel comfortable doing that, so we also provide help outside of here as well and have people that we can work with to get them in a complete objective environment that isn’t associated with the WWE or NXT in that respect. Again, because we, we do. Especially here. Again, we want everybody to be focused on what it is there doing and not have any struggles going forward. Again, I like to think we do a great job here, and that’s seen on a regular basis.”

Say what you will about Michaels as a booker, as a television producer, and as a person, but his job in NXT, first and foremost, is to oversee a young collection of WWE Superstars who, more often than not, are relatively new to the industry. If NXT is going to succeed, keeping the PC a safe place is paramount to its long-term viability.