WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels has opened up about the powerful, “unbelievable impulse” that led him to uproot his life in Texas and move his family to Florida to become a coach and producer for NXT. After his retirement from in-ring competition, Michaels had largely stepped away from the wrestling world, focusing on his family and life on his Texas ranch. However, a vacation to Florida and a fateful invitation from his best friend, Triple H, changed everything.
Speaking on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Michaels recounted the story of his first visit to the Performance Center. He explained how walking through the doors of the facility brought back a feeling he hadn’t experienced in years, a feeling that his wife immediately recognized when he returned to their vacation home.
“I can remember when Hunter talked about NXT and just asking me to come by one time. And I had been to a couple of events while I was retired, but I was in Texas at the time, and again, I thought it was fantastic. We went on a vacation to Florida, taking the family out there. And they just happened to be doing a television show, and Hunter was in town, and wanted me to come down and see the Performance Center and just come in and see what I think. And when I walked through those doors, that feeling just sort of came back and because I sort of again when I retired, I just exited and wasn’t around that environment anymore. So when I came back in, it was just something that clearly was noticeable, because when I went back to the home we were renting… I came back and my wife said, Obviously, it went well.”
That observation from his wife led to a deep conversation where she revealed that she was always surprised that he had completely walked away from the business. Within hours, they had made the life-altering decision to move to Florida and for Michaels to begin his new chapter in NXT.
“And she said, I can just see that look. And so we just got into this big conversation about again, that conversation that I told you about in 19 and again, by that time was 1999 when she and I first met, and talking about that stuff. But, and that’s kind of the first time she revealed to me, in all of my retirement, she said that, ‘well, I was surprised that you walked away when you did, and how you just completely left it.’ She said, ‘I just, I always figured you’d go back and you’d do something with them, but when you said you were done, you were actually really done.’ And nobody was more surprised than I was, and so we just, again, had a very awesome conversation… in a matter of probably three hours in this conversation, we had made the decision to go back to Texas, pack up in three weeks, and move our entire lives to Florida. And that’s what we did.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
