Shawn Michaels has singled out Oba Femi as the one NXT talent who never once complained about anything during his time in developmental, and Triple H says the first time he saw Femi training at the Performance Center, he could not look away.
Speaking in a sit-down conversation for Variety, Triple H and Michaels discussed the intangible quality that separates a future star from the rest of the roster and used Femi as the prime example of how the system is supposed to work.
Triple H recalled the exact moment Femi first caught his attention.
“I was in my office here, and I remember calling Matt and saying, who’s the big guy? Like, I can’t keep my eyes off him. And he told me who he was. And I’m like, how’s he doing? I can’t stop watching him. Like, everything he does, he’s dying in there, but he won’t stop. And I’m just watching. Every time I look up on this monitor, I see the big guy, there he is.”
Triple H compared the moment to the early days of John Cena, who did not have polished in-ring work at first but had everything else that mattered.
“When John was first getting the, like, am I gonna go to Cena, kid? And everybody was like, that ain’t it. It was. He had all the other pieces of it, and the in-ring stuff came over time, but it wasn’t, it was never smooth. He was just the personality and the charisma that just made everything else work.”
Michaels agreed that the ability to spot a future star is nearly impossible to put into words.
“That’s the question you always get. How do you know? How do you pick a superstar? How do you know? It’s like, no question to answer. It’s just, you can’t describe it. You kind of just know it when you see it one time.”
Once Femi was in the NXT system, Michaels said he stood apart from every other talent he has worked with because of his professionalism and his temperament.
“There’s Oba, who I think was incredibly well rounded. He’s the one guy I’ll say, he never once complained about anything, never asked about money, dates. Where am I going? What am I doing?”
Michaels acknowledged that he did frustrate Femi at times by frequently changing his finishes and sequences during his NXT run, but said Femi never once showed it.
“It’s funny, I saw an interview from his the other day. And I guess he got frustrated, I guess, because there are times that he would have finishes or sequences that he wanted to do, and then I would change them all the time. And of course, at the time doing it, in my mind, I’m thinking, you’ve been doing this for two years. You don’t have any idea where we’re going.”
Michaels said Femi eventually recognized in interviews that there was a larger plan behind the constant changes.
“He recognized all that. That’s one of the things he said in the interviews, that Shawn knows where we’re going, what we’re doing, where it’s all going to go. But it frustrated him a little bit at the time. Point being is that though, he never once ever showed that kind of stuff. He’s just been, I’ll say it, a consummate professional. And I don’t know, just mature beyond his years.”
Triple H said Femi has continued that same approach since arriving on the main roster, calling him a sponge who adapts without being told.
“Such a pro. And yeah, so far, been easy to work with, and just a sponge. Like, even the little things, I see him pick them up and see him make changes without anybody telling him.”
Triple H also pointed to Femi as one of the clearest signs that WWE’s developmental system is working, comparing the company’s ability to cycle through generations of stars to Saturday Night Live.
“When you look at this year alone, Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je’Von, there’s so many things that you can just point out in this time where, as your stars of the show begin to move into different places or go away, and you just put other people back in those slots, and they become bigger. The show becomes bigger. The show becomes better, and people just keep engaging it.”
Triple H said WrestleMania 42 is just the beginning and that the full impact of the current generation will be felt over the next year.
“To me, to be honest, 2026 into 2027 will be when all those people really bake.”
Oba Femi faces Brock Lesnar in the opening match of Night Two of WrestleMania 42 this Sunday, April 19 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The match airs during the first hour on ESPN.
WrestleMania 42 Full Card
Night One — Saturday, April 18 (Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas)
- Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton
- Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan
- Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-Way: Lash Legend and Nia Jax (c) vs. The Bella Twins vs. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley and Lyra Valkyria
- Women’s Intercontinental Championship: AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch
- Seth Rollins vs. Gunther
- Six-Man Tag: IShowSpeed, Logan Paul, and Austin Theory vs. LA Knight and The Usos (ESPN 2 first hour)
- Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre in an Unsanctioned Match (ESPN 2 first hour)
Night Two — Sunday, April 19
- World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns
- WWE Women’s Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley
- United States Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams
- Demon Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio
- Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. Rusev vs. JD McDonagh vs. Rey Mysterio (ESPN first hour)
- Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar (ESPN first hour)
John Cena hosts WrestleMania 42. The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony takes place Friday, April 17. Both nights of WrestleMania will stream on the ESPN app through the Unlimited plan, with the first two matches each night airing on ESPN 2 (Saturday) and ESPN (Sunday).
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Variety with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
