NXT Halloween Havoc 2022 Post-Show Media Scrum: International Touring Plans, NXT Japan & Mexico, Dijak, NXT’s Identity

Shawn Michaels held a post-show press conference following Saturday’s NXT Halloween Havoc 2022 event to discuss a variety of wrestling-related topics.

Some of the topics discussed included Michaels stating that everyone who competed at the show did not suffer any injuries that he is aware of at the time of the media scrum.

On the topic of the cinematic haunted house segment involving Toxic Attraction and Alba Fyre, Michaels praised the production crew for their work on the segment. Michaels stated that he did not expect there would be a lot of the cinematic elements of NXT but they decided to do one for Saturday’s show due to them doing it before in the past for Halloween Havoc and wanting to keep the tradition going.

On the topic of potential international touring plans, Michaels stated that WWE is currently working on plans for NXT Europe to launch in 2023 and also revealed that NXT Mexico and NXT Japan branches are currently planned to launch some time afterwards.

“From an NXT standpoint, we’ve been getting out live events here in Florida and we certainly look forward to getting out of Orlando in 2023.

From an NXT standpoint, getting out for our Premium Live Events. Hopefully, that means getting out for live events as well outside of Florida. Those are decisions that come from people above me. We certainly want to do it, and we’re excited to do it, but we’re going to start with Premium Live Events and see how that goes first.

When it comes to NXT expanding outside of the US, NXT Europe is going to be coming in 2023 and I know there have been talks of NXT Japan and NXT Mexico. Those are probably farther down the road but it’s my understanding that those are some announcements that could be coming not too far down the road in 2023. The one thing everyone is excited about is, this company never sleeps and we are constantly trying to grow and expand. I have no doubt, I can’t tell you how I know, but I know a guy that is pretty interested in NXT and its expansion. I’m sure those things are not far down the road at all.”

On the topic of the NXT return vignette for Dijak, Michaels stated that they wanted to give Dijak another chance to finish up his story in NXT and did not want to “insult the intelligence” of their fans by pretending he was a brand new person coming to NXT for the reason for invoking his T-Bar gimmick.

“It’s not like we don’t see what goes on out there in the social media world and the shaking of the fist at different things that were done with different characters over the years and we do what we can here creatively to ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink,’ we see you and we hear you. I would love to be able to take credit for that, but I have a pretty good head writer here that comes up with some pretty snazzy stuff in Johnny Russo. That was something he mentioned, just a quick tease and I thought, ‘that’s fantastic.’ I guess I’ve already given a bunch away. When you get a talent that is very talented, and we felt was just coming into his own in NXT prior. The larger perspective, the pandemic, and everything that happened, there were quick changes, we lost a lot of people and over time, they found out, ‘we’re not sure how they’re going to finish the story they’re in.’ Anytime they are willing to allow us to have the opportunity to have them back, we look at, not in a bad way, we find that like a fun new toy. To be able to take guys with that much talent. One of the things we certainly try to do is not insult the fans and not pretend like somebody wasn’t who they were a short time ago, just connect the dots and get you thinking and teasing it and making you feel like what’s going to happen and then, down the road, we surprise you, and you think it’s cool and it works.”

On the topic of the identify of NXT, Michaels stated that this is something he struggles with at times. Michaels stated that he just wants things to be as well-rounded for NXT’s performers and does not want NXT’s identity to be dubbed his NXT since it is the talents and not him who create the identity of the brand.

Full Halloween Havoc post-show media scrum:

Sources: PWInsider.com, Fightful.com 1 & 2