On the December 6th episode of WWE NXT, Pretty Deadly were shocked when their Christmas story time was interrupted by The New Day, who issued a challenge to face the NXT Tag Team Champions this weekend at NXT Deadline on December 10th.
WWE NXT has seen an increase of cross-pollination with main roster WWE Superstars in the past year, with stars such as Natalya, The Club, R-Truth, and Shotzi making appearances. Apollo Crews has also found himself back in NXT for a longer stint, getting embroiled in a feud with Grayson Waller and now building up to an NXT Championship match with Bron Breakker at NXT Deadline.
Shawn Michaels Says The New Day Are
During a media call ahead of NXT Deadline, Shawn Michaels spoke about The New Day’s reaction to appearing in WWE NXT, saying that Xavier Woods has wanted to return to the brand for a long time and that both he and Kofi Kingston are open to the potential of an extended stay if circumstances work out.
“We never go into it asking for long-term, we kind of take everybody’s temperature when they come here and hope that it does. We understand if it doesn’t and the commitments, but I’ll say this, they really enjoyed being here Tuesday and I know that there is an aspect, Xavier started here and has wanted to come back for a long time.
“It’s amazing, the two young guys, and they’ve been doing this for a long time and have accomplished everything. They get to that point where they want to start to be able to give back and I think that’s where New Day is. I won’t lie, I am absolutely hoping to take advantage of that.
“They really had a great time and we are going to try and do everything we can to keep them here as long as we can. I asked them if we could broach those conversations and they were certainly open to it. I’m really hoping it’s certainly more than a one-time thing. It just becomes a question of how long.
“Those are always the questions and we understand that, those are the ones that they have to think about and talk with family members and those are things that have to get straightened out with NXT and main roster talents, but they appear to be open to the conversation, which we are very excited about.”
Shawn Michaels also lifted the lid on the process of getting main roster talent to appear in WWE NXT, saying that he has to coordinate with Triple H and Bruce Prichard to make things work.
“There are a lot of main roster talent that have NXT roots and a lot of them like to come back and help out. We have a lot of them that live here in Orlando, that’s a big advantage to us as well. Usually, the process is something like, if we’re thinking about from a creative standpoint and we have it at X date, I do everything I can to get on the horn to Hunter [Triple H] and Bruce (Prichard), and see what the possibility is.
“Then, there are some, I don’t know whether it’s right or not, I take advantage of the cool titles and, ‘Hey, this is a quick one out of the blue, this is what we need. Can we get someone on the quick?’ That’s obviously more difficult and it’s not always…if we can get to somebody, but we’re not sure who. It is a number of different ways and we’ve done every one of them at one point or another.”
In addition to The New Day vs. Pretty Deadly, NXT Deadline is set to feature the first ever Iron Survivor Challenges, one for the men and one for the women. More information on the Iron Survivor Challenge rules can be found here.
h/t Fightful