Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, Shawn Michaels Interview Each Other on Building the Next Generation of WWE Superstars

It’s a DX reunion!

Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Shawn Michaels met at WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT, earlier this month to interview each other for Variety. The full interview can be seen below.

More from Variety

• Tony Hinchcliffe's 'Kill Tony' Set for WrestleMania 42 Show in Las Vegas (EXCLUSIVE)
• How to Watch 'WWE SmackDown' Online Without Cable for Free
• How to Watch 2026 WWE Elimination Chamber: Chicago Live Online

Levesque, who is now the chief content officer for WWE, and Michaels, the head of creative for WWE’s developmental brand NXT, are both Hall of Famers with legendary in-ring careers. But now, they are responsible for shaping the next generation of WWE superstars.

Both Levesque and Michaels pointed to rising star Je’Von Evans as a current WWE talent they have high hopes for in the future. Evans is known for his incredible high-flying maneuvers, but Levesque has advised him to focus on fundamentals.

“Focus on punches, kicks. Focus on this other stuff,” Levesque said. “Because a year from now, there’ll be a kid doing s–t that you’ll be like, ‘How’s he doing that?’… I said, “You got to have all that other stuff. Otherwise that quickly goes by the wayside.”

Leveque compared Evans to Michales during his in-ring career, saying, “The fast paced and the flying stuff is just what got you looked at. All the other stuff, the fundamentals of everything else — punches, kicking, you being a pit bull, you selling so emotionally and investing people — that’s what got you over. The other stuff just made you look.”

The iconic duo also discussed the rise of Trick Williams, who will make his WrestleMania debut this weekend in a WWE United States Championship against Sami Zayn. Michaels, who worked with Williams during the latter’s time in NXT, felt that Williams made a great babyface (a good guy in wrestling parlance), but needed to spend more time as a heel (bad guy).

“In my mind, he hadn’t quite understood the benefits of what your heels do for you as a babyface,” Michaels said. “And I needed him to kind of jump on that other side to try to understand that now he was going to have to be that guy that certainly gets his stuff over and continues to do his stuff, but has to now make that other individual and to understand how much work and effort and psychology goes into that.”