Dax Harwood gave his thoughts on various individuals who helped coach WWE NXT during his tenure in the promotion on a recent edition of FTR with Dax Harwood.
Harwood was thrilled with the hiring of Shawn Michaels in late 2016.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Terry Taylor’s positives and negatives as a coach: “Terry and I didn’t have a terrible relationship, but we also didn’t have the greatest relationship. I felt that Terry did possess the attributes of being a great coach, because Terry was a really good worker. He had incredible knowledge, think about it. He’s been through the territories. He was in Texas, he was in Mid-South, Jim Crockett. He was there, and he possesses all of that. Sometimes, as far as delivering all the knowledge, he was not the best at it. Sometimes, I also felt, he had his own motives, and I’ll leave it at that. He and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye, and that’s okay. That’s not always gonna happen. We didn’t have a bad relationship, we never got in arguments or anything like that. Just didn’t sometimes see eye-to-eye.”
Dax on working with Norman Smiley: “Norman Smiley was an incredible coach. He would focus on the nuances of the things. He would take the time to explain the whys. He didn’t expect you just to understand. And if you couldn’t understand, he would take the time to make sure you did understand, or at least understand his point. He’d let you know, ‘I’m not saying this is completely right, I’m just saying this is my thoughts on it.’ He was incredible. I didn’t work with Robbie Brookside too much, because Robbie was more hands-on with the younger talent because when it comes to basics and fundamentals, man, I don’t think you’re going to meet someone too much better than him. He would teach not just the basics and fundamentals of a lock-up or a headlock takeover, but body positioning. Body language. The proper way to flip bump to keep you safe. He was incredible at that.”
On Steve Corino’s quality as a teacher: “Obviously, I said Matt Bloom is the best head coach I’ve ever worked for, ever been associated with. I didn’t get to work with him too much, but I loved Corino. Steve Corino is a fountain of knowledge as far as wrestling goes. He loves wrestling. He’s passionate about wrestling. I know he had a lot of respect from a lot of the people there because again, he was such a great teacher in the sense, again, he was patient. He was great.”
Dax on Shawn Michaels joining the NXT coaching staff: “I was overjoyed. I was excited, man. I’m sure this surprises some people, being a Bret guy. Whatever anyone thinks of him personally, there’s no denying what he’s done in the ring. It’s almost to the point of being an overstatement, but he’s one of the greatest of all time. Maybe the greatest performer of all time. We were all super excited about that. I do want to correct Dave a little bit; he wasn’t coming in to replace Terry or take his spot. Terry was the finishing coach in NXT, to either put you on TV or the main roster. Shawn was coming in just to be like 1A and 1B with Terry. Obviously Shawn has a bigger track record than Terry; that’s not a knock at Terry, Shawn has a bigger track record than most of the wrestlers that have ever been in the business.”
On learning from HBK: “Imparting his knowledge… it was incredible. One of the most surreal moments of my career was being able to sit across a table from Shawn Michaels and learn from him.”
