During a recent interview with the Norfolk Navy Flagship, Tyler Breeze discussed Shawn Michaels’ influence on him, going from NXT to WrestleMania 32 and more. Here are some highlights:
On how much work he did to develop his character: “It was a mixture of a lot of things. Dusty Rhodes was very influential in getting it going, getting it in front of people and saying, “Hey, you need to see what this kid is doing. It’s different and I think there’s something to it and we should help him out.” He would help me out on promo days and any questions I’d have, he’d fill in the blanks. A bunch of different people (filled in the blanks) as well: Bill Demott, Billy Gunn, Terry Taylor. Xavier Woods was a big component with editing videos for me. If I could make my friends (and girlfriend) laugh, hopefully I could make an arena full of people laugh or hate me; whatever we’re going for. When you’re envisioning something in your head, it’s really hard to put it on a piece of paper. If you see a video of it, it’s so much easier to get that vision in someone else’s head.”
On Shawn Michaels’ influence on his character: “I was a big fan of Shawn growing up, but I never did try to emulate him. He had a lot of stuff that was good. I would take a little bit from him and look even further back to Gorgeous George. He had a lot of stuff that was so far ahead of his time. What I liked about Shawn Michaels’ style was that it was so athletic and innovative for its time.”
On going from NXT to a potential slot at WrestleMania in a few months: “That’s the cool thing about what we do. Things are constantly changing. We just had the Royal Rumble, and that was my first. To me, that was a huge thing because it’s something I’ve grown up watching – a staple of WWE. The fact that I was in it was really cool; surreal. Now that WrestleMania is coming up, it’s one of those things I am looking forward to and taking it day by day. Fingers crossed, hoping to get on there.”
