• Ricky Saints arrived in NXT only a few months ago
  • The North American Champion is loving working under the WWE Hall of Famer
  • Says Michaels “just wants you to be yourself”
WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels poses in the ring during an NXT show.
Credit: WWE Credit: WWE

NXT North American champion Ricky Saints is loving working under Shawn Michaels.

Saints, who arrived in NXT in February of this year, following four years with All Elite Wrestling, has rapidly cemented himself as one of the top stars in WWE’s Florida territory. In a little over a month on the NXT roster, Saints had won the North American Title. A title he successfully defended against Ethan Page during the recent WrestleMania 41 weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And it was during WrestleMania weekend that Pubity were able to exclusively catch up with Saints ahead of his title defence against Page at the T-Mobile Arena.

Learning From The Heartbreak Kid

Given that the New Orleans native is working under the tutelage of NXT head honcho (or sheriff? He wears a cowboy hat all the time nowadays, after all) and two time WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, we wanted to know what it was like to learn from one of the very best.

“Shawn is really good in the fact that he just really wants you to be yourself. I appreciate that to the nth degree because that’s just who I am. I can’t be anything else other than that. So it’s been really great to be under the tutelage of Shawn, Matt Bloom and Terry Taylor. They have somehow put together a really great energy of knowledge, of the sense of ‘hey, we’re the underdogs and we’re gonna get after it’.”

Saints is one of the most prominently featured stars on WWE’s developmental brand and is tipped for a bright future on the main roster brands of Raw and SmackDown.

With next year’s WrestleMania 42 being held in his backyard of New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Caesar’s Superdome, it could be a homecoming to remember for the current North American champion. Imagine the pop on the Raw after ‘Mania for hometown hero Ricky Saints, showing up with the NXT Title in tow. We are officially here for that.

WWE Raw is available to stream live every Monday on Netflix in the United States. SmackDown, NXT, every Premium Live Event and the WWE Library are also available to stream on the platform outside of the United States

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Joe Baiamonte
Joe spent four years heading up SPORTbible’s editorial team before taking over at UNILAD Sport. Joe has regularly provided WWE coverage for almost a decade, interviewing many of the biggest names in the business and covering several major events in the United States and Europe, including four WrestleManias.
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