Shawn Michaels Says WWE to Add NXT Japan and NXT Mexico in 2023

Plans to take NXT to Japan and Mexico are in the works, per wrestling icon Shawn Michaels.

The Heartbreak Kid, who serves as WWE's Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative, spoke about those efforts in a chat with reporters after NXT's Halloween Havoc:

“I know there’s been talks of NXT Japan and NXT Mexico. As I understand it those announcements could be coming down the road in 2023, so this company continues to grow and expand. I know a guy who’s interested in NXT and its expansion, so I’m sure those things aren’t very far down the line at all.”

Michaels oversees creative at NXT, which featured another rebrand under Triple H last month. Triple H spoke about the vision he has for NXT moving forward on SPORTbible Stories (h/t Dakota Cohen of Wrestling Inc.):

"NXT, for us, is that academy model or sort of that collegiate athletics for us. If 'Raw' and 'SmackDown' are the NFL ... 'NXT' is collegiate athletics and we had a small brand here called 'NXT UK.' We were headed down this road prior to the pandemic, pandemic kind of like, put a hold on it. But, we shut that brand down because we're going to relaunch it in 2023 as 'NXT Europe' and try to blow it out bigger."

As Triple H noted, plans are already in place to relaunch NXT UK as NXT Europe. However, the international stage for NXT will reportedly span three continents imminently, per Michaels' comments.

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