Bully Ray Thinks He Knows The Next Step Forward For WWE NXT Under Shawn Michaels

Bully Ray is a big fan of Shawn Michaels' performance as head booker of "WWE NXT" and believes WWE's developmental brand has been making considerable strides under the watch of Michaels. In fact, Ray predicts "The Heartbreak Kid" will eventually bring "NXT" back to its glory days of "Black & Gold" when the brand would routinely sell out arenas like Barclays Center and consistently deliver big numbers in the viewership department. 

"I think very slowly, at a pace you might not be able to recognize or see, NXT is going to turn back into the Black & Gold brand," Ray said on "Busted Open" recently. Ray believes there was a wrong perception that "NXT" was forced to evolve into "NXT 2.0" and later the "White & Gold" after losing the ratings war to "AEW Dynamite." He feels that WWE's upper management is starting to realize that Triple H's original blueprint was the ideal one.

"I think lessons were learned," Ray continued. "And now it's just going to be a more steady, gradual way of going about bringing that Black & Gold work mentality and type of show."

Ray explained why Michaels is the perfect person to lead "NXT" back into prominence, citing his former colleague's dedication to developing the next breed of WWE superstars.

"I think Shawn is starting to get intuned with this roster more and more, and he's becoming quite the booker/producer/agent — whatever you want to call him — and when you have somebody who is truly intuned with their roster, i.e. Paul Heyman with ECW, you get some really great stuff," Ray stressed. "And every single week, NXT seems to be taking a step forward."