Recent WWE Performance Center recruits Michael Nicholls and Shane Veryzer, also known as The Mighty Don’t Kneel, recently spoke with WWE.com and below are some highlights:
You have spent much of your careers together. When did you begin teaming with each other, and how has it affected your development as Superstars, and as a tag team, to take the journey to WWE together?
NICHOLLS: We started teaming in 2009, back in Australia. We had both been trying to do singles stuff for a while and that plateaued, so we came together to see what we could do as a team. I think we’re a much more valuable asset as a team, and also much more fun, because we’re friends. That Shane has gone through all the same things I’ve gone through, all the rough times and the hard training in Japan, helped us grow as a team. I think it’s only benefited us to be a team as opposed to singles guys.
VERYZER: When we started as singles wrestlers, a lot of the times it was a feeling of loneliness, of needing someone to vent to and bounce ideas off. So we thought, let’s give it a crack together, let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. It’s worked out very well, and we’re here now because of it. It’s very much because of our collective as a team. In Japan, we know a lot of people who went there by themselves and the language barrier was very miserable, but we always had each other to talk to. You’ve always got a spot in the gym, too [laughs]. We get along pretty well, don’t we, Mikey?
For fans that have never seen you, what can they expect?
NICHOLLS: We’re a little bit old school, a little bit new school. We’re serious, we’re dumb [laughs]. Me and Shane bring out the best in each other, but we also tend to bring out the worst in each other.
VERYZER: We’re not a tag team that’s buddy-buddy all the time. You know a lot of tag teams are like brothers. We’re even more like brothers in the way that we fight a lot. We’re not always on the same page, but we understand where we want to go.
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
