Shawn Michaels told the members of the wrestling press yesterday that he found out about Mustafa Ali’s release just moments before Ali was notified and was caught by surprise to then find out that Dana Brooke got the pink slip too.

Michaels admitted that Ali’s firing took them by surprise too considering he was booked in a match at No Mercy.

“I think the world of Mustafa. I had a great working relationship with him in the time that he was here, I will miss him,” Michaels said when asked about Ali’s release.

The NXT team were not given a hint who was getting canned despite both Ali and Brooke being involved on TV every week.

“I feel we made a great pivot, we adjusted, and he’s an unbelievably creative and talented young man and no doubt his future looks incredibly bright and he’ll be successful,” he continued.

Speaking about Dana Brooke’s release after 10 years, HBK said that was too a surprise as they had a story going on with her on TV. He said that he enjoys the time with the stars from the main roster and he feels at NXT they give them “the love and passion back” for pro wrestling and they become better performers.

“That’s something that is important to me, that they have that experience here in NXT. Those would be the two because those are the two we had the deepest storylines with down here,” he continued. “There are always times you have to make adjustments creatively. We’ve done that in the case of Mustafa and we’re going to do that in the case of Dana.”