#2 Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels has made it clear time and again, that he will never step into the ring again as a wrestler, having retired for good. However, he is associated with NXT at the moment, helping the youngsters in the Performance Center, go to the next level.
Could this Hall of Famer return for a run as an Authority Figure, after his own student leaves? Yes, bear in mind that Daniel Bryan was a student of Shawn Michaels when he started out. Teacher replacing student would be a pretty cool storyline, if booked correctly by those in creative.
Michaels is one of the greatest of all time, and can command the same crowd reactions as Daniel Bryan can. He certainly could be a very worthy replacement for Bryan.