There are a few points it’s worth me making right at the start of this piece.
- In my opinion Shawn Michaels is the greatest WWE-style performer I’ve ever seen.
- I really like Daniel Bryan too.
- I know, and do not expect, that wrestling stipulations wouldn’t be worth the paper they were written on if they were indeed written on pieces of paper. (For years I believed that when Gorilla Monsoon talked about someone’s win/loss ratio in the record books that someone somewhere actually kept such a book that was updated after every WWE show. Years later we have the Internet…)
All those things considered, there is still only one reaction from me about the possibility of Shawn Michaels returning to the ring at WrestleMania XXX…”NO,. NO, NO.”
Now I don’t know as of the time of writing whether the possibility of Shawn Michaels Vs Daniel Bryan in New Orleans is real or not. The way that the storyline has gone in Michaels’ last few appearances on WWE TV would certainly suggest a match is being built to, especially with HBK’s distinctly heelish attitude at the recent Slammy Awards edition of RAW.
Indeed it was something of a pleasure to see that version of Michaels back, given how good he was in the second part of his career on the mic. Given their recent storyline history and their well known longer-term personal history, the match also sets itself up rather nicely. Bryan is arguably the real “Best In The World” , at least as far as North American wrestling goes, and as Shawn has shown in recent “injury” angles with Brock Lesnar (and indeed the night after Hell In A Cell with D-Bry himself) he has still got the intangibles, timing and selling abilities that put 99% of the current roster to shame. Chances are that even after quite some time out, HBK could still deliver a WrestleMania classic.
There’s also the way that another WM appearance would hype the upcoming Shawn Michaels WrestleMania DVD/Blu-Ray rather nicely, the fact that Daniel Bryan would be getting the biggest night of his professional wrestling career and the admittance that I would in no way begrudge Shawn Michaels a million dollar pay-day for his night’s work.
It’s enough to make you salivate. But…and you knew there was a but…I just don’t want to see it.
“Real Life” sport is rarely perfect. For every genuine superstar who signs off winning that last title or leading his team to the trophy one last time there are hundreds of sporting stars who played on too long, who lost their last chance to go into the record books, who simply couldn’t give themselves the fairy tale ending they wished for.
Shawn Michaels had that ending. His last match, against The Undertaker, was one of the greatest matches you are ever likely to see. It had action, timing, drama, twist and turns…the lot. That those two did it in two consecutive years is even more amazing. Michaels’ mic work in the build up to the second match was exemplary, effectively laying bare what was on the line for the man himself and making you believe that he was serious about going for good.
This was to be no Mick Foley, returning six weeks after “retiring”. This wasn’t going to be a Ric Flair who could have retired at the hands of Shawn Michaels and rode off into the sunset head held high only to wash away more of his legacy with terrible comebacks for “inferior” promotions. This was going to be a man walking away on his own terms, on his own timetable and leaving on the biggest high possible. Walking away decades after his debut with one of his greatest ever matches.
So don’t get me wrong. The fan in me would love to see HBK lace up those boots one last time. A match with Daniel Bryan has huge possibilities. But the fan in me also hopes we don’t see it. That Michaels’ legacy remains the man who went out at the very top and was content enough to let it be that way forever.
– By Matthew Roberts