What if Shawn Michaels never walked away? – WrestleMania 13
By 1998, Shawn Michaels was – to put it nicely – not very well-liked by many for his politicking, repugnant attitude. Past showings of his dictating unprofessionalism include his public outing of Vader at SummerSlam 1996 and his resentment against Shane Douglas. However, easily his biggest proof of his smarmy and self-serving antics is his real-life feud with Bret Hart.
After having beaten Bret in the historic Iron Man match at ‘Mania 12, after which HBK apparently ordered the referee to “get that piece of s**t out of my ring”, the likely plan for the main event the next year was for ‘Mr WrestleMania’ to drop the belt back to the ‘Excellence of Execution’ the next year. However, by the time WrestleMania 13 came around, Michaels refused to lose to the opponent he reviled – throwing a spanner into the works on the biggest show of the year.
Shortly beforehand, Michaels suffered a ‘knee injury’ and “lost his smile” – a ruse to get Shawn out of losing to Bret (as confirmed by HBK himself on an episode of Confidential). As a result, a fatal-four way was set up for the title at In Your House 13: Final Four which was won by Bret. A heavily overpopulated main event scene then saw Sid beat Hart the next night – the first time the world title had changed hands on an episode of Raw – to go on to main event ‘Mania against the Undertaker in a bad main event.
Elsewhere, Bret did not wrestle Michaels, nor for the title but instead against Steve Austin. It is one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time, it’s double-turn ending made the badass Austin become the biggest star in the WWF overnight. Had Michaels never went home, the most profitable wrestler in WWE history may not have been made.
A brilliant submission bout, it ended with the visual of a blood-soaked Austin trapped in a sharpshooter. Never submitting, but instead passing out – Steve afterwards became the face of a more defiant and edgy product. Not only making ‘Stone Cold’ the biggest name in wrestling but aiding the WWF to their most profitable era, where the company was milking money. Had Michaels never gone home, would this megastar have ever truly been cemented?