WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels has made it clear that he does not consider his 2019 return match at Crown Jewel to be a true part of his career legacy, stating that his official retirement remains his iconic WrestleMania 26 match against The Undertaker. During an interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Michaels explained his mindset behind the tag team match, which saw him come out of retirement years after his emotional farewell. The bout featured Michaels teaming with Triple H as D-Generation X to take on The Brothers of Destruction, Undertaker and Kane, in Saudi Arabia.
Michaels revealed that the tag team match in Saudi Arabia has no bearing on how he views his career’s conclusion. “That’s why that last one, whatever in Saudi [Arabia] doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t have an effect on me in one way, shape, or form,” Michaels stated. He firmly considers his career-ending match to be the one against The Undertaker, and he views the tag match as a completely separate entity. “Yeah, it’s that one with Undertaker. Because that again, the other one, I don’t know. It was a tag match. It was DX… that just felt like, I don’t know, like a special, separate one off”.
He further distinguished between the two performances by separating the persona of “The Heartbreak Kid” from the man who competed in the tag match. He described the character of “HBK, Mr. Wrestlemania, the showstopper” as the one who officially retired at WrestleMania. The person who wrestled in the tag match, in his view, was just a regular person having fun with his friends. “I don’t consider those a match, you know, single performance by me, by HBK, by that guy. That’s not who that was. That was a dude hanging out with his buddies… one was the artist, the other one was a dude, like I said, hanging out with his buddies”.
Michaels’ original retirement is considered one of the most well-executed storylines in WWE history. After losing a classic match to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25, Michaels became obsessed with a rematch, eventually putting his career on the line for another opportunity at WrestleMania 26. He lost the “Streak vs. Career” match and gave an emotional farewell speech on Raw the following night, staying true to his retirement for over eight years and cementing a perfect ending to his legendary career.
Today, Shawn Michaels serves as the Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative for WWE. In this backstage role, he is responsible for overseeing all creative aspects of the NXT brand, including its weekly television show, character development, and the booking of its Premium Live Events.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
