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One thing many wrestling fans can agree on is that Shawn Michaels is one of WWE’s best in-ring performers of all-time. He was still wrestling at a high level when he lost a career-ending match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 in 2010.
For years it seemed like HBK was going to be one of the rare stars to actually adhere to such a retirement stipulation. But then WWE signed a huge money deal with the government of Saudi Arabia in 2018, and Shawn Michaels came back for one last match at Crown Jewel later that year. It was a very bad tag team match where he and Triple H reunited as D-Generation X to beat The Brothers of Destruction, Undertaker and Kane.
The match was a dud, and HBK was soon referring to it in interviews as a “cheat day.” He said he didn’t do it for the money; the only reason he agreed to do the match is because it was a “special thing” that he didn’t think would ever come up. When HBK found out that Undertaker was struggling at the time with ending his own career on a high note, he apologized for not viewing the Crown Jewel match in the same way.
That brings me to today, where HBK commented on the Saudi match again in a new interview with Chris Van Vliet. Here is the exchange they had about it, where Michaels says he doesn’t consider Crown Jewel to be the last match of his career.
HBK: “It drives everybody nuts. That’s why that last one, whatever, in Saudi, doesn’t do anything, doesn’t have an affect on me one way, shape, or form.”
Van Vliet: “Do you still consider that match at Crown Jewel your last match, or is it the one with Undertaker [at WrestleMania 26]?”
HBK: “Yeah, it’s that one with Undertaker. Because, again, the other one, I don’t know. It was a tag match. It was DX. And I feel kind of bad because I don’t mean it in a negative way, but that was just sort of like, I don’t know, it was like Kiss going out and not even with the original members or whatever [laughs], and playing a concert at the Troubadour, or something. I don’t know.
…You know, I don’t know. That just felt like, I don’t know, like a special separate one-off. HBK, Mr. WrestleMania, The Showstopper, whatever, that was what ended with Taker at WrestleMania. And again, ‘cause I still came back and refereed the match between Hunter and Taker, and again, will always play a role in the WWE. I don’t know, I mean, would it count if I went into the Rumble this year or something? Don’t get me wrong…”
Van Vliet: “Are you going to?”
HBK: “Oh, heavens no! Probably shouldn’t have said that. I was just using that as an example…But no, it was just, I don’t consider that, I don’t know, I don’t consider those a match. A single performance by me, by HBK, by that guy, that’s not who that was. That was a dude hanging out with his buddies, I don’t know, and having a match. I don’t know. And so, one was the artist, the other one was a dude, like I said, hanging out with his buddies.”
I think the fact that Shawn uses the phrase “I don’t know” so many times indicates that he knows he’s in denial about the crappy match at Crown Jewel being the actual last match of his legendary career. It’s not the same as a retiring star showing up for a quick cameo in a Royal Rumble match. Shawn Michaels’ comeback match was the main selling point of Crown Jewel. It was the main event of the show and went almost 30 minutes bell-to-bell. But hey, next year’s Royal Rumble is also in Saudi, so maybe it would be fitting for HBK to be a surprise entrant in that one to go out with a different last match.
The thing is, Michaels was clearly the best worker of the four men in the Crown Jewel match, so it’s not like his performance was an abomination of what fans came to expect from The Showstopper throughout his career. Any retired wrestler or athlete can use the nonsensical excuse that their last career match actually happened when they were still performing at a high level, and everything else that followed was just hanging out with friends and not to be taken seriously. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s essentially what HBK is arguing here.
Do you buy HBK’s claim that Crown Jewel wasn’t actually the last match of his WWE career? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
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