Farewell, Shawn Michaels

Ladies ang gentlemen, The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels has left the building...


I used to be a colossal fan of wrestling. As a kid, I would buy action figures and trading cards, I would know all the catch phrases, and I would endlessly trade stories about how there were seven versions of Ultimate Warrior and how one died because he popped his bicep muscles from trying to military press Andre The Giant. As a teenager, I would program the VCR to record Raw, Smackdown, and WCW’s Nitro so that I wouldn’t miss a week, I would host parties to watch wrestling pay-per-views with friends, and I would know how to apply every single submission move imaginable (my favorite submission move is Dean Malenko’s Texas Clover Leaf). Obviously, because of the phrase “used to”, it means that I’m not a fan anymore. My go-to reason back then as to why I’m so obsessed with wrestling is that it’s very easy to get caught up with the weekly soap opera. So when you miss two or three episodes in a row, you can easily stop caring about the story lines. I haven’t seen a full wrestling telecast in almost three years. But when I heard that my favorite wrestler ever, Shawn Michaels, was going against The Undertaker on Wrestlemania XXVI in a match where his career was being pit against his opponent’s historic 17-0 Wrestlemania streak. I thought to myself, “well, I’m never going to see a Shawn Michaels match ever again after this.”

Here’s the thing with guys like the Undertaker: they spent their whole career cultivating this unbeatable and indestructible character. He’s been around the WWE for 20 years and now that he has seniority, he won’t let anyone—not even an esteemed veteran like HBK—take this streak away from him. The thing with "fake" sports, the fake athletes have control over their legacy. Throughout the history of the WWE, it has been filled with guys like this—Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Ultimate Warrior, Kevin Nash, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Macho Man Randy Savage, Goldberg. They’re egos are so overblown that they would refuse to lose to someone who they didn’t think was worthy to win against them. It’s because of them that younger stars find it difficult to move up, which is one of the reasons why the WWE is hurting right now.

The reason why I love Shawn Michaels is because he’s the exact opposite. He’s willing to sell every move, even from unknown talents. He's willing to lose if it'll benefit the company in the long run. An analogy that works is comparing him to a point guard in basketball who has ownership of that position, in the same ilk as Isiah Thomas, John Stockton, or Steve Nash: they can masterly manage the game, they sacrifice their own points to make everyone else look good, and they can take over if they felt like they needed to. That’s Shawn Michaels in essence: a tremendous veteran that knew how to carry a match, an unselfish man who bumped even for the lowliest curtain-jerkers and jobbers, and a wrestler that wasn’t called “The Show Stopper” and “The Main Event” for nothing.

Shawn Michaels was in the same level (maybe even better) than his idol, Ric Flair. They can have a noteworthy match with everyone, and because of this, the list of memorable HBK matches are a long one: as one-half of the tag team The Rockers against The Hart Foundation in the eighties; the ladder match with Razor Ramon in WM X for the Intercontinental Title; Royal Rumble 1995 where he was the first and the last one in the 30-man battle royal, his WWF World Title match against Diesel in WM XI, his Intercontinental Title win against Jeff Jarrett in 1995; his sixty minute iron man match with Bret Hart for the WWE Title in WM XII; his hardcore rules WWF Title match against Mankind in Mind Games 1996; his WWF Title match in WM XIV against Stone Cold Steve Austin with Mike Tyson as a guest referee (a match in which he injured his back and continued to fight, an injury that took four years to recover from); his comeback match against his best friend Triple H in Summerslam 2002, WWE title match in WM XXI against Kurt Angle; his WWE title match against Undertaker in last year’s WM, his feud against Chris Jericho, his Raw matches against Shelton Benjamin, his Raw matches against Rey Mysterio, etc. And it all comes to an end in a wonderful match against a stiff like The Undertaker last Sunday.

That list doesn’t even include the out-of-the-ring moments: the time he betrayed his Rockers partner Marty Jannetty, the Intercontinental champion forfeit to Dean Douglas, the concussion collapse against Owen Hart, the Kliq kayfabe moment in Madison Square Garden, the D-X promos, in the center of the Montreal Screw Job. I mean if there is any wrestler in the history of wrestling whose career should be turned into a movie, Shawn Michael’s is the one I would line up for. In the world of wrestling, there are a number of phenomenal in-ring technicians and there are a number of phenomenal performers and there are a number of entertainers on the mic. Only him and Ric Flair (and maybe Kurt Angle) can boast that they were all three at once.

I tuned in to WWE RAW the next night to watch Shawn Michael’s farewell speech, and I realized that this is the first time I’m watching the show in HD. His last goodbye was as unselfish as his wrestling. He asked everyone to forgive him for his backstage antics back in the nineties, apologizing for the fact that “he was not easy to be around”. He thanked everyone, the only farewell speech I can think of where the wrestler thanked the production crew, the cameramen, and everyone behind the scenes. No cheap pops, no self-indulgent pause for effect, no “staying in character” moments. The speech was so classy and so genuine that it really tore apart.

As a fan, it would be reasonable to not want to see him go, but I’d really be happier if we never see him again. He even said so himself as the fans were chanting “one more match” during his speech: “I wanna honor my word to you…I appreciate the ‘one more match’…I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen.” We’ve all seen the movie The Wrestler, there are so many wrestlers out there who hang on to the spotlight longer than they should have that it’s nice to see someone go out on top of his game, even at a very durable 44 years old. So, inspired by this, I’ll probably do a (t5!) Top 30 Wrestler of All-Time list one of these days, but I’ll ruin the surprise now and say who my number one is: Shawn Michaels, the apex of my wrestling-watching existence. It’s an era that probably ends now because now that my favorite of all-time is gone, there’s really no reason for me to start watching WWE again. I could try TNA, but I heard it sucks.