WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels has put to bed any speculation that, had he not been retiring at the same event, Mr WrestleMania would have been involved in the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon clash at the Show of Shows, saying he was just glad to have Bret Hart back in the company.
Inside The Ropes‘ Lead Writer Gary Cassidy asked The Heartbreak Kid about WrestleMania XXVI and whether it had ever been discussed to have Michaels interject himself into the No Holds Barred Match between The Hitman and WWE’s CEO.
There’s one thing I always wondered about that final match the year after – and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but you retired at WrestleMania 26 and, on the same card, was Vince McMahon vs Bret Hart. If you hadn’t been retiring, do you think you’d have ended up involved in that match? Or were there ever talks to have you involved in that match at all?
“No, no, no. Not to my recollection. No, that was a 100 percent total separate thing and I’m sure, creatively, I don’t even think someone would have talked about that because, of course, you’ve got the I Quit Match or, I’m sorry, the career-threatening match, whatever it was we called it. So I’m certain they wouldn’t want to mix or have there be any confusion between the two. So, no.”
Michaels went on to say he was just happy to see The Hitman return.
“To me, again, it was just so great to have Bret back, to be perfectly honest, so I think that was kept totally separate than anything else.”
Michaels also went on to say how his match the previous year would “enable” him to retire from in-ring competition at WrestleMania XXVI, calling it one of the greatest moments of his wrestling career.
“Well, so – certainly not just another day at the office. I can say that. It was very special and, again, those things that are the greatest – you ask ten different people, you get ten different answers. What I do know is that’s the one for me that felt… That’s what enabled me to walk away. That’s what enabled me to have that piece of going back.
“Even though, again, I did one more thing – but that was the one that just put everything in here in perspective, that gave me the ability to say, ‘This part of my life is done and I’m now looking at moving into the future’ and so for that, it was one of the greatest moments, certainly professionally, that I’ve ever had, because that’s important.
“You know, this line of work is awesome and when you do it, you do it for a reason – because it’s a part of you – and it’s very hard to leave that behind. So, again, that that’s why that moment is very, very special to me.”
You can read Gary Cassidy‘s full interview with Shawn Michaels here.
Thank you so much to Shawn Michaels for taking the time to chat, and to WWE UK and BBC The Social for facilitating the chat.
You can watch WrestleMania live on the WWE Network on April 10th and 11th, as the Show of Shows emanates from the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.