WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels has responded to remarks that he is the greatest wrestler of all time, as Mr WrestleMania told Inside The Ropes‘ Lead Writer Gary Cassidy that he appreciates the praise, but that it’s “here today, gone tomorrow” and he just feels fortunate to have had such a great career.
16-time World Champion Ric Flair recently opened up about how he believes Shawn Michaels is the greatest in-ring worker of all time – something the Heartbreak Kid says drove him when he was younger.
“It’s all subjective, right? Ours is not a line of work that deals with stats and things of that nature. I will say this, over the years, when I was younger, it was the drive, it was a passion, it was the desire to be the best or to want to be called, or at least grouped in with, the greatest of all time.”
Michaels then went on to talk about how he appreciates the compliment from anyone, but that it means the most from his peers.
“As you get older, you begin to realise that, the guys that I was in there with, I can only assume that in our world here, the Tom Bradys, the Michael Jordans… I never want to ever have it sound disrespectful. I greatly appreciate the people, the fans or even sportswriters or people thinking you’re the best of the greatest, which is very nice. But for me, it means the most to hear from the guys that I was in the ring with – because those are the people you feel truly know the difference, and could feel the difference.”
Mr WrestleMania would then go on to say how his aim was to always be a memorable match and a natural, comfortable experience for his opponents.
“I think that’s one thing that… I don’t know. I always wanted at least to make guys’ experience with me inside that ring to be something they’d always remember. That, for some reason, being in there with me was, I don’t know, easy or special and a bit more, I guess, natural and comfortable – and, of course, something that they could look back on and be happy about. So, hearing it from my my peers is clearly the best thing to me. But I also do know that stuff is here today and gone tomorrow, so it’s not something I really think about that much anymore. It’s just very nice to look back on what I think is a really wonderful career that I feel very fortunate to have had.”
Flair had previously noted that it “wasn’t arguable anymore” and Shawn was the greatest of all time.
“It’s not arguable anymore, Shawn is the greatest worker in the history of our business. I think everybody would give that to him. He carried me in my farewell retirement match, no matter how many people want to think I was holding up my end of it, I was trying to get through it. At that point in my career I did not have the self-confidence that I needed to have to rise to the occasion and he made it look like I did. I’ve looked back and actually had time the past couple of years to watch some of Shawn’s matches that he had while I was at WCW and Shawn just is a class act.”
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.