Shawn Michaels on Being Proud of Daniel Bryan

WWE Hall of Famer “HBK” Shawn Michaels recently sat down with Jeramie McPeek, the Phoenix Suns’ VP of Digital, to help promote his book “Wrestling For My Life.”

During the interview, Michael discussed how he feels about Daniel Bryan’s success, as well as what happened following his WrestleMania 26 match with The Undertaker:

Q: The Suns are having WWE Night on Wednesday, with appearances by Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler and the Bellas. You trained Daniel early on. How proud are you of his success?

Michaels: “Oh, very! Very! But at the same time, not surprised. He was a talented young man, he was always a hard worker and that’s a combination that is hard to deny. The only thing you have to have is patience and an attitude that you aren’t ever going to give up. He had that as well. As proud as I am of him, I’m not surprised by it and I don’t think other people should be. That’s one of the things that I think is funny, people have a hard time grasping; people like him and people like me didn’t get into the wrestling business just to do it, just to be average. We got into it to excel and to be really good at it, and hopefully make an impact that lasts a long time, and he’s no different.”

Q: You were known as Mr. WrestleMania, having stolen the show at so many of WWE’s biggest events over the years, and I know there were a lot of emotions involved in those. Whether it was the joy of winning your first WWE Championship, defeating Bret Hart in the 60-minute Iron Man match in 1996, or the anger and bitterness you felt having to lose to Stone Cold Steve Austin and walk away with what everyone thought was a career-ending back injury in 1998. But how about that final match in 2010? What were you feeling as you walked down that long ramp at UOP Stadium, knowing it was going to be your last match, and how did you feel after the match was over and you walked backstage as 72,000- fans gave you a standing ovation?

Michaels: “Going in, it was a good feeling because my family was there. But there was a little anxiety, because it’s still WrestleMania and it was the last one. You know people expected it to be really good. Because it was the Undertaker again, there were going to be a lot of comparisons to the last one (2009). So for all the upside you get out of just enjoying the moment that is WrestleMania, there was a little anxiety and a little stress wanting to just deliver a really good match.”

“But afterwards, it was just complete joy and then also, I think a lot of mental and physical and even spiritual exhaustion. “It’s over.” And again, that’s when it settled in. That’s when it got real. And it was almost as if everything under God’s green earth had been lifted off my shoulders and it was a nice feeling. It was a bit surreal, but I would have to say it was really the next day when everything settled in. Honestly, getting to make that speech on RAW, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world honestly. I couldn’t think of a better way for it to go, for it to end, and to have the opportunity and the time to express all of that on RAW was wonderful. That’s when it’s all allowed to be real and you’re allowed to talk about the wrestling business and your life in the WWE, in a very real sense. And it was a joy to be able to do that well.”

To check out the interview in its entirety, click here.

Editor’s Note

Reading this interview makes me go back to WrestleMania 26 and how hard it was to comprehend that we had all just witnessed Shawn Michaels’ last match. He was a once-in-a-lifetime performer who is arguably the greatest WWE superstar the company has ever had. WWE hasn’t been the same since he retired.

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