Shawn Michaels Talks About The Undertaker Threatening Him, the Montreal Screwjob, the Kliq, and More

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels talks about the Undertaker threatening him, the Montreal Screwjob, the Kliq, and more as he discusses things that he has written about in his new book, “Wrestling For My Life: The Legend, the Reality and Faith of a WWE Superstar.”

Michaels opens the interview with SI up talking about the infamous Montreal Screwjob, which took place in 1997 at the WWE’s annual “Survivor Series” PPV. Vince McMahon, with an assist from Earl Hebner and Michaels, screwed Bret “The Hitman” Hart out of the then WWF Championship by having the bell called early in the match while Michaels was holding Hart in his own submission hold, the Sharpshooter.

This was McMahon’s reaction to Hart not wanting to drop the belt that night to Michaels in his home country of Canada. Hart would be leaving the company for the then prospering World Championship Wrestling, and McMahon did not want Hart even having a remote opportunity of leaving the then World Wrestling Federation with “his” WWF title.

Michaels begins by saying,

“The way I feel about that night is one thing that hasn’t changed over the years. It is still the most uncomfortable day of my career. It was unlike any other day I’ve ever had.

Back then, it was very important to Vince that he take the brunt of everything. In theory, that’s a nice, noble gesture on his part. But as I told him then and it’s still the case now, the reality is I was the one having to do it. I pulled the trigger.”

He then says this about starting his career with a lot of heat from the locker room on him as part of the legendary tag team, The Rockers,

“Vince saw something in me long before anyone else did. He can be an SOB, he can be tough to deal with, and he can be stubborn. But just like he did with me, I extend him a ton of mercy and grace, the same he extended to me so many years ago.”

Michaels went on to talk about his friendship with Kevin Nash, and the rest of the Kliq,

“Kevin was my friend and a guy I could trust. We formed a real life friendship in a business where real life friendships don’t exist. 

That’s what separated us from everyone else. It was like Kevin saying no to the opportunity of getting to be WWE champion before me, and me saying to him, ‘No way, you have to do it.’ That is something that doesn’t happen in this line of work. The things that would make other friendships deteriorate only strengthened ours, and we’re still friends to this day.

That friendship meant a lot to us. We took it serious. Even if guys did have to make tough decisions, we weren’t going to hold it against them. People’s dislike for us was palpable. 

So it was our adamant decision to feed into that even more. There were times when the wrestling narrative — the inside the business narrative — seemed so silly, and we made a decision never to glad-hand and take the heat off ourselves.

We found the decision to add heat on top of us and make it worse was pretty amusing, and that’s what we always decided to do.”

He would go on to comment on what the Montreal Screwjob might have looked like if Nash and Hall had still been in WWE during that time,

“I don’t think anyone would have swayed Bret’s decision-making. But if Kevin and Scott were still there, and I still had my friends, it would have prevented the entire thing from getting as out of hand as it did.

Bret and I were friends, but we were young and we made bad decisions. We couldn’t see outside the wrestling business. It was the end-all, be-all. You were in that box constantly, so that’s all you thought about. It affects your decision-making.”

Michaels went on to discuss WrestleMania XIV with SI, and here’s what the article had to say about Michaels, The Undertaker threatening him about dropping the title, etc.

History has a way of repeating itself in the wrestling business. Months after Michaels was instrumental in the swerve against Hart, he was asked to drop the belt to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV. Michaels had a bad back injury and even worse attitude, and there were rumors circulating that he refused to lose.

Mark Calaway — The Undertaker — was the unquestioned leader of the locker room, and he made it clear that Michaels would do the right thing and lose the match. If not, Calaway threatened, he would tape up his fists and pummel Michaels until he agreed to do the job.

“Back then, Mark didn’t like me,” Michaels says. “But at no time has he ever claimed that he said anything to the face of Shawn Michaels, and that’s because he didn’t.

Mark went to everybody and told them, ‘If this doesn’t go down the way it should, I’m going to have a big problem and Shawn is going to have a big problem. I’ll go over there and beat the heck out of him.’ But he never had to say anything to me.

My whole intention at WrestleMania XIV was to drop the belt to Steve, but I was going to make everybody sweat it out and make them think I wasn’t. Obviously, I got that accomplished. That’s extremely unprofessional, but that’s exactly who I was and what I was doing.”

Despite their differences years ago, Steve Austin wrote one of the forewords for Michaels’ new book.

“I could have got Nash or Hall,” Michaels recalls. “But I wanted to have someone who could truly speak to the guy they dealt with then and the guy they’ve dealt with now.”

You can read the entire interview here.

Editor’s Note:
This interview is an awesome read all the way through. Definitely getting Michaels’ new book.