Shawn Michaels on Working Through Injury, WCW, His Return

WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels recently spoke with WWE.com to promote his upcoming book and talk various topics related to wrestling. Below are some of the highlights from his conversation.

On working through his back injury into his WrestleMania match against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin:

We were doing [No Way Out] in February, and we worked it so I would have that one off. It would give me time to do everything I could to get into the best condition I could get in. Even though I was pulling a bunch of hi-jinks with the company, I had every intention of going to WrestleMania and making sure the company could continue on with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. At that time, we had this guy in California who could do deep tissue massage. He came down to my place in Texas, and between that and modern medicine, I was able to get to WrestleMania and make it through that match. Obviously, it was pretty uncomfortable. I didn’t have the mobility in my legs I normally have.

He was asked whether he was ever contacted by WCW:

I was always under contract with WWE. There were times when one contract was ending and another had not been discussed moving forward. And yeah, there were talks and opportunities [with WCW]. I remember Jim Ross reaching out to me and coming down to Texas to visit me. J.R. said he didn’t know what the future held for me, but he thought there was a role for Shawn Michaels [in WWE] somewhere. If it wasn’t now, it might be a year or two. Jim always believed in me. I ended up re-signing with WWE with no real plan in sight, but still being sewn up by them.

Michaels also detailed how his return came about:

It wasn’t until 2002 when I returned to WWE and until I had physically been out there — it was during the match when Kevin Nash blew his quad [Raw; June 8, 2002]. That next morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading my Bible and the Book of Joshua, and this feeling came over me that I was back here for a reason. God built me to be a wrestler. The words “be strong and courageous for I am with you” jumped off the page at me. That’s when I made the call to Mr. McMahon and suggested a similar-type of match — with hardcore rules — against him. And he said, “Are you serious? Do you really think you can do it? Let me think about this and call you back.” So he called back and said, “Look, if you can do this with me, I’m not very good. Would you think about doing this with Triple H?” In my mind, Triple H was a main-event guy. We were buddies, obviously, but I just didn’t see me coming back into a top role and wrestling a top guy. So [Mr. McMahon] discussed it with Triple H. 

More from the interview can be found here.

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