6 Backstage Wrestling Politicians Who Never Drew A Dime

3. Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels thought nothing of burying his peers in the pro wrestling brotherhood if it meant that he could eliminate any threats to his main event position. He was also so self-interested that his nose would stream and his red eyes would itch whenever he came into contact with almost losing a title. He felt something coming on when it was time for the Dudes With Attitudes to drop the WWF Tag Team championships. In reality, Diesel was days away from winning the WWE title. He could hardly lose a lesser belt to Sparky Plugg. But if you track Shawn’s first singles run, between 1992 and 1998, you’ll note many more good excuses. 

In fact, it took the Undertaker threatening to break Shawn’s ass in half for him to finally do a proper job in a title match for the next Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 14. Shawn would later publicly embarrass the actual Hulk Hogan, at SummerSlam 2005, in revenge for doing the job. Shawn undermined Vader, at SummerSlam 1996, throwing a mid-match conniption fit over a timing error. Shawn - and this was horrific even by the standards of wrestling politics, but is rarely talked about, since it was overshadowed by the Montreal Screwjob - petitioned to win the European title from Davey Boy Smith at One Night Only. The Bulldog had vowed to win it in honour of his dying sister. Davey probably shouldn’t have talked so adamantly in the build, even if he was set to win the match originally - but it was still an awful thing to do on Shawn’s part. He didn’t need the lowly, tertiary belt, and it meant nothing to him. He dropped it to Triple H in a sham comedy match that the DX buddies only pretended to wrestle in. So how did Michaels get away with it? 

(Bret Hart has a somewhat homophobic explanation, claiming that Shawn performed sexual favours for Vince McMahon in order to be the top guy and behave unchecked. Jim Ross has called BS on that.)

It’s not as if Shawn was a box office draw; if anything, the opposite was true. Shawn had one exhibit to justify his ego: on March 17, 1996, he teamed with Diesel in a match against Bret Hart and the Undertaker that both set a record high house show gate and sold out Madison Square Garden. This was the first non-PPV sell-out since the mid-1980s. Thought to be a good omen ahead of his WWF title win at WrestleMania 12, fate instead told him to suck it. Shawn was a poor draw. His main event against Vader at SummerSlam was a disaster. Drawing just 157,000 buys, this was down 30% from SummerSlam 1995. And Mabel headlined that show. 

1997 was meant to be bigger than most Royal Rumble shows. In a way, it was. On top of the titular attraction, Shawn Michaels was going to win his WWF title back from Sycho Sid in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. The 60,000+ attendance was very much inflated - 20,000 of the 48,000 who actually paid did so using $5-7 coupons with Taco Bell orders - and the show was down 27% from Royal Rumble 1996 on PPV. 

In what Bret might deem a karmic twist of fate, Shawn went on indefinite hiatus as soon as the WWF exploded in popularity at WrestleMania 14, and returned in 2002, unable to arrest the tumbling downfall.