Shawn Michaels has revealed that he gave consideration to joining WCW during the Monday Night Wars. The Heartbreak Kid was speaking with Bell2Bell.Podomatic.com during the promotional tour for his new book. What's interesting is that HBK talks about "times that I wanted to", which suggests that jumping ship is something that crossed his mind on a few occasions. His best friends Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were in WCW after leaving the WWF in 1996. Michaels could see how much money and opportunity the pair were getting, so it is understandable that he'd want to see some of that action. You also have the fact that WCW was the number one promotion for so many years. It wasn't really until the latter half of 1998, after Michaels had retired for the first time, that the WWF really started to become the powerhouse. Add to this the fact that Michaels was personally miserable in the WWF and unhappy with having to share a locker room with his legitimate nemesis Bret Hart. You can see why Michaels perhaps wanted to leave the WWF and join WCW. The other interesting thing is that WCW were interested in Michaels when he was out injured from 1998. HBK even admits that he'd have been physically no use. That's just typical WCW in many ways, prepared to spend lots of money on a name talent that isn't necessarily worth it. Michaels instead opted to stay with the WWF, with Vince McMahon continuing to keep HBK on the pay roll even after his contract expired. That was perhaps an effort on McMahon's part to stop his friend from needing to take the WCW money. Here's what Michaels said in full about jumping ship -
"There were certainly times that I wanted to, but I was still under contract. Hall and Nash were different, they gave their notice and weren't in breach of contract when they went over, that's how they were allowed to go. Years later, when my contract was up, however, I did consider it, and thought about it, but it was after the back injury, so I wouldn't have been much use to them anyway. But I decided to stay, and it's safe to say, I wouldn't be chatting to you today if I had indeed went over."