10 Awesome Wrestling Matches That Saved Careers

In 2002, Shawn Michaels had been gone for four years. He was out of action with a back injury because of a casket match with The Undertaker, and made it worse while losing to Steve Austin at WrestleMania months later.

Over the next few years, he struggled immensely with substance addiction, putting his focus on recovering from it as well as being a husband and father. Even after he became a born again Christian and got clean, it seemed unlikely that he’d return after so many years away and so much pain near the end. Yet he did.

He got paired with his best friend Triple H in a program where The Game would turn on his friend, setting up Michaels for a gigantic return match at SummerSlam 2002. He could‘ve failed to live up to the wrestler he used to be. But he didn’t.

The crowd celebrated him like a god and he more than met their expectations, putting on one of the best performances of his career and stealing the PPV. Without his triumphant victory here, who knows if we’d have gotten eight more years of HBK? It saved his career and we’re all so thankful for it.