10 Best Wrestling Matches I've Seen Live

Following his WWE Championship loss to Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV, Shawn Michaels took an indefinite leave of absence to tend to a debilitating back injury. 

Though he made sporadic non-wrestling appearances on TV in subsequent years, in 2002 he was finally ready for an in-ring comeback. He made his return that summer, walking right into the crosshairs of best friend Triple H.

Though "The Game" had teased interest in a DX reunion, an angry Pedigree and a parking lot beatdown made the former partners bitter enemies. Michaels vowed to get retribution and show his young son what it meant to be a man, and to do so, he would compete in his first match since 1998.

Fans wondered what the match, billed as a "non-sanctioned" contest, would entail, but it turned out to be one of the company's best bouts in years. 

Triple H worked HBK's lower back over with a series of brutal backbreakers, but Michaels fought back, hitting a splash from the top rope through the announcers' table, then bringing a ladder into play and nailing "The Game" with an elbow drop.

For the first time in years, Michaels dramatically began tuning up the band, but when he threw Sweet Chin Music, Triple H ducked, kicked him in the gut, and hooked HBK for the Pedigree. Michaels then grabbed HHH's legs, rolled him up with a jackknife cover, and scored a surprise pinfall.

Fans had once assumed that they'd never see Shawn Michaels wrestle again, but in a single performance, HBK proved that "The Showstopper" was back. 

He spent the next eight years redefining his legacy, and this was step one of that process.