10 Biggest Heat Magnets In WWE History
7. Shawn Michaels
Very few people backstage in the freshly-rebranded WWE of 2002 gave a handful of cr*p about Shawn Michaels.
Pretty much written out of wrestling with a career-ending back injury after WrestleMania XIV in 1998, the Heartbreak Kid contributed virtually nothing to the Attitude Era and the WWF’s extraordinary renaissance in the face of the renewed ambition of World Championship Wrestling and the threat of closure. More than that, most of those backstage who remembered him had tried their best to forget.
The Shawn Michaels of 1996 to 1998 was a thoroughgoing pr*ck of the highest order, one of the most obnoxious people in the business, with a drug problem that made him weak and cruel. Had he been anyone else, in any other position, he’d have been treated like other selfish, arrogant junkies - shelved and future-endeavoured.
But this was the Heartbreak Kid, the Showstopper, the Main Event.
He had the backing of his little cabal of main event road buddies, The Kliq. He had the enthusiastic support of Vince McMahon, as big an HBK obsessive as any fan. The fact that so many of the boys cordially loathed him simply didn’t register.
Invalided out of the business, relegated to walk-on performances as Commissioner or special guest referee, Michaels eventually got clean, found God and made a physical comeback to match his mental and spiritual one. That makes his transformation sound like a simple thing, but from all reports the difference between the man then and the man now is the difference between night and day.
Pundits and fans alike agree that Michaels was actually a better wrestler and worker when he returned in summer 2002. He was certainly a better person. His return turned into a renaissance, a restoration, a rejuvenation.
It’s easy to forgive and forget today, given that he’s practically been canonised since his retirement at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010... but there are plenty who remember the black hat Shawn Michaels of the mid-90s. However, at peace with himself, his legacy and the world in general, the white hat version of the Heartbreak Kid is a changed man.