Almost immediately after Shawn Michaels's return to active competition in 2002, his best friend, Triple H, attacked him viciously. From then on, the two were mortal enemies. They feuded throughout the rest of 2002 and 2003, and heading into 2004, HBK was still on Triple H's back, trying to wrest the World Heavyweight Championship from "The Game." The two battled for the belt at the Royal Rumble in a last man standing match, but when both were unable to answer the referee's 10 count, the bout was ruled a draw. Meanwhile, in the event's titular match, Chris Benoit claimed victory and won the right to challenge for either world championship. Benoit was a Smackdown! talent, so Michaels was promised the next shot at Triple H. However, the Royal Rumble winner exploited a loophole in the bout's rules by jumping to Raw and challenging "The Game." Before he could sign his name to the WrestleMania contract, though, Michaels surprised Benoit with Sweet Chin Music and put his own name to paper. As a result, there was a three-way match at WrestleMania XX.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
