10 Injuries That Changed WWE History
4. Shawn Michaels
It was one of the saddest days in company history when Shawn Michaels revealed a career-ending knee injury in February 1997, immediately forfeiting the WWE Title. Gone forever, his legacy remained that of a proud champion and legendary in-ring performer.
Snark aside, Michaels' surrender of the championship had earth-shattering repercussions that altered the WWE landscape and (like so many other things that year) inadvertently triggered a chain of events that would completely reshape the wrestling business.
With hated rival Bret Hart and most others believing (with some credence) that the injury's severity was oversold to avoid losing matches to himself and Sycho Sid in short order, Michaels became an even bigger dressing room pariah than he'd already been the prior few years.
Plans to have Hart beat Michaels at WrestleMania 13 were shelved despite the company getting the belt to the Sid/Undertaker match via a transitional reign for 'The Hitman'.
Amongst (many) other things, the mistrust and animosity reached breaking point between Hart and Michaels. Infamously, Vince McMahon would make a seismically huge decision when Bret flatly refused to lose to Shawn at Montreal's Survivor Series pay-per-view after his repeated bouts of disrespectful behaviour throughout the year, and nothing could prepare the company nor industry at large for the ramifications.