10 Memorably Punishing WWE Matches
9. Undertaker Vs. Shawn Michaels - Royal Rumble 1998
As legendarily titanic a jerk Shawn Michaels was in the mid-late 1990s, he delivered in the ring. For a man not renowned for his toughness he could nevertheless grit his teeth and tough it out when a match was at stake. When he faced The Undertaker in a casket match for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble main event in 1998, he had to.
In a backdrop onto the casket, Michaels glanced off the lid before spilling onto the ground. It looked like a typically fluid, safe Michaels bump, but the impact hurt way - way more than it should have.
With the main event of a major pay-per-view at stake, Michaels stuck to the plan of the match and fought a 20-minute match with only a slight pained stiffness to his gait suggesting he was hurting for real.
Shortly afterwards, the impact on the casket was shown to have herniated two discs and crushed another in his spine. The injury almost ended Michaels' career permanently. For Michaels, the match was too punishing to come back from.