10 Monumental Happenings On Post-WrestleMania Raws

Two years after he defeated Ric Flair in Flair’s (WWE) retirement match at WrestleMania XXIV, Shawn Michaels lost to The Undertaker in a match in which his career had been at stake.

In the interim, Michaels had been defeated by The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXV on April 5, 2009. According to the story line, Undertaker would only agree to face Michaels at WrestleMania XXVI on March 28, 2010, if Shawn wagered his career against Undertaker’s ’Mania winning streak.

Hellbent on proving he could vanquish Undertaker at ’Mania and finally end the streak, Michaels complied with the conditions: “You don’t get it,” Michaels told Undertaker before the match. “If I can’t beat you at WrestleMania, I have no career.”

It had been rumoured one year earlier that Michaels would retire at ’Mania XXVI. When the career vs. streak stipulation was announced, it all but telegraphed the outcome. Given the information available, it seemed far more likely that Michaels would retire than Undertaker would lose at WrestleMania. There was nothing more important to WWE than the streak — until Brock Lesnar terminated it in 2014.

Lose and enter retirement, Michaels did.

For Shawn, it was the perfect swan song: his last in-ring performance took place in the main event of WrestleMania against his greatest opponent in a dazzling match-up.

Michaels drew a line under his career as an active performer the next night on Raw.

His sendoff was not as elaborate as Ric Flair’s two years earlier, but it did include highlights videos, a heartfelt testimonial from Triple H, a salute from The Undertaker and comments from Bret Hart, along with a moving speech from the man himself in which he thanked Triple H for his friendship, WWE’s production staff for their technical wizardry, Vince McMahon for his undying patience, and the fans for their support.

When a cry of “One more match!” went up from the audience, Michaels said: “I think about it. But I don’t want to go back on my word to you, I don’t want to go back on my word to The Undertaker . . . I want to honour my word to you, I want to honour my word to The Undertaker. So, I appreciate the ‘one more match’, but I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Six years on, Michaels continues to honour the vow he made prior to WrestleMania XXVI. If he were going to break it, surely he would have done so by now.