10 Most Despised Men In Wrestling History
9. Shawn Michaels
The legacy of Shawn Michaels in 2017 is essentially sacrosanct. His body of work is almost unparalleled in North America, and his near cinematic redemption story is the stuff of which legends are forged.
Prior to his finding God and embarking on a secondary career as one of the last true great babyface wrestling heroes, Michaels was a political nightmare - a despised figure in the WWF locker room during the turbulent 1990s New Generation era. Michaels was allergic to jobbing; never has one man avoided so many. His method of relinquishing titles was almost impressive, for how few of his peers benefitted from the switches. Unlike Hogan, whose tactics were more or less accepted because of his unimpeachable credentials as a drawing card, Michaels' sabotage at the helm of the backstage Kliq faction was the defensive work of a man who could not back it up at the box office.
Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, Vader, Jean-Pierre Lafitte, Davey Boy Smith and Bret Hart were just some of the men whose WWF careers were shortened and or ruined at the behest of the Kliq. Michaels was ravaged by addiction and paranoia in the 1990s, but his methods bely his retrospective protests. He systematically chipped away at Bret Hart's psyche with a knowing cunning, over a span of years, to oust him as top man.
He has since atoned, but his sins were so numerous that many still cannot absolve him.