10 Most Inspirational Rehab Comebacks In Wrestling

5. Shawn Michaels

At one point, Michael Shawn Hickenbottom was the most badly behaved douchecanoe in all of professional wrestling. Out of his mind on a combination of painkillers and uppers, the Heartbreak Kid would regularly appear on television in the late nineties seemingly off his face €“ although the Attitude Era was a little like that for everyone, even the teetotalers. Backstage, his attitude and his reputation were taking hit after hit. A lot of the years between 1996 and 1998 are a blur for him, and since then Michaels has had to have several of his friends fill in blanks to remind him what really occurred. Although his work in the ring was still top notch (wrestlers being well known for somehow managing to €˜turn it on€™ for the crowd and the cameras, even if they were collapsed backstage moments earlier), something had to give: Michaels says that at the time, €œI was doing everything I could to kill myself except put a loaded weapon in my hand.€ Like Lex Luger, Michaels credits his faith with pulling him through €“ that, and an intervention from his best friend. Primed for a Wrestlemania 17 return after what was thought to be a career ending injury four years earlier, Michaels was found by Triple H backstage at a TV taping utterly incoherent, and took it upon himself to report HBK€™s condition to the boss. Michaels was sent home, and took the message to heart. With support from his church, he would get clean and return to WWE later on in the year to take on The Game himself€ and he never looked back, entering into what would, improbably, end up being a second phase in his wrestling career. Retiring for good in 2010, from all reports the Shawn Michaels of today is as far removed from the selfish, nasty junkie he used to be as a lake is from a puddle: a true inspiration to up and coming WWE superstars that idolise him.