10 Most Notorious Shawn Michaels Urban Legends

4. He Refused To Lose The WWE Title To Vader At SummerSlam 1996

Story: Vader was a big heel that WWE brought into the company in 1996. He was a former WCW World Champion that fans knew would be a big deal in WWE. He was pushed to the main event fairly quickly and became the top contender for Shawn's WWE Title. When Vader faced Shawn for the WWE Title, apparently there was a plan in place for Vader to win the WWE Title. The idea was that Vader would win the WWE Title at SummerSlam, then they would have another match at Survivor Series and then they would have the blowoff match at the Royal Rumble 1997 in San Antonio, which is where Michaels is from. That information came from Jim Cornette, who was Vader's manager and a part of WWE's booking team for many years. The match ended up being a mess (although the work was good) with multiple false finishes and Michaels ended up retaining the title. Vader was out of the title picture. He never held the WWE Title at all. Michaels did the title change with Sid at Survivor Series and then got it back at the Royal Rumble. Why People Believe It: A lot of WWE Champions lose the title around SummerSlam to build to further angles. Vader was built up well. He probably should have won it. He didn't, so people think that Michaels used his influence to get things changed. Should We Believe It: Yes. There's little reason for Cornette to lie about it although he was never a huge fan of Michaels, so maybe he was fabricating parts of it. Since the Vader/Michaels match had such a bizarre finish (if Michaels was going to win, why not win clean?), it was probably because of the booking change.