10 Reasons Why 1997 Was WWE's Most Important Year Ever

6. Shawn Michaels Lost His Smile And Became A Degenerate

It's fair to say that 1997 was one of the most tumultuous years of Shawn Michaels' legendary career. He spent most of 1996 as the unquestioned top guy in the company as he carried the WWE Title for the majority of the year. He won it back at Royal Rumble 1997 from Sid and it looked like he would be main eventing WrestleMania 13 until he lost his smile. Michaels had a knee injury in February 1997 that forced him to give up the WWE Title without losing it, which led to the "I lost my smile" speech. A lot of people figured he just did that as a way to avoid having to lose a match. His ego was out of control. It was a common opinion to have. Three months later, he was back in the ring looking like he hadn't missed a beat and that's when people like Bret Hart really started having problems with him. From a performance standpoint, Michaels was doing phenomenal work. His promos were as good as ever, he was having great matches all the time no matter who he was in the ring with and he was able to go from face to heel rather easily. Michaels was the kind of over the top, obnoxious personality that made you want to tune in to Raw to see what he might do next. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz8xv3GmZfg His October 1997 Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker was legendary. They built it up really well off the memorable Undertaker/Hart SummerSlam match where Michaels accidentally cost Undertaker the WWE Title after an errant chair shot to the head. The first HIAC match is one of the best matches ever. Michaels won thanks to Kane, but he got his ass kicked and left the ring a bloody mess. A month after that, Michaels got to hold the WWE Title again. It was a match that took place in Montreal. You may have heard about it. More on that later.