10 Shocking Moments When Wrestlers Risked Losing Their Jobs
3. Angry Young Man
In 1992, Shawn Michaels threw Marty Jannetty throw a window in an iconic severance of his longstanding partnership. Five years later, and Michaels appeared to be looking to figuratively destroy his own life and career with equally jagged brutality.
Deep into drug and alcohol addictions that almost killed him before becoming a Born Again Christian in 2002, Shawn's controversial peak came during some blistering monologues on Monday Night Raw in which he looked fully prepared to die fighting the entire world.
A toxic pariah in the locker room outside of his close-knit relationship with Chyna and Triple H, Michaels had enraged Bret Hart enough for the two to fight for real in an ugly backstage scene that had Shawn threatening Vince that he was 'going to Nitro'.
It was perhaps the fierce competitiveness between WWE and WCW at the time that kept 'HBK' gainfully employed at the time. Comfortably the most gifted professional wrestler in the world at that point (when he did actually wrestle), his stock was simply too high for McMahon to risk losing him to the opposition. The Montreal Screwjob only solidified his position with the company, until a January 1998 back injury ultimately expedited his first retirement.