10 Things We Learned From Shawn Michaels On Vince Russo's Podcast
5. There Was No Heat For His Speech At The 2015 Hall Of Fame
At a number of points throughout the podcast, Shawn goes to great lengths to accentuate how everything in wrestling is pretend. He rams home how everything in professional wrestling is B/S from start to finish, a work intended to involve an audience and nothing more.
From the moment you are thrown to the ropes and you bounce off them and run back towards your opponent, the whole thing stops making sense.
One example Shawn gives of this was the response to his induction of Diesel at the 2015 Hall of Fame ceremony. Many outlets reported that Shawn was in hot water for the speech, where he ripped up what appeared to be his prepared speech and went off the cuff, using terms such as 'wrestler' and 'strap'.
Michaels confirms on Russo's podcast that this was ridiculous. The piece of paper he tore up on the stage was entirely blank, a prop designed to give the impression of a renegade veteran inducting his fellow renegade into the corporate world, one last stab at rebellion.
Alas, wrestling is a show, and the blank paper was nothing but a red herring. Everything was approved, and everything was fine.