10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Kevin Nash

2. If Nash Didn't Tear His Quad Shawn Michaels May Have Stayed Retired

The previous point about Nash's torn quadriceps injury didn't just affect his career, but it impacted Shawn Michaels too. During that July 2002 tag match where Nash got hurt, Michaels was outside the ring as a manager of the NWO. At the time, Michaels was still retired after back surgery although he had a new lease on life as a Born Again Christian and found his way back to WWE. According to various reports over the years, Nash was being built up to have a huge match with his good buddy Triple H at SummerSlam. At the time, Hunter was a face. The story would have seen Hunter turn heel on Nash so that the two good friends would have a major feud, which would be their first major feud because when Nash was on top in WWE, Hunter was still a young guy on the rise. Due to the injury to Nash, plans changed. It led to Michaels realizing that he could wrestle, so instead of Hunter turning on Nash he ended up turning on Michaels. That Hunter/Michaels match at SummerSlam 2002 is an all-time classic battle and their feud the rest of the year was one of best of either man's career. None of it would have happened without the accidental help of Nash. In a weird way, we should thank Kevin Nash for the return of Shawn Michaels. Maybe Michaels would have come back at some point in the future in his own way, but thanks to the Nash injury it definitely got him thinking about it sooner and accelerated the process.