10 Things You Didn't Know About Shawn Michaels

5. Defeated The British Bulldog For Three Separate Titles

After defeating Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Championship in one of the greatest matches of all time at Summerslam ’92, the British Bulldog had finally captured the prestigious Intercontinental Title. A long, strong run with the belt was to follow, right? Wrong. Having been revealed to be on Human Growth Hormone, Bulldog was released from the WWF and dropped the IC Title to Shawn after just a 2 1/2 month reign.

Fast forward to 1997, Bulldog and Owen Hart were Tag Team Champions and doing wonders as a pairing. In order to further a larger story though, the belts were switched to the thrown-together duo of Steve Austin and, yep, Shawn Michaels.

Later that year, Bulldog had been crowned the first ever European Champion and was supposed to retain the belt against Shawn during a UK PPV. Smith even told his terminally-ill sister that the win was to be dedicated to her. Then came a classic case of Shawn being Shawn, with Michaels using his sway to needlessly win the title before then going on to drop it to pal Triple H in a mockery of a match.

Whether it was a shot at Bret, something more or just coincidence, Davey Boy Smith was always left lying when up against Shawn Michaels.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.