Shawn Michaels won the WWE Championship in historic fashion at WrestleMania XII, and he held onto it all the way through to the 1996 Survivor Series. Sycho Sid upset HBK to win the belt that night in Madison Square Garden, but then two months later at the Royal Rumble, Michaels beat Sid to become a two-time champion. It seemed to all watching that at WrestleMania 13, Michaels would be in the position of defending the company's richest prize. Steve Austin won that year's Royal Rumble, but a controversial finish in the match meant that Austin would put his WrestleMania slot on line against Bret Hart, The Undertaker, and Vader in a four-way match. When plans were made for Hart to get the victory, challenge Michaels, and regain the title at WrestleMania 13, HBK balked. Michaels, who legitimately disliked Hart (and vice versa), had no interest in dropping the belt to his nemesis. In an infamous promo on the February 13th 1997 Raw, Michaels said that he had suffered a knee injury and "lost his smile", forcing him to relinquish the title and consider retirement. Michaels, of course, returned to action a few months later, but he did sit out that WrestleMania, only showing up to provide commentary for the main event.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
