10 Times Outside Factors Totally Changed WWE WrestleMania

4. Shawn Michaels Being A Prick (WrestleMania 13)

SADAM Wrestlemania VII Speech
WWE Network

Shawn Michaels suffered a legitimate knee injury in the early spring of 1997. That wasn't in doubt; the extent, however, was.

As Dave Meltzer recounted in the Wrestling Observer, renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Jim Andrews disclosed that it wouldn't require surgery, but rather four-to-six weeks of rehabilitation.

"The belief," Meltzer wrote, "is that it was something he could have continued to work on had he wanted to."

This was a time before wellness, much less Wellness with a capital W. Michaels himself worked through an in injury far more drastic and painful at the following year's WrestleMania, but with no Undertaker taping up his fists in '97, a teary-eyed, checked-out Michaels instead relinquished the WWF Heavyweight Title. He had lost his smile, infamously, but we're willing to bet he cracked one with Kliq buddy hunter Hearst Helmsley back in the motel room.

That is because he had successfully engineered his way out of doing a job, maintaining stunning form in that department - research the manner in which dropped titles throughout the 1990s for a wry laugh - and wreaked havoc on the WrestleMania 13 card.

Shawn's absence generated a wildly uneven show - an industry-defining classic of a Submissions match and a literal stinker, if we are to indulge an old urban legend - one that drew an abysmal buy rate, but ultimately restored the karmic balance a year later.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!