10 Times Wrestlers Told You They Were FINISHED
1. Shawn Michaels (1998)
Short of his lung-bursting wail down the lens of “WHO’S THE F***ING MAN?!” as he walked the aisle for what he knew could possibly be the last time ever, Shawn Michaels looked done and dusted during every wince-inducing second of his WrestleMania XIV loss to Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Some saw it as karmic retribution for the various suffering he'd caused others during an enormously controversial decade as one of the company's most tempestuous and temperamental talents, but surely many of his peers had to feel sympathy as he gritted his teeth to dust in agony with every step he took.
Having clipped his back on a casket at the 1998 Royal Rumble (exasperating a hard-living and injury-ravaged body in the process), Michaels took the run-up to WrestleMania off just to be fit enough to get out there and earn the sort of payday he'd missed out on during the lean years. The less said about his willingness to do the job the better, but it was remarkable how he managed to do everything else bell-to-bell.