10 Times Wrestling Championships Were Vacated For Bizarre Reasons

One of the most infamous moments of Shawn Michaels' career was his "Lost My Smile" promo on the 13 February 1997 episode of Raw. He relinquished the WWE Championship at the event due to a knee injury, but urban legends state there was more to the story.

Peak Shawn Michaels was one of WWE's hottest acts throughout the 90s, during which time HBK found himself in the WWE title picture on a regular basis. However, the downside to having Michaels as champion was that he hated losing the title to someone else, especially Bret Hart.

There is no doubt that Michaels was dealing with a knee injury at the time, but many claims to this date that he oversold the severity of it so he could avoid dropping the title to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. After getting told by a doctor who wasn't accustomed to dealing with athletes that he should never wrestle again, Michaels had to vacate the title.

Michaels walked to a chorus of boos from the crowd but went back as a hero after telling the fans that he had to find his smile, which he had "lost" somewhere down the line. But that wasn't the end of HBK as an in-ring performer, as the theories of him overselling the injury intensified after he got cleared to compete a few months later.