10 Times WWE Wrestlers Were WAY Better Together Than Apart
3. Stone Cold Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels
Famed more for their WrestleMania XIV encounter that helped craft a complete shift in the industry's tectonic plates, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin both carried injuries far too great to assemble a 'Show of Shows' main event they'd ordinarily be capable of.
And though a King Of The Ring 1997 pay-per-view clash flirted with something very special before a screwy finish (and 'The Rattlesnake' himself regularly crows over a host of never-before-seen house show bouts the pair had in 1996), nothing they managed opposing one another could match their mutual loathing as a tag team in the tumultuous summer of 1997.
Forced together for their mutual dislike of Bret Hart and his evil Canadian family reunion, Austin and Michaels were philosophically and often physically at odds, but channelled their collective rage and in-ring ability into dethroning Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart for the Tag Team Titles in an explosive Monday Night Raw main event shortly before their June singles clash.
Ironically, it was very real backstage brawl with Bret that Shawn had shortly before the 9 June Raw taping that brought an abrupt end to their union. Michaels stormed out of the arena, with many unsure as to when, if ever, he'd even return.