10 Wrestlers Plagued By Their On-Screen Self

The Shawn Michaels who returned to WWE in 2002 was a vastly different entity than ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ of the ‘90s.

Pre-Millennium Michaels lived his gimmick of a cocky, arrogant, egomaniac 24/7 to the detriment of the locker room. He was known for using his backstage sway to manipulate circumstances to his advantage and is credited with burying numerous stars, most prominently Shane Douglas and Vader (who he reduced to tears).

Shawn's politicking reached its zenith when he campaigned to go over The British Bulldog in his hometown at One Night Only 1997, despite the match being dedicated to his terminally ill sister.

Michaels’ struggles with drug addiction caught up to him in the late ‘90s, forcing him to hang up his boots. When he returned in 2002, he was a new man, who credited Christianity with his rebirth. Michaels said of his religion:

“I guess I admitted and confessed that I needed help and that I couldn’t live this life on my own. Whatever that makes me, it makes me. I’m a better man for it, a better husband, a better father.”

Regardless of this change, the actions of the Shawn Michaels of the ‘90s are often used to disparage his faith and his practice of it. Those on the receiving end are still scarred by his behaviour. Though the cocky and arrogant side of HBK is kept away from the screen, the damage persists.