10 Wrestlers Who Saved Other Wrestlers From Getting Fired
6. Triple H Saves Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels, and he'll admit this himself, was a sh*tty human being throughout the 1990s.
A mercurial talent is putting it mildly: he is purported to have sabotaged multiple careers, and even said the quiet part loudly at SummerSlam 1996 when he threw a temper tantrum at Vader.
Vader!
That just underscores the sheer degree of untouchable immortality Michaels felt.
Of course, Shawn was battling significant substance issues, of which we should all be more sensitive, and he was said to have cut a genuinely remorseful figure in the locker room of Montreal as the gravity of the prior year finally weighed down upon him. Then again, he and Triple H then called Owen Hart a "nugget", as in the last remaining nugget of Hart family sh*t, so...
His life spiralled out of the spotlight after suffering a significant back injury at the 1998 Royal Rumble. His periodic non-wrestler appearances on Attitude Era programming were patronising and felt bleak before his addled state made for an uncomfortable watch. Triple H - who to his credit didn't view the Kliq as a mere vehicle to fame, despite his ruthless portrayal - stuck up for Shawn time and again when it was thought Vince McMahon had lost all patience with him.
Vince said, in Shawn's A&E Biography episode, that Shawn owes more than his career to HHH; he owes him his life.