10 WWE Champions Who Weren't Ready For The Belt
8. Shawn Michaels
A superficially odd take, this, given the Heartbreak Kid's phenomenal in-ring ability and perfectly-honed rogue character.
Michaels had already experienced midcard growing pains in 1993, too, having piled on undefined mass in an ill-advised bid to frame himself as a WWF headliner in the traditional mould. His beefy physique undermined his awesome core appeal as a super-smug super-worker. In the face role, Michaels dazzled with his whip-smart, agile strategy; as a heel, he invoked a primal fury. Michaels was a handsome sh*theel, an impossibly loathsome peacock, and what's worse, he was so quick and so canny that our babyface avatars couldn't get their hands on him.
Michaels, throughout a blinding run between 1994 and 1996, provided us with incredible matches - but deprived us of the f*cking beating he begged for with his c*nty, gum-chewing psychology.
In 1996, Shawn was ready as the slimmed-down, shredded, storytelling de force he was. But he wasn't mentally ready to deal with the locker room leadership required to raise the ships. He plummeted morale with his reprehensible lack of etiquette, awful attitude, and selective appetite to stop the show.
Ultimately, Shawn's critical masterpiece of a run shaped the chaotic uncertainty of 1997, and were it not for Stone Cold Steve Austin, 1998 may have been more horribilis than mirabilis.