7. Shawn Michaels Having To Retire In '97, Only To Have To Retire For Real In '98
WWE.comIn 1997 Shawn Michaels 'lost his smile'. The line was his way of saying he was no longer happy in the WWF, he had endured a miserable run as Champion and was dissatisfied at the prospect of dropping the belt to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. Officially he was resigning the WWF belt due to a potentially career ending knee injury, but most people in the industry believed he was simply 'working' an injury to avoid jobbing to Bret. He implied he might never be fit enough to return, handed Vince McMahon the championship belt, and left the ring. Funnily enough, Michaels had also storyline 'retired' in 1995, again complete with major theatrics. The 'boy who cried wolf' retirements came back to haunt Michaels in 1998. He legitimately suffered a badly injured back in a match with Undertaker at the Royal Rumble, herniating two discs (crushing one disc completely) after crashing off a casket. The man who had a year earlier 'worked' a retirement was now having to retire for real. It's kind of ironic that he didn't work Mania 13 when he was 'storyline' injured, now he was really injured yet having to work Mania 14. He managed to put over Steve Austin and then vanished for four years... eventually making a comeback in 2002 and enjoying a further seven years of being the best in the world.