Come the 1998 Royal Rumble, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels faced The Undertaker in a casket match, having reignited the previous years scorching hot feud. As you can see from the clip, Taker performs a running back body drop on Michaels to the outside of the ring specifically, the side of the ring with the casket in play. Whether the action was too frenetic for Michaels to control the spill out of the ring, or whether he simply mistimed the spin, HBK was to strike the casket itself with the small of his back, at the base of the spine. The match, and specifically this botched bump, left Michaels with two herniated discs and one crushed disc in his lumbar spine. He would find himself unable to compete at the following months pay-per-view, and would drop the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania XIV at the end of March. Many have cited Austins first ever WWF title win as the true beginning of the Attitude Era. For Michaels, it would mark what appeared to be his retirement. Due to the crippling injury to his back, he would not wrestle again until 2002. Fortunately for HBK and the wrestling audience he would have eight fantastic years ahead of him again, before retiring for good in 2010, ironically choosing the Undertaker as the man with whom he genuinely wanted to end his career.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
