14 Times Really Weird Sh*t Went Down At WrestleMania 32
11. Did HBK Just Come Out Of Retirement... For That?
Talking about that post-match angle: Barrett’s sneering promo to the crowd about how no three-man group could take down the League was just contrived enough that it was clearly setting up a run-in. It’s like when Paul Heyman loudly proclaimed in a 2004 promo that there wasn’t a man alive that could stand in his way… like the Undertaker wasn’t going to hit that cue.
When the Heartbreak Kid’s music broke, I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in happiness... and were suddenly silenced. Mick Foley and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin followed, bringing the total of the retired wrestlers in the ring to three-and-a-half (if you count Barrett) - but still, there was an oddly discordant note in the air.
Austin was wearing the usual street clothes that he’d brought to pretty much every segment he’d participated in since retiring from in-ring action; and Mick Foley only ever changes clothes to cosplay Santa. But Shawn Michaels was wearing his ring gear, gear he hadn’t worn since his retirement match against the Dead Man at WrestleMania XXVI.
True, it wasn’t technically a match but a post-match flourish, a little fan service for a fun-starved audience, but still… did that count? Had Mr. WrestleMania come out of retirement just to beat the foreign devil out of the League Of Nations in his home state?
If so, you can imagine a certain Phenom watching on a monitor out back and grimly taping his fists.