18 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Shawn Michaels

6. The Undertaker Nearly Had To Lay Down The Law

shawn michaels iyh
WWE.com

After winning his third WWE Championship, Michaels felt untouchable. His coworkers hated him for his role in the Montreal Screwjob, and HBK continued to put himself at odds with them when he famously declared that he was finished doing jobs for anyone.

By the time WrestleMania XIV rolled around, Michaels really needed to drop the WWE Championship. Not only was he nursing a career-threatening back injury that would end up putting him on the shelf for four years, but challenger Steve Austin was the most popular man in wrestling and was poised to take WWE to new heights. Still, there were doubts about whether HBK would do the right thing.

The Undertaker, according to lore, wasn't willing to take any chances. When Michaels was getting ready to walk out for the WrestleMania main event, The Undertaker was reportedly backstage, silently taping up his fists in plain sight. Though nobody knows what HBK was originally planning on doing that evening, when he got to the ring, he willingly went along with the script.

Michaels recently denied that the incident ever took place, but a subtle confirmation from Undertaker during an interview in the early 2000s is good enough to convince most people.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013