18 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Shawn Michaels
3. He "Lost His Smile"
During the 1990s, Shawn Michaels got a reputation for being a true diva, and part of that was due to the fact that he didn't like to lose matches. That's evident in HBK's title history, which shows a pattern that's impossible to ignore.
Michaels held a total of 10 championships during his initial WWE tenure - three WWE Titles, three Intercontinental Titles, three World Tag Team Titles, and one European title. Of those ten reigns, only three ended when Michaels was decisively beaten in the ring. We've already discussed the end of his final reign with the Intercontinental Title, but beyond that, he was stripped of many belts, and even laid down for Triple H to give his friend the European Championship. Still, the most infamous end to one of his title reigns came when he "lost his smile."
In February of 1997, Michaels was suffering from a knee injury that was allegedly career-threatening. He came out on Raw to forfeit the WWE Championship, claiming that not only was he hurt, but he had "lost his smile." He'd be back, he said, when he found it, and then he sullenly walked off.
The general consensus is that Michaels's injury wasn't as bad as he had made it out to be, and that he only gave up the belt because the booking plan called for him to drop it to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. The fact that HBK returned to action in May lent further credence to that claim, and Michaels's legacy was tarnished by the whole affair.