19 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Shawn Michaels

9. He Won Euro Title Over British Bulldog In England (When He Really Shouldn't Have)

The "One Night Only" event took place in Birmingham, England on September 20, 1997. The main event was the British Bulldog against Shawn Michaels for the European Title. They ended up having a ridiculously overbooked main event match that apparently the Bulldog was supposed to win in his home country. Instead, Michaels got the plans changed by using his power backstage to convince Vince McMahon that there should be a title change. Even though HBK really didn't need the belt as he was already in the main event picture. Michaels placed Bulldog in a Figure Four Leg Lock in the ring, Bulldog ended up giving up while Michaels blatantly cheated and he left with the European Title. He likely had a lot of leverage with McMahon because he knew Vince needed him especially with Bret Hart set to leave. If Vince had a pissed off Michaels on his hands he might have lost him too. There was absolutely no reason for Michaels win the European Title when he was set to become the WWE Champion within a couple of months. He ended up dropping it to his buddy Triple H in a joke of a match that made a mockery of the title and didn't do anything to help Shawn's rep as a jerk at the time. If Michaels returned the favor by dropping the European Title to Bulldog it would have been fine. Instead he treated it like a joke by rarely defending it and dropping it to his buddy Hunter. It came off as a political move on Michaels' part as a way to stick it to Bret Hart since he was Bulldog's brother-in-law.