19 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Shawn Michaels

4. He Treated His SummerSlam 2005 Match With Hulk Hogan As a Joke

Michaels teamed with Hulk Hogan in July of 2005 as something of a dream team. They had won a tag match when Michaels surprisingly nailed Hogan with a Superkick. It was done to set up a SummerSlam match between the two legends. The story was that they hadn't had a match before, so it was going to be a big deal to have two icons face off for the first time. There were no titles on the line, but was the main event of the show. During the buildup to the match, Michaels became more of a heel. He would rip on the fans in Canada (one of the best promos he's ever done) and even did a Hogan parody on a "Larry King" style parody show. The reason for the heel turn is because that's how Hogan wanted it. Michaels talked about it on a DVD: "In my mind I presented it to him as just a whole good guy vs. good guy. Where HBK says €˜as a man, I just got to know if I can beat the Immortal Hulk Hogan, period.' The next week I was told that €˜Terry would prefer the classic heel vs. babyface would be better, much like you were in 98.' I was like, €˜if this was 98, and I was running with him, I'd tear him up. I'd got out there on that mic, and tear him to shreds.' €˜Give us that then, that's what we want (Shawn was told.) I was like, €˜You've got to be kidding me, are you sure he's OK with this?' €˜Terry's all business.' That's what Vince said. €˜Terry's business, you know.' I said, €˜alright.'" What Michaels didn't mention on the DVD is that apparently they were going to have at least one more match where Hogan was supposed to put over Michaels. That never happened because Hogan refused to do it. During the SummerSlam match, Michaels sold all of Hogan's offense in a ridiculous way. His bumps for basic moves included flips and a lot of people were laughing as it was going on even though it was supposed to be a competitive match. It was Michaels' way of embarrassing Hogan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf4LsjwAWho On the Raw after SummerSlam, Hogan was gone. Michaels stated in a promo that Hogan was on a plane back to Florida and would return only if WWE gave him what he wanted. As he said it he did the "money" gesture with his hands as his way of saying Hogan was only in it for the money.