7 Great Wrestling Heel Runs That Ended Prematurely
3. Shawn Michaels (2005)
From Marty Jannetty to John Cena, Shawn Michaels made a career out of turning on teammates. Perhaps one of his more memorable betrayals came when he delivered Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere to Hulk Hogan on an episode of Raw in 2005.
It wasn't as if he was stagnant prior to this point, but the heel turn breathed new life into his character, allowing him to revert to his roots as a despicable scumbag. He took shots at Hogan at every opportunity, going so far as to mock him in the full red-and-yellow get-up. It was the complete opposite of what we had come to expect from The Heartbreak Kid, and yet, everything he touched at that time turned to gold.
Shortly before SummerSlam, Michaels returned to Montreal, where he was once booed out of the building for screwing Bret Hart out of the WWF Championship. The promo he cut in front of that crowd was absolutely legendary. Consequently, nothing he and Hogan did at SummerSlam came remotely close to topping it.
Not long after the loss to Hogan, staunch Christian Michaels was back to being a babyface, at his behest, for a feud with Chris Masters - and, although he was beloved by the audience, WWE missed a major opportunity to keep running with that perfect persona.