7 Wrestlers Shawn Michaels Refused To Lose Against

2. Bret Hart

Shawn Michaels Bret Hart Jim Ross 1996 Raw
WWE.com

In all this talk of Shawn Michaels refusing to lose to opponents, one thing Michaels never ever seemed to lose to was his 'smile'. Ah, I'm sure there is a better joke in there but we'll have to go for that now, as in spring 1997 HBK vacated the WWF Championship on account of 'losing his smile'.

Another rumour-filled story but it is one that we're gonna go with. According to a mixture of folklore and myth Michaels defeated Bret Hart for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XII on the promise that Hart would win the strap back a year later at the Show of Shows.

WrestleMania 13 was fast approaching, but the real-life problems between Hart and Michaels had taken on a life of their own. As a result, the prospect of dropping his championship to his nemesis was growing less appealing by the day for HBK. So much so that his knee started to give him gip, so much gip in fact that he decided he had to vacate the title.

The combination of knee problems and lost smiles meant that Michaels no longer had to lose to Hart, although nobody truly believes this was the case. Shawn didn't want to lose to Bret at WrestleMania, end of story.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.