One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY Month Of The WWE Attitude Era
37. April 1998 | Shawn Michaels’ Cruel Backstage Nickname
Shawn Michaels was in a horrible place in early 1998.
He was already in a bad place throughout 1997. Struggling with drug addiction and the professional failure of his top babyface run the prior year, Michaels was a self-loathing disruptor who alienated virtually everybody around him to seize the top spot. He wasn’t completely unapologetic about it either; he was contrite in the immediate aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob. He got what he wanted, and then wondered if he even did. He then badly injured his back at Royal Rumble 1998, which exacerbated what was already a dangerous dependence on alcohol and prescription painkiller medication. His ego and boundless greed for success had already informed a series of coincidences that allowed him to never drop a WWF title in the conventional, professional way. When he genuinely thought he could not do it, at WrestleMania 14, because the pain was so unbearable, nobody believed him. It was just Shawn being an unprofessional nightmare again, right?
The Undertaker had to threaten to punch his face in to make sure Steve Austin was crowned. Shawn needed sympathy. He hadn’t earned it, but he needed it. Instead, he received the very opposite. Per the April 13 Observer, Shawn did earn something. He earned a particularly cruel backstage nickname in wrestling circles: Louie.
‘Louie’ was Louie Spicolli, the WCW wrestler who had overdosed, aged just 27, on February 15, after overdosing on a wine and soma cocktail following his own career-long struggles with addiction. Shawn was an imminent statistic in April, with his career in tatters, and it seems as if “the boys” weren’t too cut up about it.