That Time Shawn Michaels Was In The nWo And It Went NOWHERE

Shawn Michaels was only slightly less played out when he rocked up by request of a desperate Nash on a 3 June edition of Monday Night Raw. The backwards Kangol hat and neatly tucked-in nWo WWEshop.com number carried none of the rebellious spirit last seen lingering in the late-1990s. Fans had been trained not to care about him after diminished returns as a non-wrestler, and weren't sold on it during a rambling monologue campaigning to bring Triple H into the rag-tag gang weeks later. "GET TO THE POINT" screamed a frustrated ringsider during one of the countless pauses from a rambling Michaels on a road to nowhere.

Enthusiastic as he was as a ringside aide to Pac, Show and a woefully miscast Booker T, Shawn was merely another plaster failing to heal a pulsating wound. Even Rob Van Dam's p*ss-weak leaping sidekick was more interesting than the one 'HBK' was feebly trying to portray. His religious reawakening wasn't powerful enough to combat the curse - less than 30 seconds separated Jim Ross first saying "Nash has missed three months with a bicep injury" before attempting to commentate over the pained wails of the former WWE Champion as he suffered an instant quadriceps tear.

Michaels stole and saved the match with a crowd-popping finish that night, nipping in to clip ousted Order member Booker with Sweet Chin Music, but the futility of the scene was achingly apparent. Even one of his greatest hits couldn't salvage such a sh*t-show, especially without audience foresight of all he still had hidden away.

Morbidly bookending the sorry story, Vince McMahon callously canned the entire stable a week later. Back on the books but barren of benefit, Shawn agreed to a one shot deal against Triple H at that year's SummerSlam to make good on his flawed return and to show his son what his father once did for a living. It was the mark of a changed man, a foreshadow of a phenomenal future and the redemptive reliance of an 'Icon' that definitely could still go.