6. Shawn Michaels - He Loses His Smile
"I know that over the, uh, the last several months I've lost a lot of things and one of them has been my smile. And, and I know it doesn't mean a whole lot to everbody else, but it means a lot to me. So I have to go back and fix myself, and take care of myself, and I have to go back and I have to find my smile because somewhere along the line I lost it." Shawn Michaels now infamous "losing his smile" speech summed up perfectly the disastrous run he had as WWF Champion in 1996. He started off the reign as an enthusiastic good looking kid, and ended it as a broken disillusioned man. With his bearded scruffiness and red eyes during that 97 speech, Michaels was the visual embodiment of a man who had crumbled under the pressure of carrying the WWF. All his friends had left for WCW, who had then proceeded to own the WWF in ratings and buys ... with an ego the size of HBK's it was hugely painful to accept he just wasn't that engaging as champion. Rather than pass the title on to Bret Hart or Steve Austin, he instead decided to go home. He had lost his smile. It seemed like Shawn's whole life was loaded with problems at this point. In addition to being unable to improve business, he was also struggling with drug problems and alcohol dependency. His personal relationships were in tatters. The locker room hated him and despite being ineffective as a draw Michaels was fighting with Vince McMahon to maintain his position as the number one guy. He had no choice but to take the high road and leave for a while. The fact that Shawn had made such a big deal about being the number 1 guy over Bret Hart was probably what made his inability to draw so much harder to take. The crushing reality was that in 1996 both Wrestlemania and Summerslam buyrates went down with Shawn pushed as the man. Male fans just struggled to buy into the pretty boy male who was posing nude in playgirl. The grittier Austin and more technical Hart were more appealing ... albeit Mr.Hart is still to make an appearance on this list and also didn't cover himself in any glory during this period either.