17 Most Brutal Hazing Horror Stories In Wrestling
12. DX Welcomes Michael Cole To WWE
Googling "Shawn Michaels Michael Cole" will produce, amongst other things, a shot of them on a fishing trip together in the mid-2010s; 'HBK' happily retired, and Cole presumably happy to be getting a few hours off the hamster wheel.
It's one of the funnier passage-of-time shots for the longstanding colleagues, not least because their first interactions together were broadcast for the world to see, and didn't shine the best light on Michaels or any of his D-Generation X pals.
New to WWE in 1997 and looking and feeling like a scaled-back Todd Pettingill in his capacity as chief backstage interviewer, Cole took a verbal kicking from Michaels in their first exchange on the Ground Zero: In Your House pre-show, and had an even worse run of things the following month. Dragged into the locker room and slapped around by Triple H, Chyna and Ravishing Rick Rude, Cole then had his tuxedo torn before being thrown in the shower to interview Shawn there. The European Champion soaked him to the bone and left him in there to get pushed about by Rude and Chyna while cutting his promo to the camera with Hunter holding the microphone instead.
It formally kicked off a campaign of on-screen abuse from the stable to poor Cole, who suffered the indignity of wedgies, wet willies and being forcefully shoved to the ground during in-ring segments as the degenerates further established their hideous vibe at his expense.