Posted on 9/18/125 by Colin Vassallo
Shawn Michaels sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Las Vegas,
Nevada to discuss the transition from wrestler to running
NXT, what looks for in a young Superstar, the 2 defining
eras of his in-ring career, his epic matches with the likes
of The Undertaker, Ric Flair and Kurt Angle, whether he
views himself as the greatest wrestler of all time, his
thoughts on his return match at Crown Jewel, his mindset to
become Mr. WrestleMania and more!
On what he is looking for in a pro wrestler:
“I think when we talk about feel, and timing. Timing and
feel are probably, in my opinion, the two most important
things in this business. You can get by with so much more if
you have those two aspects. You can be a little short in
athleticism, you can be a little short in psychology, you
can be a little short in, I don’t know, overall knowledge of
the game, so to speak. If you have timing and a real feel,
because those are things that, I guess charisma plays a part
in that. But if you have timing and feel, I feel like the
charisma and all the other is going to sort of match that
timing and feel, if that makes sense. I know sometimes when
I talk about this, I know I don’t always make sense to a lot
of people, but that’s the level that I’m at.”
On there being 2 eras of Shawn Michaels:
“Well, sure, before and after [1998]. One from a personal
standpoint, obviously, we see that we knew the difference,
and we know whatever it is you want to call it, before the
back injury, after the back injury. Before saved, after
saved, whichever way, troublemaker, much easier to deal
with. Honored to have had both and both serve their
purposes, certainly in my life. I always tell people, of
course, I would love to go back and have had the opportunity
to do the first part different. However, I’d be lying, I
guess, if I didn’t say that I don’t know where I’d be at
today if I didn’t go through that. And I don’t know how
successful I’d have become had I not been that way. So yes,
a lot of it, people look at as very negative, but I didn’t
think I had any other chance if I didn’t push that way.
Probably overly paranoid, I don’t know, whatever it is you
want to call it. I just didn’t think I had the luxury of
what everybody else did. And I don’t know that’s fair. So
don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to justify it. Everything
stems from an insecurity within myself about who I was. None
of it had to do with the ability. Because look, a lot of
times in this job, especially when you’re young, you say,
I’m good enough. We make applications to this line of work
like you do in football or basketball. ‘If I can do A, B, C
and D, I ought to be the highest paid. I ought to be able to
do this. I ought to be able to do that.’ Our job isn’t like
that, because it’s not what those are, and it was very hard
to get that through my incredibly thick skull at that time
in my life. I think on paper, I was better than 99.9% of the
people that were in the wrestling ring. That’s irrelevant.
It’s not totally irrelevant, not like it doesn’t mean
anything, but again, whatever it is you want to say.”
On whether he considers himself as the greatest of all time:
“But again, there’s all sorts of caveats. And that’s one of
those things, again, in that book, greatness is very kind of
the times. You know, fads, trends, different times. Who’s
the best basketball player of all time? Is it LeBron James,
or is it Michael Jordan? If I ask somebody that’s under 30,
they’re going to tell me LeBron James. You ask me, and I’m
going to tell you that it is Michael Jordan, and nobody will
ever convince me differently. But it’s never going to get
proven and same with mine, it’s never going to get proven. I
don’t know how much Michael Jordan or LeBron James cares
about that. I know Shawn Michaels doesn’t. I’m honored to be
in the conversation. Who cares after that? But if you’d have
asked me that at 28, the answer would be totally different.
It would mean a lot to me, and that was the biggest
difference. Again, it was more about perspective and getting
my priorities straight and understanding that there are
things that are bigger than this line of work, and how can I
be great at all of them, or at least have the mindset of
being great at all of them, but doing them in a way that I
can also be proud of doing them, and I think that was the
biggest part of the change.”
On which match he considers to be his last:
“It’s that one with Undertaker [at WrestleMania 26]. Because
the other one, it was a tag match, it was DX, and I feel
kind of bad, because I don’t mean it in a negative way, but
that was just sort of like, I don’t know. It was like Kiss
going out, and not even with the original members or
whatever, and playing a concert at The Troubadour or
something. It was like, Oh, but they’re not really retired,
and I know Kiss never retired, just felt like a special,
separate one-off. HBK and Mr. Wrestlemania, The Showstopper,
whatever, that ended with Taker at WrestleMania, because I
still came back and refereed the match between Hunter and
Taker and again, and will always play a role in the WWE.
Would it count if I went into the Rumble this year or
something? Don’t get me wrong.”
Are you going to?
“Oh, heavens no! [Laughs] Probably shouldn’t have said that.
I was just using that as an example. But no, I don’t
consider those a match. A single performance by me, by HBK,
by that guy. That’s not who that was. That was a dude
hanging out with his buddies and having a match. So one was
the artist, the other one is was a dude, like I said,
hanging out with his buddies.”