What You Never Knew About Shawn Michaels

When Shawn Michaels lost to The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, that marked the end of an illustrious wrestling career. And he was adamant about staying true to his word and remaining retired, even turning down a potential dream match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 33 in 2017, according to Bleacher Report. That's why it was shocking to see him end his retirement, albeit for one night only, in November 2018, as he and Triple H fought The Undertaker and Kane at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia. It went as well as you'd expect from a match where almost everyone, per Forbes, was in their early 50s. (Triple H, at 49, wasn't too far off.)

Appearing on the "Challenge Mania" podcast in 2019 (via Fightful), Michaels admitted that he was rather nonplussed by the match; he didn't regret momentarily coming out of retiremen,t but at the end of the day, Crown Jewel was a "glorified house show live event" and he was only back in the ring as a favor to WWE. "I can't say that it turned out to be all that fun," he continued. "It was okay and it was great being out there with those guys but again, it was just one of those things that you sorta do [because] you're a company dude and you go, 'Oh all right, I'll do this' and it's separate and all that."

Michaels will be the subject of the Sunday, May 16 edition of "WWE Legends," part of A&E's "Biography" series.

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