Shawn Michaels – Back Injury Talk

By Scott Keith on November 18, 2012

Hi Scott,
LONG time reader and Blog of Doomer here–having a solitude Saturday night (and not choosing UFC), so I decided to rewatch WrestleMania 14 with Stone Cold vs. Michaels. I had a question though for you–In your opinion, was Michaels in as bad as shape as everyone had us believe? I know from his book he states he injured himself at the Rumble and then pilled himself up for the match, but there are so many things that contradict that. 1) He's roided to the max and in great shape. If he was having back issues (which I have had with surgery btw), there is no way he should be looking that fit or touching a barbelle. 2) He starts the match absolutely limber and taking great bumps–no sign of a "back of doom." It's only after a conspicuous railing shot outside that he begins to properly sell how his bad back–(it was amazing selling anyway; in 1998, I believed the awful pain on his face) 3) He made it very well known at the time that he was not happy being pushed aside for Mr. Austin (yes, he states otherwise now).
Anyway, do you think he just sold his injured back as "career ending" just to let the cards fall and let Austin hang himself (and then come to the rescue if he failed?). He wasn't a saint at the time, so I don't put it past him. I look forward to your thoughts, as always.
Shawn was of course full of shit on a lot of stuff, but that back injury was pretty much as close to a real life miracle as you're going to get. By all accounts, Shawn was in constant pain from his retirement all the way until about 2001, including his one "comeback" match in his TWA promotion where he worked a smoke and mirrors match against Paul Diamond and didn't take any bumps. This would be one of the few times where I 100% believe Shawn was telling the truth, or was at least the most convincing liar in history.

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