"He’s lucky Vader didn’t beat the sh** out of him"- AEW commentator comments on infamous Shawn Michaels incident
AEW's legendary announcer Jim Ross was around when the infamous incident between Vader and Shawn Michaels took place at Summerslam in 1996. JR said that HBK was lucky the wrestling legend didn't beat him up.
Shawn Michaels and Vader were involved in a feud heading into Summerslam over the WWE Championship. The latter missed his cue to move out of the way during an elbow drop spot during the match.
HBK shouted at Vader during the match before kicking up a fuss about it backstage.
Jim Ross on his Grilling JR podcast recalled the incident, saying HBK was lucky "Vader didn’t beat the sh** out of him."
“Well, nothing good,” Ross said. “You don’t have to use your cool like that, Shawn had the license to lose his cool because of his influence with the office and Shawn knew that Vince was going to back him no matter what he did. Shawn overplayed his hand in my estimation, it was very unprofessional and he’s just lucky Vader didn’t beat the sh** out of him because Leon could have. Leon was hungry, Leon wanted the opportunity, he needed an American base and now he’s in the main event of a major pay-per-view wrestling for the biggest title we have. Leon had traveled a lot of miles, had lost weight and showed a better commitment to what he was doing," said Jim Ross. (H/T: WrestlingInc)
Jim Ross commented on Shawn Michaels' attitude in WWE
Jim Ross called Shawn Michaels' actions after the match uncalled for and said that he had "Vince in his pocket."
JR said WWE Chairman Vince McMahon saw many similarities between himself and Shawn Michaels in terms of his attitude and demeanor.
“I just thought it was totally uncalled for, Shawn had the deck stacked cause he had Vince in his back pocket. Vince often told me ‘You know that goddamn Shawn Michaels reminds me of me when I was younger.’ Did you do a lot of super kicks when you were younger Vince? But he was talking about Shawn’s attitude, demeanor, that type thing. It wasn’t good and the damn match got four stars and could’ve been five stars if some of that childish bulls*** didn’t happen,” said Jim Ross.
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