WWE: Different shades of Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels

For the past few days, I’ve been watching some old footage of the WWF. Starting with the Savages to Bret Harts, I finally wound up watching Shawn Michaels‘s work, starting with his earlier days in the AWA and Memphis to his stint in the WWF.

What started out as a young man’s journey to stardom quickly escalated to a man loathing his very existence. Shawn Michaels once famously said that there was a point in his career where he didn’t want to do anything except for taking pills. And during one such instance, he wanted to end things, and thought if he had a gun in his hand, he would definitely pull the trigger!

Shawn Michaels wasn’t known as a “good guy” like he has been to the WWE Universe in the past decade back in the 90s. Shawn Michaels was a lot like Razor Ramon, when he had to fight his demons for his very existence.

In professional wrestling, Shawn Michaels has been the most polarizing character, with fans either liking him or hating him. Shawn Michaels the performer was top notch, being the very best in the organization.

But today, I won’t talk about Shawn Michaels the performer, but Shawn Michaels the person. For some, Shawn was a role model, but for many others, he was a bad example.

Shawn Michaels during the 90s was one of the most controversial superstars in the history of the business, so much so that he had a bulls eye on his back every time he walked into the locker room. The other superstars didn’t like Shawn Michaels, and he didn’t care.

Shawn’s journey in the WWF began when he and Marty Jannetty were called up by Vince McMahon, and soon, the entire locker room turned against them. They were known as the “Party boys” in the WWF, and Shawn’s image was that of a cocky, arrogant individual.

They were soon let go by Vince due to a scuffle they were involved in, but were signed back later and were pushed. Shawn Michaels always had the “arrogant” tag which didn’t help his case. So when Shawn didn’t have any friends, he brought in the guy whom he could relate with, Kevin Nash.

Soon, Shawn, Kevin, Scott and later Triple H joined forces, and were notoriously known as “The Kliq”, who would use their influence over Vince McMahon to get what they wanted.