Shawn Michaels Reflects On The Two Eras Of His WWE Career

Shawn Michaels comments on the two different eras of his solo career.

From 1992 to 1998, Shawn Michaels was one of the best in-ring performers on the WWE roster. He suffered what was believed to be a career-ending injury at the 1998 WWE Royal Rumble and subsequently retired after losing the WWE Championship to Steve Austin at WWE WrestleMania 14.

He returned from retirement in 2002 to face Triple H at WWE SummerSlam. He then continued wrestling until WrestleMania 26 in 2010. While he was able to maintain a high standard of performance upon returning, his singles career is often seen as two separate eras.

Now, HBK is discussing the difference between these two runs as part of his interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight.

“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. 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.

“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.”

Fans can learn more about what Shawn Michaels has to say about his final match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 here.