What if Shawn Michaels never had to retire...the first time around?

[CM Steel]

In January of 1998, HBK Shawn Michaels defended his WWF championship against the Undertaker in a casket match at the Royal Rumble of that year in San Jose, California (Bay Area!).

During the match the Undertaker dipped HBK outside the ring onto the casket it's self. Which took out HBK's back. So after HBK had to drop the WWF title to Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 14 in Boston, MA. Shawn Michaels retired from the world of wrestling for 4 years. He made some special appearences every now & then, like on the very first episode of Smackdown as the special guess ref for a match between Triple H & the Rock.

But HBK wanted to show his eldest child what he did for a living before he was born, WRESTLING! So at Summerslam '02 in Long Island, NY. HBK Shawn Michaels made his epic WWE in-ring return in a street fight against his homie from the kliq, Triple H in a match HBK won! And since then HBK has only won a world title in the WWE once being in the first ever "Elimination Chamber" later on that year in NYC at MSG. And only had the world strap for a month before losing it back to Triple H in a 3 stages of hell match.

HBK Shawn Michaels is truely one of the greats when it comes to pro wrestling. He's a former 4X WWF/E champion (well 3 not including the "Montreal Screwjob" as we all know how that went). An icon! But what if HBK didn't have to retire for 4 years due to his injuried back, or what if it never would have happened?? What could have HBK done in those 4 years with new talent like Chris Jericho, The Big Show, and the Radicalz coming into the WWF/E at the time?

But I guess we would never know...

 

[Nate DaMac]

Honestly, I think it would have been the death of him. Him being home with his family was what turned his life around, according to him anyway, and if he were to have stayed on the road for those 4 years instead of cleaning up his act, there is a real possibility that he would have been a tragic case of "What went wrong?" His injury was probably a blessing in disguise in my opinion. There's no telling how much more out of control his drug habit would have gotten.

Also, if he were to have completely collapsed under his problems we wouldn't have seen some of the classic moments and feuds he's been a part of since his return in 02. That means, in all likelihood, no Jericho feud, no Cena WM match, and no Taker WM classics. I certainly wouldn't trade any of those for what he could have had in those 4 years off.

EDIT: After thinking about it for a second, I will say that one possibly great feud we missed out on was one between Michaels and The Rock. If not for his retirement, we certainly would have gotten that dream match. Still, not worth possibly losing the other great matches from his later years.

 

[Brahma Bull]

As nate said, it was probably a blessing in disguise. It is what made him go from a complete asshole, to one of the most respected guys in and out of the ring in wwe history. Of course we missed out on some great feuds. While scsa and the rock were the biggest components of the attitude era, dx was definitely right up there in making the wwe(f) more edgy. Going from a guy who at one point said he would never job to someone again, to the guy who didnt want to be the champion because he wanted to put the new breed over, is what truly made him an icon. He gave us matches that will go down as the some of the best ever. he was mr wrestlemania when he came back, and only a couple of those matches were in the main event, thats saying something right there. the only huge negative is that he never feuded with the rock. when it comes to missed opportunities, that is right up there with hogan vs austin when it comes to dream feuds that we will never see.
in all, for some possible feuds it sucks big time that he was gone, but when it comes to being the man that is respected by all, it was the best thing that could have happened to the guy (even though it really sucks that he was injured obviously).

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I agree. He would be dead now. Not only that but his selfish attitude probably would have hindered WWF's growth at the time. He seemed pretty destructive. He'd do shit like yell "MOVE" if a guy blew a spot (he did it to Vader of all people at Summerslam '96). Just seemed like a real jackass. An incredibly talented jackass, but a jackass.

 

[HBK_EDGE]

I believe his 02-10 run was better than previous of 98. Think about all the great matches he put on in that 8 year span. He went from a guy who would never put anyone over to a guy who was known for putting people over and putting on great matches in losing efforts. Although noone gives him credit for putting Austin over at Wrestlemania 14 when he had a career ending injury and still wrestling one hell of a match.

 

[Redemption-2012]

HBK was 44 years old when he retired, I believe that was the right time for him to retire because he was starting to ruin his legacy. Some might say that 44 is too old to still be wrestling but actually its the right time to retire IMO...HBK probably would have retired sooner if it had not of been for the 4 years he missed with a back injury.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I believe his 02-10 run was better than previous of 98. Think about all the great matches he put on in that 8 year span. He went from a guy who would never put anyone over to a guy who was known for putting people over and putting on great matches in losing efforts. Although noone gives him credit for putting Austin over at Wrestlemania 14 when he had a career ending injury and still wrestling one hell of a match.

You mean it was better than his career up until '98? I disagree. He stopped selling a bodypart once it was time for the finishing run, had a worse same ol shit than people claim Cena has, his whole God thing was annoying as fuck for a while, when him and HHH redid DX it was pathetic. every once in a while he'd pull out a great performance, but I think '02-'10 was more like diet HBK. The little details that made him great weren't there. Then again, neither was the "unprofessional ********" HBK actions either. So maybe they balance each other out.

 

[HatchetMan84]

I don't know how bad Shawn's drug problem really was. He makes mention of it in his book, but not in great detail. Bret Hart said that it was so bad at times that he worried about Shawn hurting people in the ring. I dont know if that is the truth because Bret has a tendency to change the facts a little bit in order to make himself look good.

Either way, I dont think Shawn would have wrestled for much longer because he was already starting to carry alot of injuries with him even before the casket match with Taker. His knees and his back had been bothering him for some time, The casket match just did it in for him.

Had he not injured his back against Taker, we might have seen him in a dynamite kid situation where he continued to work / use drugs even though he had crippling pain. I compare dynamite and HBK in 98 because they were both at that physical point where they needed to take time off, or stop wrestling if they couldn't heal. HBK left the business to rest and eventually have surgery, and Dynamite wrestled for like 5 more years on a blown back.

Had Shawn continued to wrestle past 1998, he may have made it a year or two longer, but like others have pointed out, his nagging injuries and drug habit was an accident waiting to happen. HBK also had a great deal of bitterness for a while towards the business during his first retirement, that motivated him greatly in 2002 to return, so he could come back and do things "The right way" as he said in his book. If Shawn wouldn't have retired in 98, he would have worked another few years and got out of the business totally wasted, physically and because of drugs. If he didn't die, i dont think he would have ever returned to active wrestling again.

 

[HatchetMan84]

Oh i wanted to add that there was a point in Shawn's history before finding god and turning his life around, that they were going to bring Shawn back in the state that he was in.

There was a several page article in WWF magazine about it. They were calling him "the comeback kid", and it was in 2000 they said he was going to come back and return to the ring. From what i have been told by other posters, the plan was for Shawn to return to TV at Wrestlemania X7. He showed up that day ready to come back to work, and then later that evening during the show somebody found him completley passed out in the back from drugs or what not. There was also an incident where he got into it with Triple H, but i dont know if this was on the same day.

Shawn never returned, WWE acted like the article never happened, and we wouldn't see Shawn on TV anymore until a few months before his actual return in 2002.