THTRobtaylor
Once & Future Wrestlezone Columnist
I came across this again recently and think it's one of the more fascinating tales of wrestling lore.
There are no hard facts out there seemingly, but it was initially reported around 1996 by Meltzer that Shawn Michaels had inherited around £2.5m dollars from a fan of his that he'd never met. Meltzer didn't have specifics and it's one of those tales that "disappeared" from the radar over time.
Interestingly though, I just hear Bruce Prichard talking about it on one of his podcasts... again no actual specifics but there was a definite sense from his answer that it DID happen, just much earlier than Meltzer claimed.... around the time he "quit" the WWF with the Intercontinental title in 1993.
It would explain a lot about how Shawn operated in those days, how Vince tolerated his behaviour and how The Kliq came to be... after all if a guy is independently wealthy by more than what you'd pay him in probably 10 years (no way was he on more than 200k a year at the time) then sitting at home is an option.
For someone like Nash, who came in and started working and travelling with Shawn at the same sort of time, it would make road life easy and generate a loyalty. Not to say they weren't genuine friends off the bat, but if one guy has a lot of cash and all you have to do is get him out of the odd scrape/look intimidating around him or do the driving in return for a party lifestyle or him picking up the check most of the time then that's not a bad deal. Likewise for Razor, Kid and Hunter...
The other thing that makes me think this is true in at least some form is put delicately, the life Shawn has now. Like DiBiase before him, Shawn has spoken at length about how he had "everything", lost it and found it again in religion. Shawn was known to have a lot of demons during his 90's run, and sudden wealth can trigger such demons.
How would it affect his relationship with Vince? Imagine winning or inheriting suddenly the equivalent amount today (probably about 5m) and staying in your job, rather than retiring on the spot. Instead of taking it easy, you actually become BETTER at your job, to the point you actually start talking back to the boss... You don't try and take over the company, but you make clear what you'll do and what you won't...and that your buddies get taken care of. Something happens you don't like, you can always "just go home" but by then you're essential to the team... From Vince's side it'd be a pain in the ass, especially as Shawn was a partier BEFORE that happened and this would arguably have made it easier, and more likely for him to go to excess (as is widely reported he did) but, when you have a staff member who genuinely ISN'T motivated by money and is starting to make you more of it... you'd probably tolerate him.
On some level it may be that Shawn got away with so much because this money put him on a level he couldn't be "punished" with fines etc. in the way others could.... Remember how Dennis Rodman would simply write the NBA a cheque each season in advance for the dress code fines? He got away with it by being the best of the time (or one of them) and Shawn did too...
Think about it... Shawn vacated more titles than anyone... was suspended/quit 2 or 3 times and could retire immediately when he "needed to"... You couldn't do that on WWF money of his first run, he'd have not even been on a guarantee until 1996/97.
More interestingly, perhaps this is why there was never any serious attempt to go to WCW on Shawn's part or perhaps interest. WCW was very money focused... they wanted to pay guys more than they'd ever had and work them less. Shawn had done it in reverse, gotten the money and worked (and partied) arguably harder, so another 2.5m a year probably wouldn't have made as much difference it it meant not being as fulfilled in the ring.
Like I said it's a fascinating tale that seemingly has at least some basis that we'll never know about. The most Shawn has ever done is angrily bat away questions about it... but if it wasn't true, surely you'd just laugh it off right?
So do you believe that particular story? or is it an old Ring Rat's tale that got blown out of proportion?
There are no hard facts out there seemingly, but it was initially reported around 1996 by Meltzer that Shawn Michaels had inherited around £2.5m dollars from a fan of his that he'd never met. Meltzer didn't have specifics and it's one of those tales that "disappeared" from the radar over time.
Interestingly though, I just hear Bruce Prichard talking about it on one of his podcasts... again no actual specifics but there was a definite sense from his answer that it DID happen, just much earlier than Meltzer claimed.... around the time he "quit" the WWF with the Intercontinental title in 1993.
It would explain a lot about how Shawn operated in those days, how Vince tolerated his behaviour and how The Kliq came to be... after all if a guy is independently wealthy by more than what you'd pay him in probably 10 years (no way was he on more than 200k a year at the time) then sitting at home is an option.
For someone like Nash, who came in and started working and travelling with Shawn at the same sort of time, it would make road life easy and generate a loyalty. Not to say they weren't genuine friends off the bat, but if one guy has a lot of cash and all you have to do is get him out of the odd scrape/look intimidating around him or do the driving in return for a party lifestyle or him picking up the check most of the time then that's not a bad deal. Likewise for Razor, Kid and Hunter...
The other thing that makes me think this is true in at least some form is put delicately, the life Shawn has now. Like DiBiase before him, Shawn has spoken at length about how he had "everything", lost it and found it again in religion. Shawn was known to have a lot of demons during his 90's run, and sudden wealth can trigger such demons.
How would it affect his relationship with Vince? Imagine winning or inheriting suddenly the equivalent amount today (probably about 5m) and staying in your job, rather than retiring on the spot. Instead of taking it easy, you actually become BETTER at your job, to the point you actually start talking back to the boss... You don't try and take over the company, but you make clear what you'll do and what you won't...and that your buddies get taken care of. Something happens you don't like, you can always "just go home" but by then you're essential to the team... From Vince's side it'd be a pain in the ass, especially as Shawn was a partier BEFORE that happened and this would arguably have made it easier, and more likely for him to go to excess (as is widely reported he did) but, when you have a staff member who genuinely ISN'T motivated by money and is starting to make you more of it... you'd probably tolerate him.
On some level it may be that Shawn got away with so much because this money put him on a level he couldn't be "punished" with fines etc. in the way others could.... Remember how Dennis Rodman would simply write the NBA a cheque each season in advance for the dress code fines? He got away with it by being the best of the time (or one of them) and Shawn did too...
Think about it... Shawn vacated more titles than anyone... was suspended/quit 2 or 3 times and could retire immediately when he "needed to"... You couldn't do that on WWF money of his first run, he'd have not even been on a guarantee until 1996/97.
More interestingly, perhaps this is why there was never any serious attempt to go to WCW on Shawn's part or perhaps interest. WCW was very money focused... they wanted to pay guys more than they'd ever had and work them less. Shawn had done it in reverse, gotten the money and worked (and partied) arguably harder, so another 2.5m a year probably wouldn't have made as much difference it it meant not being as fulfilled in the ring.
Like I said it's a fascinating tale that seemingly has at least some basis that we'll never know about. The most Shawn has ever done is angrily bat away questions about it... but if it wasn't true, surely you'd just laugh it off right?
So do you believe that particular story? or is it an old Ring Rat's tale that got blown out of proportion?
