WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels is an icon, and initially competed in the company from 1988 to 1998. The Heartbreak Kid later returned to the ring in 2002 and continued wrestling until his retirement match on the Grandest Stage of Them All against The Undertaker in 2010.
Of course, Michaels made a Saudi Arabia comeback in 2018 for what proved to be a disappointing, largely terrible, tag team match pitting DX (HBK and Triple H) against the Brothers of Destruction, The Undertaker and Kane.
Since then, Mr. WrestleMania has lent his talents to NXT, where he now serves as the Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative for the brand.
Chris Van Vliet recently caught up with Michaels and asked him to set the record straight on which match he truly considers to be his last.
"It’s that one with Undertaker [at WrestleMania 26]. Because the other one, it was a tag match, it was DX, and I feel kind of bad, because I don’t mean it in a negative way, but that was just sort of like, I don’t know. It was like Kiss going out, and not even with the original members or whatever, and playing a concert at The Troubadour or something."
"It was like, 'Oh, but they’re not really retired,' and I know Kiss never retired, just felt like a special, separate one-off. HBK and Mr. Wrestlemania, The Showstopper, whatever, that ended with Taker at WrestleMania, because I still came back and refereed the match between Hunter and Taker and again, and will always play a role in the WWE. Would it count if I went into the Rumble this year or something? Don’t get me wrong."
Pushed on whether he'd show up in the Royal Rumble or another match, Michaels quickly responded, "Oh, heavens no! Probably shouldn’t have said that. I was just using that as an example. But no, I don’t consider those a match. A single performance by me, by HBK, by that guy. That’s not who that was."
"That was a dude hanging out with his buddies and having a match," he continued. "So one was the artist, the other one is was a dude, like I said, hanging out with his buddies."
HBK's in-ring career might have ended, but he's now shaping the talent of tomorrow in NXT, so his impact is still being felt in a big way each week.
You can watch the full interview below.