Shawn Michaels On His Expectations Prior To Crown Jewel Versus Undertaker’s
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As part of a longer media call preceding WWE’s Backlash PPV, Shawn Michaels talked about his epic WrestleMania retirement and the Saudi Arabia tag match that brought him back for one night only. While HBK didn’t take that match quite so seriously, he was surprised to hear that Undertaker had something different in mind.
The year after we had my last match (in 2010), we were sitting at baggage claim and we’re waiting on our bags where I’m gonna get inducted into the Hall of Fame and he looked at me and said “you made the right choice. Perfect time to go out” Fast forward to the tag match, I had no idea that in his mind, had it gone well that he would have possibly been able to retire on that. I assumed that he was more looking towards that WrestleMania moment. I just looked at that match as another tag match. I looked at that just as a chance to go out there with my buddies and have some fun and not take anything too seriously. I didn’t know that was a situation that had it gone better, it would’ve made it easier for him to walk away. I assumed in his mind it needed to be the same as me where it needed to be a WrestleMania moment.
Thanks to recent documentaries, we know that Taker is searching for the perfect retirement despite teasing it several times in the past. We can only hope that the legend gets to go out in spectacular fashion, but his advanced age may mean that he’ll have to get creative.
In any case, if you want to hear more from HBK about Backlash and his storied career, the full media call embed (and the above transcript) is courtesy of our good friends at Inside The Ropes:
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