Shawn Michaels Reacts To His Peers Calling Him ‘The Best’
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Shawn Michaels reacts to receiving the highest of praise from Ric Flair and others.
Shawn Michaels is a once-in-a-generation performer. Even in an industry as subjective as professional wrestling, most would agree with this statement. Growing up, Shawn Michaels viewed Ric Flair as a once-in-a-generation performer. Eventually, the two would meet inside of a wrestling ring and Shawn would even have the honor of retiring Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24.
Speaking with Inside The Ropes, Shawn Michaels reacted to his peers Ric Flair and The Undertaker calling him the best bell-to-bell performer.
“Yeah, look, it’s all subjective, right? Ours is not a line of work that deals with stats and things of that nature. I will say this, over the years, when I was younger, it was the drive, it was a passion, it was the desire to be the best or to want to be called, or at least grouped in with, the greatest of all time.”
He continued, “As you get older, you begin to realize that, the guys that I was in there with, I can only assume that in our world here, the Tom Bradys, the Michael Jordans… I never want to ever have it sound disrespectful. I greatly appreciate the people, the fans or even sportswriters or people thinking you’re the best of the greatest, which is very nice. But for me, it means the most to hear from the guys that I was in the ring with – because those are the people you feel truly know the difference, and could feel the difference.
“I think that’s one thing that… I don’t know. I always wanted at least to guys’ experience with me inside that ring to be something they’d always remember. That, for some reason, being in there with me was, I don’t know, easy or special and a bit more, I guess, natural and comfortable – and, of course, something that they could look back on and be happy about. So, hearing it from my peers is clearly the best thing to me. But I also do know that stuff is here today and gone tomorrow, so it’s not something I really think about that much anymore. It’s just very nice to look back on what I think is a really wonderful career that I feel very fortunate to have had.”
Today, Shawn Michaels helps the next generations of performers sculpt their body of work as a producer in WWE NXT.