6. Injuring His Back

Shawn’s career may not have ended in 97 but it nearly did here. While defending the WWE title against the Undertaker in a casket match at the 98 royal rumble Shawn suffered an almost career ending injury. Taker back dropped Michaels over the top hitting his back off the edge of the casket.

Shawn’s back was in a bad state but he someone managed to fight through the main event of Mania 14 against Steve Austin before leaving to have much needed surgery.

This back injury would side-line HBK from in ring competition for 4 years. In an alternate universe the list would end here but Shawn wasn’t done here.

5. SummerSlam 2002

Shawn wrestled his first match in 4 years at SummerSlam 2002 against Triple H. He was reluctant to step back in the ring, but Triple H promised to walk him through it. While it was kind of Triple H to offer to help his friend when you watch that match back Shawn didn’t need it.

All fears of ring rust were put to bed as HBK looked like he hadn’t missed a day.

Despite a great showing Shawn still hadn’t decided if he was coming back full time or not. He wouldn’t decide that until…

4. WrestleMania 19

Jericho like many of his generation grew up loving Shawn Micheals. He even said it himself that he originally wanted to be the next Shawn Micheals.

A simple story of Jericho wanting to prove he’s better than his idol and it was this program that convinced Shawn to stick around full time. Both men have a similar style so of course they always have great chemistry. This match managed to stand out amongst a stacked show that featured Hogan vs McMahon, Rock vs Austin, Angle vs Lesnar and Triple H vs Booker T.

Without this program Shawn’s SummerSlam match would likely have been a one off. There would be a number of classic matches from his second run we would have missed out on.

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