WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels joined The Rack Thursday Night for a nearly ten-minute interview, where he discussed his new book, ”Wrestling for My Life: The Legend, the Reality the Faith of a WWE Superstar”, his faith, on what he hopes people will take away from reading his book, on reforming friendships upon returning to the WWE, particularly with ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and the Undertaker, why he chose them to write the forewords to his book, if he has a favorite memory concerning those two and so much more. Highlights are as follows, and you can listen to the interview here.
What does he hope people will take away from reading his new book: “I have to tell you, and as I stated in the book, I’m certainly no biblical scholar and I’m no pastor, I’m just a guy telling a story of what the Lord did in his life but I’ve learned the power of testimony over the past several years. So, I’m just hoping that if I’m a guy who stands there amongst many people and raises their hands and goes’ hey, just so you know I went through this, I had this problem. It’s ok to say you struggled here and struggled there’ and that it will help other people do the same and that they’ll feel more comfortable knowing that it’s ok.”
“We live in, and especially in the WWE, in that world that obviously doesn’t dead with a lot of truths and there’s always wearing a mask, so to speak, and just for a bit being honest with oneself and saying you need help and admitting to that; that’s not something that’s looked upon as real strong these days but you’d be surprised at what it does and the strength it takes to do it and the strength the Lord gives you to move forward past it.”
On reforming friendships when he returned to the WWE : “Nothing short of spectacular and that’s again, probably one of the… it’s always a toss-up about the single greatest thing about my salvation, but one of the things my faith has taught me is that everything in our lives is about relationships and to have the opportunity to be given a second change with these guys, especially again with like ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and the Undertaker; guys that we weren’t necessarily friends or hung out or anything like that, but we had a mutual respect for one another but obviously, because of the way I was before, it drove a wedge and didn’t give us an opportunity to have more, more than just that professional respect that you almost have to have and having the opportunity to go back and form real friendships with those guys and more importantly to be at a point in our lives where I can say ‘Hey, I’m going to do this book, and it’s in an area that you guys may or may not be real comfortable with; it’s about my faith. But I want to be transparent, I want to be open and honest and only if you can be open and honest about me, would you write a dedication or would you write something and I want you to be painfully honest. It’s ok.'”
I didn’t want people so to speak; I could have reached out to friends: Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, my wife and kids; people I know who will write things about me, but I wanted these guys who could truly give a real assessment of the before and after and honestly, the things they wrote almost brought a tear to my eye. The fact that they said, ‘No, not only will I do it, but I’d be honored to do it’; that just meant the world to me because we have traveled some tough roads, these gentlemen and myself, to get where we’re at and now to have a friendship and a real relationship that goes so far past and beyond the wrestling business and even sort of the silliness that that business brings to your life. It’s nice to have something real and solid with those guys and again couldn’t be more thrilled with that.”
Does he have any particular fond memories about either Steve Austin or The Undertaker: “The irony, well I guess with both of them, is Steve and I had big differences: he was the guy I was dropping the championship to at WrestleMania 14, which was supposed to be the last match that I ever had because I’d injured my back and had been told my career was over and again, to all these years later, to have him be one of the guys that wrote a foreword in this book and to be a guy who we talk on a fairly regular basis about hunting, our deer programs, our ranches and stuff like that. And then, of course, with the Undertaker, that’s the guy who I ended up ending my career with, my actual wrestling career; I had my last two matches with him and they were just so off-the-charts spectacular and we brought in a lot of our real aspects into it, my faith into it and it was just a wonderful thing. It’s an amazing moment to share those very real times with those guys and that’s been, as I said, nothing short of spectacular and those are just two I guess fairly long winded but quick stories about those two guys in particular.”
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