Shawn Michaels was part of many iconic moments during his wrestling career. From achieving his boyhood dream to his matches with The Undertaker, HBK always knew how to bring out the emotion from the crowd and create a lasting memory. One such moment people still remember to this day is his WrestleMania XXIV match against Ric Flair. Michaels defeated Ric to end his WWE career and the ending of the bout is considered one of the most iconic moments in the history of the business.
The former world champion recently appeared on Notsam Wrestling podcast. Among other things he also talked about this match and revealed that he actually came up with the plans for this bout in the middle of the night:
“That particular match was something that came to me in the middle of the night. I woke up out of sleep. I think it was like two o’clock in the morning, [I] got up out of bed, and then just went to the table and started writing. Then I’m coming down to the end of it. Those thoughts that are in my head and of course, like a movie [I get] a little teardrop. I’m like ‘Oh my goodness. Is this too like namby pamby?’
I mean, wrestling audience, they can be tough. I just thought, ‘oh, I don’t know.’ But again, because it was so emotional for me because I knew where Ric was at that time, and I knew how important it was to him. It was genuinely important to me because it was important to him.”
‘It Was My Chance’: Shawn Michaels
The WWE Hall of Famer explained that even though he wasn’t sure about the crowd reaction, he decided to share the idea for the ending. Shawn Michaels revealed how Ric Flair reacted to it and who was the person who helped him perfect it:
“I wanted this to be really unbelievably special for him. It’s my chance for him to say of all the great matches he’s had, my best one was with Shawn Michaels. At whatever age he was at that time 56 or something. So there were a number of reasons I wanted it to go well, but then you’re looking at this ending and it’s like, sounds like a love story and that may not really go over well with a tough crowd. But I kept it.
I presented that to Michael Hayes and Ric when we got there to WrestleMania. Ric just patted me on the leg and goes ‘Thank you.’ and I was still waiting, like, does that thank you [mean] it’s good or is that [not]? Then I ask Michael and he’s the one that helps. Now he starts to think about framing it and making it what it turned out to be.”
You can check out Shawn Michaels’ full interview below:
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