When you watch pro wrestling as a kid, every
performer seems immortal; especially Hulk
Hogan, who started being marketed as "The
Immortal Hulk Hogan" in the 1980s after Marvel
smashed Hulk financially for calling himself
"Incredible."
Of course, his immortality temporarily died
at Survivor Series in 1991, when the Undertaker
delivered a Tombstone piledriver to Hogan
and won his first world championship.
That year also marked the start of the Undertaker's
undefeated streak at WrestleMania.
No one realized it at the time, but that streak
would eventually bring an end to Shawn Michaels'
career.
Though known as the "Heartbreak Kid," Michaels
had a habit of stealing hearts along with
the show.
Whether it was his iconic Iron Man match with
Bret Hart, his classic matches against Kurt
Angle, or his ridiculous DX antics, his performances
were as sweet as his Chin Music.
And contrary to his theme music, Michaels
wasn't just a sexy boy;
“Thankfully I’m a single man, so I handle
a lot of relationships.”
...he was also a Playgirl model.
More importantly, he was "Mr. WrestleMania,"
a man you always believed would outshine the
spotlight on the brightest stage of them all.
So when Michaels vowed to retire if he couldn't
end the Undertaker's streak at WrestleMania
26, diehard fans hoping that Michaels' career
would live forever had to believe the Dead
Man's undefeated streak would die.
The streak did die, but not that night.
That night, the Heartbreak Kid truly lived
up to his name, shattering the hearts of longtime
devotees in what might be the greatest storyline
in WWE history, and what the WWE describes
as possibly "the greatest collective loss
in WWE history."
Since, as we illustrated, Shawn Michaels is
immortal like the rest of your favorite wrestlers,
you might ask, "Why couldn't his career be
immortal, too?"
The WrestleMania 26 showdown between the Heartbreak
Kid and the Undertaker felt like the physical
equivalent of a love letter to fans.
It had passion and poetry of motion.
It had the Undertaker’S impressive top-rope
attacks and Michaels moonsaulting the Undertaker
through a table.
It had thrilling near-falls and brilliant
in-ring psychology.
Bleacher Report contributor Jon Alba said
of that epic encounter,
"Being 100% unbiased and detached from the
situation, this may have been the greatest
match I have ever seen.
Ever."
For a moment, it seemed like Michaels would
win.
In the final moments of the match, Michaels
delivered his trademark superkick, Sweet Chin
Music, and the WrestleMania crowd roared with
the visceral joy of a child who believed they'd
never have to grow up.
But the Undertaker kicked out at two.
Michaels tuned up the band again, but just
before it seemed like they reached the crescendo,
a chokeslam from the Dead Man silenced Michaels
temporarily.
Yet the Tombstone piledriver that followed
failed to bury his career.
Nevertheless, the end was coming.
The finality was written across Michaels’
face.
The Undertaker hesitated to strike the final
death knell and shouted, "Stay down!"
But Michaels taunted the Undertaker with his
own throat cut motion, rose to his feet, and
slapped the Dead Man across the face with
every ounce of heart he had.
In response, the Undertaker sealed his fate
with one last furious Tombstone.
Somehow Michaels and the Undertaker simultaneously
gave fans everything they could hope for in
a match and the one thing they dreaded the
most: the end of the legendary Heartbreak
Kid's career.
On the Monday Night Raw following WrestleMania
26, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels looked
every bit as heartbroken as the fans awaiting
his farewell speech.
The ring looked lonely even though Michaels
was standing in it, and the fans looked like
a mass of cheering tear drops.
In that sweetly awful goodbye, Michaels uttered
these once seemingly unspeakable words:
"At 23 I started coming into each and every
one of your homes every week.
And the idea of now being 44 and not coming
into your homes on that TV set every week
is gonna be [...] a little tough to get used
to."
As he thanked those who did right by owning
up to wronging others in the past, fans were
feeling a mix of appreciation and denial.
The crowd shouted, "Thank you Shawn," "One
more match," Please don't go," and "HBK."
Their chants lacked the athletic poetry of
the previous night's match, but they brimmed
with the raw emotion of a true goodbye.
For many who grew up watching him and tried
vicariously through his character to feel
larger than life, it wasn't just goodbye to
a career; it was a hello to the passage of
time.
It was a moment when one had to accept that
Michaels was awakening from his boyhood dream,
and fans were letting go of a slice of their
childhood.
In the years that followed people would ask
pro wrestling's beloved showstopper to restart
the show.
But as Michaels matter-of-factly explained
in an interview,
"I wouldn't have retired unless I was ready
to walk away.
I'm flattered that every year when WrestleMania
comes up people talk about me coming back,
but I enjoy my time with my family, I enjoy
watching WrestleMania and I also enjoy watching
WWE move into the future."
Michaels returned to the ring in 2018 to compete
at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia, but didn't
see it as exiting retirement.
As Michaels put it,
"To me it wasn't coming back as the Heartbreak
Kid.
[...] I know that’s not the same, and I
know nobody will understand it, but in my
mind, it was like a glorified house show,
a live event.
[…] I don’t mean that to be intellectually
insulting to the wrestling fan, but in my
mind, it was just so not the same.”
And the world of professional wrestling hasn't
been the same without Shawn Michaels.
We miss you, Heartbreak Kid.
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