Shawn Michaels Comes out of Retirement, DX Challenges Undertaker and Kane

Shawn Michaels and Triple H had just three words for The Undertaker and Kane to open Monday Night Raw this week — “are you ready?”

After reflecting on the two being attacked in the closing moments of the Super Show-Down event in Melbourne, Australia on Saturday, Michaels announced that he was coming out of his eight-year retirement for a match against the Brothers of Destruction. While the Deadman and Big Red Machine were not there to respond, the match was all but guaranteed when the two ripped off their shirts to reveal they were wearing D-Generation X gear. The segment ended as the iconic DX music played throughout the arena in Chicago.

Later in the evening the tag match was officially booked for the show.

Michaels originally retired from professional wrestling in 2010 when he challenged The Undertaker to a Career vs. Streak match at WrestleMania XXVI, which ended with Michaels coming up short for the second year in a row at breaking the legendary undefeated streak.

He’s since made numerous appearances on WWE television but his only in-ring work from that point on involved him serving as a special guest referee.

“It’s because it just felt so…complete,” Michaels said in a recent interview when asked why he held firm on the retirement stipulation for so long. “It felt like I had spent 25 years painting this picture and then all of a sudden one day I stood back and I looked at it and said the picture is done. I sat there and looked at it and I thought, ‘I like it.’ I thought it was beautiful and I just signed my name at the bottom and said, ‘that’s it.’”

While several wrestlers pitched potential one-on-one matches for Michaels, including AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan, “The Heartbreak Kid” never budged. Michaels said the only match that nearly got him back before the upcoming tag team match was a one-on-one bout with Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX, where he would finally break the streak.

“But it was just from a creative standpoint, it was easily the most intriguing idea, one of those ones where my wife said, ‘oh, that’s pretty cool,’” Michaels said. “And that was the one, when I said no, she said ‘you really are done.’”

Other matches announced for Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia include Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship at Styles vs. Bryan for the WWE Championship.