Shawn Michaels Reveals He Almost Came out of Retirement for WrestleMania XXX

Rumors of Shawn Michaels coming out of retirement for an upcoming pay-per-view match have been spreading for weeks as “The Heartbreak Kid” continues to get involved in the ongoing Triple H-Undertaker feud.

Michaels originally retired at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010 after losing a retirement match to “The Phenom.” Unlike so many wrestlers before him, he has actually managed to stay out action for the last eight years.

But in a recent interview with Inside the Ropes, Michaels admitted that his retirement was nearly cut short in 2014 when he was pitched a match for WrestleMania XXX. He explained the match would be a third WrestleMania encounter with The Undertaker, only this time he would come out on top and end Taker’s legendary undefeated 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.’”

Michaels also explained in the interview why he was so determined to stay retired.

“It’s because it just felt so…complete,” he said. “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.’”

Michaels would appear at WrestleMania XXX, but only as an analyst for the pre-show. Brock Lesnar would go on to challenge the Undertaker and break his streak later in the evening.

News of Michaels stepping back in the ring for one more match came back when he appeared on the Sept. 3 episode of Monday Night Raw and was confronted by “The Deadman” after predicting that Triple H would win their “Last Time Ever” match at Super Show-Down. This eventually led to Michaels announcing he would be in Hunter’s corner for the match in Melbourne, Australia.

On Monday’s edition of Raw Michaels cut a promo in the main event segment reminding everyone that he’d be at Super Show-Down on Saturday. Undertaker and his brother Kane then appeared in the ring and beat down both Michaels and Triple H, laying them out with a pair of chokeslams.

According to Wrestling Observer‘s Dave Meltzer, Saturday’s match will build to a tag match between D-Generation X and The Brothers of Destruction at the upcoming Crown Jewel pay-per-view event in Saudi Arabia.