Top WWE Star Pitched a Match With Shawn Michaels

By Connor Casey

Shawn Michaels initially retired from professional wrestling following his loss at WrestleMania XXVI to The Undertaker back in 2010. And apart from a one-off (and incredibly infamous) tag match at the 2018 Crown Jewel pay-per-view, "The Heartbreak Kid" has stuck to that promise. But it would appear a top WWE star recently pitched the idea to bring the former WWE Champion out of retirement, and Michaels seriously considered it. 

Kevin Owens was on Kevin Raphael's Sans Restriction podcast and explained (in French) that he pitched the idea of a match with Michaels. Owens was apparently inspired after getting "Stone Cold" Steve Austin out of retirement for a No Holds Barred match back at WrestleMania and sat down with Michaels during a recent trip to NXT. Per Fightful Select, Michaels considered the idea (and was more open to it after seeing what Austin managed to pull off after being out of action since 2003), but eventually decided against it. 

Shawn Michaels on His Final Match

Michaels has openly admitted in the years since Crown Jewel that he openly regrets getting back in the ring for that last match, even if the payday was reportedly massive. He argued on the Challenge Mania Podcast the following year that he felt the match didn't really "count" as him coming out of retirement. 

"... It's not a WrestleMania, it's not a this, it's not a... to me it wasn't coming back as the Heartbreak Kid. It was a tag [team match]. 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," Michaels said at the time. 

He discussed it further with The New York Post in 2021, stating he had no idea The Undertaker (who was also involved in the tag match) was seriously considering that as his potential final match. Undertaker would wind up retiring after a cinematic match with AJ Styles at WrestleMania 37 — "I do [regret it]. I had no idea that from Mark's [Calaway, Undertaker's real name] standpoint he was looking at it as that might be one he could walk away on.

"That's something that I think to myself now, 'oh my goodness I wish that I'd have known that,'" he added.

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