Ahead of the Super Bowl LV matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night, two-time WWE Hall of Famer and four-time WWE Champion Shawn Michaels sat down with Sports Illustrated to discuss the matchup. During the conversation “The Heartbreak Kid” acknowledged some of the parallels between his career and that of Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who put on a clinical performance en route to winning his seventh Super Bowl despite being 43. That was the same age Michaels was when he and The Undertaker faced off at WrestleMania 25, which many fans now consider being one of the greatest wrestling matches of all time.
“Your age, that number, it drives you,” Michaels said. “Before that match, Undertaker and I acknowledged that people on the card were younger, faster and even better, so we tapped into our strength. We harnessed experience, 20 years of a backstory, and focused on what we did best.”
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“I know the two worlds are very different, but we knew how to tell the story and Brady knows how to win the game,” he later added. “If Brady is great on Sunday, it’s not going to be because of his scrambling ability or long runs. He’s going to have to play to the best of his ability, doing what he does best. That was the same premise behind what I did, which wasn’t X’s and O’s like football. I knew, in order to be great, I had to play into the storytelling aspect of wrestling.”
Do you see the connection between Michaels and Brady in their respective careers? Let us know what you think down in the comments!
Michaels retired from wrestling a year later after a rematch with The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVI. He now works backstage for WWE as Performance Center coach and helps run both NXT and NXT UK. The Undertaker admitted during his The Last Ride documentary series last year that he was jealous of how Michaels was able to retire so easily.
“I’m so envious of Shawn because he was able to walk away and be…he was good with it. Do I wish I had that kind of clarity? Absolutely,” Undertaker said. “He had the clarity before going into the match. Hopefully, when I have the match I’m looking for, I have that clarity. ‘Okay, that’s it.’”
