Shawn Michaels On Why He Said Yes To The Match At Crown Jewel, How It Affected Him Physically, Triple H’s Injury

E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness made its long awaited return to the podcasting world along with special guest Shawn Michaels. The WWE Hall of Famer opened up on a myriad of wrestling related topics, including his recent WWE return at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view.

On How He Felt About His WWE Return Match:

On one hand I was happy with my mobility and all that, but I’m still feeling it today. As you know, if you don’t do anything for a long time – and you’re anxious – you don’t know what you don’t know and literally, I have not been in the ring for eight years, so you wonder if [laughter], if everything’s still there. Thankfully, I can still do the few things that I do.

On Vince McMahon’s Confidence In His Return:

Vince was 100% confident this whole time….I told him, I said, ‘Thank you,’ but at the same time it was a little easier to believe when I was 35 and coming back after four years and I said, ‘Jesus, it’s been eight years and I’m 53.’ Something’s gotta give. As you guys know, everybody else can believe in you all you want; but, if you’re second guessing or you’re not sure, it makes you anxious.

On The Importance Of Being In Ring Shape:

As you guys know, you can do whatever you want; but, nothing prepares you for that. Thankfully, it was a tag team match. That was a huge advantage, obviously. It didn’t help [with] Hunter getting hurt, but like the crazy man he is, he still went through his stuff and thankfully, there’s no way you’re gonna be slower than the 300 pound guys [laughter].

On Why He Said ‘Yes’ To The Match At Crown Jewel:

That’s the whole reason I said yes to this because it seemed like if there was going to be a way, this would be the perfect dynamic. You know what I mean? You got all these elements together; those guys, the experience, plenty of bodies, plenty of people to do sorta their signature stuff. Everybody play their greatest hits and we should be OK.

On Triple H’s In-Ring Injury At Crown Jewel:

This looked like something he could a little bit work around, so I just said, ‘Are you sure?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll get through it.’ So you just make that agreement and you guys – everybody has one way or another fought through injuries before and gutted it out, it’s not as pretty obviously as you’d like it to be. It’s much like, now, everybody knows he was hurt and it begins to take on another dynamic, like, ‘Holy cow man, all of them are old. One guy hasn’t been in the ring in eight years. The other guy got hurt. Considering all those dynamics, those guys did OK.’ It adds to the mystique, so to speak. In this particular match, we were last. We were the main event. You’ve got to put in some time. Of all the injuries I’ve had, I’ve never torn anything…this, I didn’t know and of course, as you know, he’s gonna say yes, as he did. That was my biggest concern is him continuing going to make this worse. I don’t know and he’s not gonna tell you. He’s gonna say, ‘Yes, I can gut through it.’ It’s really trying to figure out – again, it’s one of those things, ‘Do I grab a chair and just start swinging and just forget about this and get him out of here?’ He was adamant about it, so we sorta knew where we were going and that I could take the bulk of it, if he could sorta get through even a couple things of the comeback, but it’s a huge question mark. You’re still not sure. It is one of those things where if anything could go wrong, it did. I guess we’ll adapt like we do and make the best of it.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Michaels also talks extensively about his time as a coach at the NXT Perfomance Center. Readers can listen to all that and more below:

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