Shawn Michaels eliminated Mike Knox from the Team DX vs. Team Rated RKO match at the 2006 WWE Survivor Series event. The elimination came within moments of the match getting started and the entire time, Shawn Michaels was asking if Mike Knox was even a competitor.
In a new interview with Sportskeeda, Knox reflects on this moment and what he initially believed would happen when he was told he was going to be eliminated first.
"So, Michaels Hayes comes, you know, 'Hey man, sorry like, you're going to be eliminated first, and I was like, 'Well, okay.' But, there was a but, right? You're going to give me eight minutes, ten minutes, like, let me get some steam on somebody, and there could be something cool that I want to do. Let the people know because I'm ECW, and you guys don't promote ECW even though we've been around for a year. The main roster guys don't really know who I am. You know what I mean? I'm an ECW guy. You know, we kind of filmed on the same days, but we're just, I don't know, we're just different."
In response to this, Michael Hayes would spend what was about to happen to Mike Knox as “a moment.”
"So he comes and says, 'Well, you can do that. You can go out there and do four minutes or whatever and just be completely forgotten, but everybody, or you have a moment. One of those moments people remember, and they ask you about what part of your career, and I'm just like, 'I want that.' This is going to be so cool. He's like, okay. You're going to get superkicked in one second, and you're out. I'm like, 'Ohhh!' I was like, 'That's not the moment I wanted.’"
Mike Knox, who would be taken off of television shortly after this moment and only have a brief run a couple of years later -- which included a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match appearance-- revealed that he never spoke about that moment with HBK.
"After he hit me with that kick or whatever, we had never said one word to each other. Like before that, before that day, like I said, ECW is ECW. He is RAW, top of the line, man. So, we didn't really talk much, and then after that, we didn't talk much either. But I always remember that night, and I kind of had that against them for a long time. They did that and whatever because you could have done it a little differently. Helped a brother out, maybe? They decided to go another way. They decided it was best for business at that time, or it made somebody laugh. It must have popped somebody."
These days, Shawn Michaels and Triple H have a much more keen eye towards the future than they did in 2006 as both run the NXT brand of WWE.
