Shawn Michaels tells the story.
This past Monday on RAW Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker had the attention of wrestling fans for the entire time that the two men shared the ring. During their exchange Michaels attempted to explain to The Undertaker that the only reason that he's stayed retired since their match at WrestleMania 26 is out of respect for Undertaker. Taker replied by questioning if Shawn was truly retired out of respect or retired out of fear. The two WWE legends' segment drew hope from fans that there will be another opportunity to see the two titans clash in the squared circle once again.
Following the segment, 'Inside The Ropes' released an interview from their tour of the United Kingdom that took place earlier this year and WWE Hall Of Famer Shawn Michaels was a part of that tour. During the discussion Michaels took those in attendance on a ride as he told the story of how his very last pro wrestling match came to be.
“Midway through the summer Michael Hayes calls me. Then again he’s always talking about next year you know what I mean. Its always one of the things Michael was always fantastic about because he was always trying to think of something special for HBK at WrestleMania and so he said, ‘Just gonna throw this out there.... We’ve never done a return’ and he said, ‘What do you think about… because you’ve talked about it here and there, but I don’t know how serious you are. Do a return with The Undertaker - put your career on the line’ and he goes, ‘Even if you don’t wanna walk away, we can figure out something’". Michaels continued, “But I said that’s pretty cool so let me think about it. So we were actually talking about that - I said its something I'll sit the whole summer on and continue to mull over." Michaels said. "Anyway, once again, one of those things.. Its gone, and so [I] enjoy the summer… I’m coming back so then now its Slammy Awards time and we’re winning for match of the year, and of course it pops into my head that, ‘Oh, I wonder are we gonna do this thing?’ And by this time I’ve been back a little bit, my wife and I have talked about it and I think I’m ready to wrap it up so, but I haven’t thought about The Undertaker matchup or anything else so I’m about to go out and accept this award and I’m running around thinking, ‘Hey, if we’re gonna do this thing, wouldn’t this be a great time to go out and accept the award for match of the year and go ahead and challenge The Undertaker - put my career on the line or whatever you wanna do’ so it just pops into my head. I run and get Michael, I tell him [and] he’s like, ‘Oh my God, why do you wanna do it?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know, it sounds like a great idea - just something to think about.' Other than that [I] just go out and say thanks for the award and whatever. [I] said I’m just trying to think of something to make this more impactful or whatever. If we’re gonna do it lets do it."
The WWE Hall Of Famer continued by speaking about the 2009 Slammy Awards edition of RAW where he issued the challenge to The Undertaker. Michaels stated that it was hectic backstage and there was some back and forth between Vince McMahon, Michael P.S. Hayes and himself about if he was going to go through with the announcement. HBK even told the story about how The Undertaker found out that they were going to be mixing it up one more time on "The Grandest Stage Of Them All".
"Well you can’t just do that - we gotta go and… the show is going on, Vince is up in gorilla, we’re all up there, we’re talking about it and so its almost, once again, felt like RAW was back in the Monday Night War days because it’s a little bit of chaos [because everyone] is right there at the gorilla position and the awards are going on and they’re slowly getting to the match of the year award - we’re talking about it and finally I said, ‘Look, lets just do it. I wanna go out there, I’ll accept the award, make the challenge, that’s gonna be that and [a producer says], ‘So that’s gonna be it? You’re gonna put your career on the line - I say, ‘Yeah, I guess so. I don’t have to mention that right now if you don’t want me to’. I said we can mention that later on and [they go], ‘Why don’t we just do that then! Lets just do that but go ahead and challenge The Undertaker’. I said, ‘Okay. You’re okay doing a rematch at WrestleMania with The Undertaker’ and then [Michael Hayes] goes, ‘I don’t know, what do we do?’ I said I’m going out there and me and Mike we’re just sorta having this circle jerk-em, and I said I’m just going there. By this time they’re making the announcements - Hunter’s doing the stuff and Vince is like, ‘Alright, we’re just gonna go there’ and that’s honestly how that came up and its funny because Taker tells the story now that that’s honestly how he found out what he was doing at WrestleMania that year." Michaels explained. "He’s sitting at home watching RAW and I make the challenge... yeah he texted both Vince and Michael - he goes, ‘So I guess I’m working with Shawn at WrestleMania?’”
To read in detail the words that were exchanged between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker on RAW, click here. If you are going to use the quotes above, please credit 'Inside The Ropes' with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
