Shawn Michaels looks back on his WrestleMania 23 bout with John Cena.
At WrestleMania 23, John Cena met Shawn Michaels in the main event of the show, with the WWE Championship on the line. The two men had held the WWE World Tag Team Championship together in the lead up to WrestleMania, with Shawn being the latest name to step up to the new face of the WWE.
While speaking to ESPN in a new interview, Shawn discussed what he wanted to achieve in his WrestleMania 23 bout with Cena.
"I just looked at it as a fantastic opportunity, to be one of the guys that would certainly continue to solidify John as our No. 1 guy, and the guy that was going to be carrying the company. There's kind of two types of people that you're working with [as the top guy] -- the guys that would rather have that spot than you, and guys that support you. I was at a place in my career where I was 100% committed to having the best match with John that we possibly could."
Shawn continued, stating he needed more from Cena on that night, something he felt Cena understood.
"I always tried to make sure that I was 100% prepared for any WrestleMania match that I had," Michaels said. "At that time I was working with John, I had no idea what the years ahead had in store for me. You can't call yourself Mr. WrestleMania and not get a reputation of having to perform at that level at that show. I had every intention of making sure John and I were going to work our butts off. I mean this lovingly, I don't care whatever level he was at. I needed him to reach a higher level that night -- hopefully the highest level he'd ever met at that time -- because that's what I certainly expect for myself, and that's what I expect from the guys that are in the ring with me. I think John knew that, and that's something I've always appreciated about him. I believe it is something that John took very seriously at the time; he wanted to be at his absolute best as well."
Cena would go on to defeat Michaels in a WrestleMania classic.
Elsewhere in ESPN's feature on Cena's most memorable WrestleMania moments, Randy Orton noted when he knew that Cena was special. You can read more about that here.
