The main event of WWE WrestleMania 14 between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin is considered one of the biggest and best WrestleMania main events ever.
Prior to this match, Austin’s legendary submission match against Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart is taken as the turning point of Austin’s career, some fans and critics still believe that it was this match that changed Austin 3:16 forever.
Shawn Michaels Looks back At His Match Against Stone Cold From WrestleMania 14
But Shawn Michaels being the opponent of Austin played a massive role to boost things up for ‘The Rattle Snake.’ Even though the match was mostly dominated by Austin, HBK’s performance on this match will always be remembered as one of the best heel performances in WrestleMania history.
Michaels appeared as a guest on ESPN’s SportsNation before WrestleMania 37 to hype the event where he looked back at this amazing match. He said;
“I was talking to Tyler Breeze about this. He came up to me and he mentioned that. He said, ‘Shawn, it’s the match I show the guys that I train about what real pain looks like.’ He said, ‘You were in real pain that night, and I always use that as a reference point of what it should look like.’
The thing I remember the most – you’re in pain, but any time I thought about something, my body would react. That night, it wouldn’t react and fire off like it usually did. Everything was more laborious – upside down on the turnbuckle, I couldn’t take that with the same glide. It’s a combination of pain and real anger that I was unable to perform in the way I wanted to.
It wasn’t honestly until talking to Tyler that he helped me see that in a different light in that it does have an educational value to it. To me, from a performance standpoint, I was just not anywhere near where I wanted to be. I don’t have a lot of regets honestly, but I would’ve loved to be in top form for Steve [Austin] that night. I wasn’t, but I’m very thankful some good has come from that.”
There are a lot of myths surrounding this match as HBK did not want to give the push to Austin and the Undertaker threatened him that he would take necessary action if did not do so. Even Taker was standing behind the entrance ramp to make sure everything was fine. Even though these are only myths and have no proves.
Shawn Michaels is vastly regarded as Mr. WrestleMania for so many reasons, not only he showcased some amazing matches but also created pushes for the best names in the business. He is truly one of the best men to work with in sports entertainment.
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)