Farewell To Shawn Michaels - March 30, 2010

The showstopper. The headliner. The main event. Shawn Michaels had his farewell last night on Raw and it was an incredible moment. He came out and gave a tearful and heart felt speech. Shawn got a huge ovation with chants of "thank you Shawn" and "please don't go". Before he could speak, Undertaker's music hit and he walked out on the stage. Taker gave a tip of the hat to Shawn and walked to the back. Awesome moment especially coming from Taker. Shawn tried his best to thank everyone but pointed out that he didn't want to go too far into names cause he would leave someone out. Shawn even went on to thank one of the production guys who puts together all of the incredible video packages for WWE. I loved that cause that is one of the unsung heroes of the company that he pointed out. He thanked Triple H, Bret Hart, Jim Ross, and Vince McMahon. He talked of how Triple H had always stuck with him when nobody else would. I liked his honesty where he said that he knew that he drove them crazy sometimes and that he was difficult to work with at times. He said that even with all that that Triple H never left his side. He thanked the fans saying that at one point in his life that the fans and wrestling was all that he had in his life. Shawn thanked Jesus Christ for being his Lord and Savior and for saving him which was awesome!! It is so great to have someone in such a high profile position being a Christian and testifying to others. A "one more match" chant broke out at one point from the fans and Shawn said that he appreciated it but that he was going to do everything to make sure that didn't happen. He talked of others that couldn't hold on to the promise of retirement and how he was planning on sticking to it. That was quite the moment where you just really got the feeling of that he really is done. Shawn closed the speech saying that he was going to close things out like he started and said that "the Heartbreak Kid has left the building". Shawn left the ring and got a big ovation up the ramp as he waved goodbye to the fans. Triple H came up behind him on the stage giving him a big hug. He raised Shawn's arm up in the air and laid some DX glow sticks down on the stage as they stood over them. Great to see him out there to take part in the farewell. During the show, other wrestlers paid tribute to Shawn including Triple H and Bret Hart. Triple H talked of how great of a friendship they had including him throwing up the old "Kliq" sign which was fun to see again. Triple H said how they took on the world together. Bret Hart spoke of Shawn wishing him the best with his retirement and saying that Shawn was one of the best ever while pointing out his epic career. How wild was it to have Shawn and Bret on the same show of Shawn's farewell speech? We really have come around full circle and it is very fitting.


I was thinking last night on Shawn's career. In my opinion, he is the best in ring performer EVER. He's better than Flair or any other name you want to throw in there. Shawn is a guy that could change his style to go with anything. If any wrestler had talent, the thought was to put him in the ring with Shawn and see what he could get out of the guy. He can take on big guys and small guys. I don't like watching a lot of big guy type matches but Shawn has a way of making them work. He was the complete package. I've heard Triple H talk of how Shawn was that guy that didn't realize how physically smaller that he was than others. He could do either role of being a face or a heel. How many classics has Shawn had? Way too many that I can count. Shawn could bring so many wrestlers up to another level.


As many of you know, Shawn has been the favorite of mine for a LONG time now. Enough to where I had to battle it out with a lot of you on opinions. LOL. I often have always said that Hogan was my all time favorite. Well, Shawn is right there even with him and has been for a while. Funny thing is that I liked The Rockers as a tag team but didn't really jump aboard the Shawn Michaels express until he turned heel and went singles. I started liking him quickly as a favorite as he started his heel run with Sherri. He was this great heel that had such amazing matches and it was fun to cheer him on. Then, he got the face turn and took off to his WWF championship run in 1996. I still remember that moment of cheering when Shawn won that first WWF championship against Bret Hart at WrestleMania 12. One thing with Shawn in that era was that you either liked him or didn't like him. Lots of fans didn't like him and it has reminded me for years of the reaction that Cena gets sometimes. It took a while for Shawn to win some fans over and it didn't happen in his first run. When he came back in 2002, I think the fans that didn't like him gained that respect for him as a performer. Shawn rarely has gotten boos since then and actually got the crowd most of the time in the face vs. face matches. He gained the respect of all the fans that knew how hard that he worked in the ring. He was that guy that you knew was going to give you 110 percent in the ring. I loved him for it and I saw that in him early on. Great talker and could just get you up on your feet cheering.


Favorite matches of Shawn's for me. Obviously, both matches against The Undertaker this year and last year. Incredible matches and the two have an amazing chemistry in the ring that few wrestlers have. Their matches in 1997-1998 do not need to be overlooked either. What I always found funny as a Shawn fan was that Undertaker could never beat Shawn. From a fan standpoint, I loved it to be able to brag about that. Undertaker talked all sorts of trash and then would lose. LOL. A moment that took place in their last match of their series in 1998 would lead to another favorite Shawn match of mine. If you don't know the story, Shawn took on Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble in a casket match. During the match, Shawn was backdropped over the top and his lower back accidentally caught the end of the casket. The match went on but days later, Shawn found himself unable to move and crawling around his house in terrible pain. He tells the scary story in his book. Shawn would have to retire and his last match was set to be WrestleMania 14 against Stone Cold Steve Austin where he would drop the title to Austin. This is the gutsiest performance that I've ever seen in wrestling history. Shawn is out there barely able to move and is flipping and flying with all he has. He would not slow down. There is one moment where he is crawling to the top rope to drop the elbow and lands it. People wondered if he could even do the match and he literally gave all that he had left. Shawn would drop the title. After helping to build the start of the Attitude Era with DX, he would have to sit on the sideline which I'm sure had to frustrate him so badly as WWF took off business wise. Shawn would show up for various appearances over the next few years and his life was in disarray. His wife was a great Christian and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Shawn's life turned around and he eventually worked his way back to returning to WWE. That return is also a favorite Shawn match of mine. That return match at SummerSlam in 2002 against Triple H in the street fight was also one of the most amazing performances that I've ever seen. The guy has been out of the ring for four years and goes out there like he hadn't missed a beat. It was unbelievable!! The matches that would follow in years to come would be great classics with Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, and more. Going back to his earlier days, his match with Mankind in 1996 at Mind Games is also a favorite of mine. That was another example of Shawn switching styles to go with Foley using an extreme style in front of the Philadelphia fans where ECW was going strong at the time. The ladder match at WrestleMania X against Razor Ramon really put Shawn on the map. The matches with Bret Hart are classics including the ironman match, Intercontinental title matches, tag team matches against The Hart Foundation, and more. Shawn and Bret are always going to be tied together cause of their rivalry in and out of the ring. As far as live shows, I've seen Shawn wrestle a few times. One was a house show match against Chris Jericho which was amazing. The last time that I saw him was this past February at Raw where he took on Randy Orton. I wish that I had taken the moment in a little more knowing that it might be the last time that I would see him live.


Will Shawn be retired for good? It is wrestling so you never know but that speech last night sure convinced me that he was done. He's talked retirement for a while now and what better way to go out than he did at WrestleMania. How do you top that? At the very least, I think this is it for him full time. Shawn left us wanting more and that is how it should be. We know that he is fully capable of incredible performances. He can top every show with his matches. It reminds me of back in the day of the stories of Shawn having a great match in his early big run and going backstage yelling for everyone to "top that" or "follow that". You can't. You can't top it. Shawn is that type of performer. He is the guy that you don't want to try and follow and these two WrestleMania matches against Undertaker showed that. Thank you Shawn for all the amazing years that you gave all of us fans. You're going to be missed and I hope that the younger talent has learned a lot from you. My advice to the younger talent is to buy the DVD's and watch him perform. You made this long time fan of yours jump out of my chair so many times over the years that I can't even count. You've earned every bit of this retirement and wishing you all the best with the time that you now have with your family. You left us wanting more and it reminds me of the old tribute song back from 1995-96. Tell me a lie. Say that you won't go.