Shawn, get out while you still can

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

Shawn, get out while you still can

by Brian Solomon

 

This Sunday, Shawn Michaels could be making the biggest mistake of his career. By stepping into the Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series, he’s once again putting in serious jeopardy a body that has no business being in a wrestling ring. He tempted fate at SummerSlam, but apparently hasn’t had enough. He’s got to walk that razor’s edge one more time, and who’s to say if he makes it out of that one OK, that there won’t be another foolhardy, potentially crippling bout down the road?

 

Shawn Michaels’ physical well-being is tenuous at best. Years of being the hardest working performer in the business have taken their toll, particularly a heinous back bump he took on the edge of a casket during the 1998 Royal Rumble. I had the privilege of interviewing him not long ago for RAW Magazine, and he discussed his back injury in detail. I’ll quote from that interview now, and let Shawn speak for himself:

 

“I have a herniated disc in my lower back…Your lower back supports your entire upper body. I had the fusion surgery, two plates and four screws, but the problem is they only did one level. The one that was done was the L4/L5 [vertebrae]. They are now fused. L5/S1 is also damaged, and needed to be done. But because I’m young, they didn’t want to do more than one level. When I’m older, I’ll probably need to get the other fused, because it’s severely damaged. “A dramatic way of describing it is it’s a kind of paralysis. You have numbness in your leg, because when the disc gets crushed, it presses up against nerves, and when the nerves can’t fire you lose feeling in your leg. They put bone in there, so there’s nothing pressing up against the nerve. The problem with my injury since then is the disc above and the two discs below it are damaged also. If something were to happen, I might need to have four levels fused, which means that a large section of my spine would be all bone. I’d lose range of motion, plus if something were to spur and go into nerves, I’d lose feeling in my legs.”

 

This is not the condition of a man who should be physically competing in any way, shape or form. He’s been tremendously lucky thus far. In short, one wrong move could have some very grave consequences for his future life. The last thing we need is another Dynamite Kid.

 

That’s why I’m asking Shawn to back out of this thing now. I realize this may come off as me simply trying to hype up Survivor Series, as a dutiful WWE writer should. But all b.s. aside, I’m concerned. I seriously believes that Shawn is quite literally risking his health in a very real way.

 

During the interview, Shawn made it very clear exactly how bad the lingering effects of the injury are. After all, it took him more than four years to even contemplate returning in any manner at all. Compare that to someone like Steve Austin, who was only out for a year after enduring surgery for a broken neck. This back thing is no joke, folks.

 

I spotted HBK backstage at Madison Square Garden the night after his brutal match with Triple H last August at SummerSlam, and the effects were clearly visible. There was pain and stiffness, and his mobility was quite obviously hampered as a result of what he had done the night before. Although he kept insisting he was fine, his outward appearance told the story.

 

But there’s a determination in his eyes these days when he says that this is something he has to do. All that religious stuff lately? Well, it’s a shoot. Shawn Hickenbottom is a very different man from the one he was a few years ago. He’ll be the first to admit that he was once difficult, insubordinate and sometimes an S.O.B. to work with. But that’s no longer the case, and even the most cynical observers have been amazed at how serious Shawn is taking this new direction in his life.

 

In a way, I guess he feels he has to make it all right somehow. One last run with a clear conscience, doing business the way he should have been doing it for all those years back in the ‘90s. But Shawn, there are larger issues at stake here. You have a beautiful wife at home. Most importantly of all, you have a little boy at home who needs a healthy father. A little boy that you described to me as “the most wonderful, beautiful gift I’ve ever seen,” and someone who “brings nothing but joy and pleasure to both his mother’s and my life.” All I’m saying is, give that some serious thought before you step into that Elimination Chamber.

 

This is a match that’s never been attempted before, and has only been explained as a combination of a Survivor Series match, a Royal Rumble and WarGames. Whatever it is, it doesn’t sound pretty. At this point in your career, what exactly does it prove to get involved in something like that?

 

I know how cliché this may sound, but you have nothing left to prove. Your legacy as a bona fide WWE legend is secure, and has been for years. It’s time to walk away with your body still relatively intact, like Foley did. You guys are only a month apart in age, and he closed the book for good (I hope) almost three years ago.

 

You’ve been saying it over and over. You’re not the Heartbreak Kid anymore. You’re not the showstopper anymore. You can’t perform at the level you used to. The in-ring Shawn Michaels of today is a toned down version of the in-ring marvel who put on 5-star matches with alarming regularity between 1992 and 1998. My question is this: If you can’t do it like you used to, why do it at all? Why give fans “HBK Lite”, at the risk of a lifetime of regret?

 

There was another moniker you once bestowed on yourself, Shawn: “The icon that can still go.” You were comparing yourself to people like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Roddy Piper, who were still headlining in WCW despite the fact that careers filled with constant wear and tear had reduced them to shadows of their former selves.

 

Back then, what you were saying was true. But Shawn, you are no longer what you once prided yourself as being. You’re no longer the icon that can still go. I know you realize this. Please do the right thing, before it’s too late.

 

Credit: WWE.com

[Guest eirejmcmahon]

"Hickenbottom" ?

[Guest FeArHaVoC]

The in-ring Shawn Michaels of today is a toned down version of the in-ring marvel who put on 5-star matches with alarming regularity between 1992 and 1998.

When? He had a lot of good matches, but Five Star?

[Guest notJames]

"Hickenbottom" ?

And you call yourself a smark...

 

Aside: he keeps insisting that he's not the Heartbreak Kid anymore. So why does his new t-shirt say "HBK"? Does it stand for HickenBottom Kid?

 

Shit, if he takes that wrong bump at SurSer, it'll stand for "He's Been Killed".

[Guest Choken One]

If Shawn gets killed, that makes God (the real one) look pretty bad. Ha!

[Guest big Dante Cruz]

And Jesus told Satan, "It is also written 'Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.'"

[Guest humongous2002]

HBK at his prime carried Sid to a 4 star match at Survivor series 96, that's like wrestling against a wall.

[Guest snowfan]

this is foreshadowing of Yawn winning...

 

Yawn or HGH the smart money is there...

[Guest goodhelmet]

i prefer to think that hbk stands for holy bible kid (tm JHawk).

 

as for carrying sid, yes it was a watchable match. no, it was not ****. sid just has too many limitations to ever reach that rating despite what SK tells you.

 

as for hbk never wrestling again... i hope he doesn't wrextle again. he had his run, now sit on the porch motherfucker!

[Guest notJames]

as for hbk never wrestling again... i hope he doesn't wrextle again. he had his run, now sit on the porch motherfucker!

Hear hear. He can sip lemonade while watching 'Taker tend to "his yard".

[Guest snowfan]

as for hbk never wrestling again... i hope he doesn't wrextle again. he had his run, now sit on the porch motherfucker!

Hear hear. He can sip lemonade while watching 'Taker tend to "his yard".

rolly rolly rolly rolly....

 

"This is my John Deere!"

[Guest AndrewTS]

as for hbk never wrestling again... i hope he doesn't wrextle again. he had his run, now sit on the porch motherfucker!

Hear hear. He can sip lemonade while watching 'Taker tend to "his yard".

rolly rolly rolly rolly....

 

"This is my John Deere!"