Shawn's back injury

[snuffbox 0]

Anyone have any info as to how legitimate HBK's severe back injury/surgery that 'retired' him for several years was? I always found it a bit odd that he left right after being forced to pass the torch to Steve Austin and then maded his miraculous return to full-time working not too long after Stone Cold was no longer able to be the regular top guy and The Rock went to Hollywood. With those two guys pretty much gone he was able to return to the ing and work pretty well after not being able to do anything for years. Weird.

[Dangerous A 0]

His back injury was pretty damn severe and bad enough to keep him out at least from 1998-2000. HBK was scheduled to face HHH at WMX7 after the Ray Lewis deal fell through, but when HBK showed up to Raw and SD tapings drugged up on painkillers and out of competition shape, so they sent him home. HBK straightened up in 2002 and the rest is history.

[dubq 0]

Anyone have any info as to how legitimate HBK's severe back injury/surgery that 'retired' him for several years was? I always found it a bit odd that he left right after being forced to pass the torch to Steve Austin and then maded his miraculous return to full-time working not too long after Stone Cold was no longer able to be the regular top guy and The Rock went to Hollywood. With those two guys pretty much gone he was able to return to the ing and work pretty well after not being able to do anything for years. Weird.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Is he even working a fulltime schedule? Or just Raw's [half of which he doesn't even wrestle on] and pay-per-view?

[snuffbox 0]

I honestly have no idea if he goes full-time...cant say as I follow the house shows too close. It just seemed like a fun coincidene so I thought Id ask how severe that injury was.

[Dangerous A 0]

Shawn is doing house shows (at least most of them) unless he is injured. He was doing them for awhile and then his knee was injured, but now is back.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah he was at the house show I went to and wrestled Flair. Wasn't the most strenuous match, haha.

 

I think Shawn was off from 1998-2002 somewhat due to the back injury but they really didn't NEED him to come back. Ratings were great, they were drawing money, and frankly I don't think most people cared whether he came back or not. By 02 however ratings were sliding, business was down, so he came back.

[Guest StylesMark]

Shawn being out of the locker room was good for WWE and it's stars during that period.

 

Maybe HHH asked him to stay out a while longer as well.

[Dangerous A 0]

Actually, Shawn had the Texas Wrestling Academy thing going on for a year or so after the surgery where he helped train American Dragon, Spanky, Paul London, Michael Shane, etc. I'm not sure of the year HBK got out of TWA, but he was doing that during part of his 4 year sabbatical.

[Robert 0]

Ray Lewis? What was supposed to be deal with that?

[Dangerous A 0]

WWE was trying to put together a Ray Lewis v. HHH match for WMX7 because Lewis was hot off of the stabbing controversy from the Super Bowl of 2000 and winning the Super Bowl and being named MVP in 2001. Ray Lewis is a big wrestling fan and Vince was negotiating for him to do a wrestler v. football player match for that WM, but the deal fell through. HHH had HBK in mind if Ray Lewis didn't pan out, but then HBK showed up "in no condition" to perform and consequently was sent home. Enter Undertaker and the rest is history.

[Jericholic82 0]

WWE was trying to put together a Ray Lewis v. HHH match for WMX7 because Lewis was hot off of the stabbing controversy from the Super Bowl of 2000 and winning the Super Bowl and being named MVP in 2001. Ray Lewis is a big wrestling fan and Vince was negotiating for him to do a wrestler v. football player match for that WM, but the deal fell through. HHH had HBK in mind if Ray Lewis didn't pan out, but then HBK showed up "in no condition" to perform and consequently was sent home. Enter Undertaker and the rest is history.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thank god that deal fell through. Yikes can you imagine that match? LT/Bigelow it wouldn't be I don't think.

[Dangerous A 0]

It's really kind of hard to predict, but off the top I don't think it'd be very good. The only favorable things going for it would be Ray Lewis was in way better physical condition in 2000-01 than LT was when he did his match and HHH was at the stage in his career where he was having pretty good matches, although most of them versus workers who were his equal or better. It's hard to tell whether Lewis would pick up the intracacies of wrestling like timing and such to have a halfway decent match with HHH. In hindsight, I am also glad it fell through, but wonder what history would be like if HBK was able to go and they went with HBK/HHH a year and a half earlier than they did?

[Guest]

If HHH faces Ray Lewis, there's no way he tears his quad. If he faces HBK, he doesn't tear his quad either. Things would have been different with HHH and HBK around during the Invasion, but would the Invasion even happen?

[snuffbox 0]

HHH in 2001 was alot better than Bam Bam Bigelow in 1995, and Lewis in better shape than crackhead LT. I doubt the proposed HHH-Lewis match would have been any worse than the shockingly ok Bam Bam-LT match.

[Enigma 0]

What?

 

I thought HBK was supposed to help HHH in his match against Undertaker at WM17, thus leading to HBK returning at Backlash the next month with HHH against UT & Kane.

 

They sent HBK home the Smackdown right before WM17. They were supposed to do something with him on RAW, but got cut out of the show due to time contraints.

[Jericholic82 0]

If they really were going to do Shawn/HHH at Mania 17, it would have been without buildup, cmon shawn coming back a week before the show? There wouldnt be enough time to properly build up the match.

 

Taker/HHH wasnt that good anyway, so I suppose HHH/Lewis wouldnt have been that much worse. But of course to me HHH would have been the face in that match, as Lewis' Ravens beat my Giants in the Super Bowl that year.

[Fro 0]

Yeah, I always heard he was supposed to come back at WM 17 and be a guest ref or something, not wrestle a match.

 

Michaels was in real bad shape after RR in 98 (even though he was drugged up at WM 14, you can see him cringe about 10 min into the match for the rest of the way). I know he didn't have surgery for quite a while afterwards, close to a year, and he was trying to let himself heal up naturally.

 

People still thought he couldn't handle wrestling more than an occassional match (the old "one bad bump and you're crippled!" idea) until Summerslam 02.

 

He gradually worked up to more or less a full-time schedule over the next year or so after Summerslam 02, although he takes some time off fairly regularly.

 

It's really amazing that he's gotten a second chance at his career, and his stuff over the past year and a half is at the same level or better than his 1995 stuff (HBK/Jericho, HBK/Benoit, HBK/Benoit/HHH, HBK/Benjamin, HBK/Angle).

[jimmy no nose 0]

Back in November 2000, Shawn did a one off match with one of the TWA guys that was billed as his last match ever. At that point it was clear that his back was still in very bad shape. He was insanely careful trying to make sure he didn't hit his back at all. I think he only did a second rope elbow drop that put his back in any danger.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I've never seen that TWA match, but I have heard that he worked extremely safe and was still hurting for weeks afterwards. Can anyone confirm this>

[cabbageboy 0]

Not sure why HHH facing Ray Lewis or HBK at WM 17 would mean he wouldn't tear his quad. He did that a couple of months later in a tag match with Benoit and Jericho.

 

The question would be this however: Would HHH have put over Ray Lewis? I tend to doubt it.

[zyn081 0]

Double post.

Edited July 24, 2005 by zyn081

[zyn081 0]

The question would be this however:  Would HHH have put over Ray Lewis?  I tend to doubt it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And whats wrong with that? Lewis is not a wrestler.