Last match or not, Michaels amazes

by Phil Speer

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Aug. 25, 2002 – It was the kind of match that friends, spouses and parents fly into town to see. Shawn Michaels and Triple H performed in a contest tonight that neither one of them – nor, if the fans at Nassau Coliseum are any indication, the fans – will ever forget.

For the record, Michaels won, but he took a severe beating from Triple H after the match.

Kevin Nash sat next to his longtime friend, Michaels, as the Heartbreak Kid received ice on his back after the match.

“It was everything I knew it would be,” Nash told WWE.com about the match. “It’s not like I’m surprised about how good it was. I didn’t fly here to watch anything but. It was watching two of the greats.”

Nash was one of a few dozen Superstars who stopped by to shake Michaels’ hand and express their admiration for his ability and the match. “How long have you been off?” Chris Benoit came by and asked Michaels jokingly, implying that HBK’s performance in the match made it look like he was a full-time competitor, not one who had not wrestled in WWE since WrestleMania XIV.

Even Triple H expressed his admiration.

“Shawn Michaels proved to the world, to me, tonight, that he’s the greatest worker possibly there’s ever been,” said the Game, his face covered in dried blood, in an interview. “To be able to come back after four years, and look like he never missed a day … ”

Michaels modestly disagreed.

“Oh gosh no. I’ve missed a day,” he said with a chuckle. “(I’ve missed) 365 days, times four. I’ve gotta tell you I’m so jumbled right now, it’s hard to accurately describe (what I thought of the match). I’m very happy with it – that I came out healthy, the people seemed to like it, everybody back here was pleased. I’m no longer the guy who comes out of the ring and says, ‘I can do better.’ I think that was just fine. I’m pleased with it.

“I’m happy to be healthy, but I don’t really know how it looked visually. I can’t comprehend that right now.”

Triple H was much more than pleased.

“I just had one of the greatest matches in my life,” he said. “I’m sure I’m going to be beat up tomorrow. But in the meantime there’s nothing like being able to go out in front of capacity, sold-out arena and do what we do. There’s nothing like it. For me to be in a role that is who I am (an antagonist), I was able to get what I haven’t been able to get now for about a year and a half, since May of 2001. It was a hell of a night. Win, lose or draw, I did what I said what I was going to do – put on the show of shows. Whether you love me or hate me, that’s what I do.”

During the interview, The Game wore a bandage that was at least six inches long across his forehead. He said it was too early to tell if he’d need stitches.

Michaels, meanwhile, said his back was becoming increasingly sore as his muscles tightened and the adrenaline wore off. And after the beating Triple H gave him after the match, he won’t be appearing on WWE television in the immediate future. He certainly won’t be wrestling any time soon, or possibly ever.

Because his wife, Rebecca, had never seen him wrestle, he flew her to the show tonight. And because it was such a big match, he also brought his mother and father. The three watched the match out in the audience, cheering when HBK took the offensive, chanting “HBK!” when the crowd did, literally jumping up and down with Michaels won. But Rebecca also shed a few tears when Michaels took the brunt of a high-impact maneuver; his mother covered her mouth with both hands.

Michaels jumped off the top rope to the ring-apron area, crashing through a table. He jumped off a ladder, dropping an elbow on The Game. He took several chair-shots. He was clobbered with a sledgehammer. In his first WWE match in four years, with a back that’s surgically fused, did Shawn take too many risks?

“Of course I’m concerned about (his health), but at the same time, I was working four years watching him do those things every night,” Nash said. “He took a couple of risks I wish he wouldn’t of tonight. But that’s Shawn, and there’s no way he’s going to go out there and not give it his all. Thank God he didn’t get hurt.”

Asked if he agreed with Nash that he may have taken too many risks, Michaels said, “That’s probably pretty accurate I guess. I still only know one way of doing this. My biggest concern was going out there and trying to do something too conservative and getting hurt. I don’t know if that makes any sense. But for me a lot of times if I start giving things too much thought, that’s when I get hurt.

“It was just that kind of match. Even if I’m not going to do much, I’m going to try to do something somewhat memorable. I don’t know what was that big of a risk. The splash through the table -- it’s not like the move is that tough. You just sort of fall off and fall through the table. It’s just the impact at the end. The impact at the end of all the moves hurts, so what are you going to do?”

Michaels said he doesn’t know about his future in the wrestling ring, and he won’t make any decisions for at least the next few days.

“I’ll see how I feel tomorrow. I have no idea how I’m gong to feel,” he said. “If I can’t get up and walk, yeah, you bet it is (my last match). If I feel good, I might be able … I’m sure it’s my last singles match. I just don’t think I can handle that on a regular basis.”

Although Triple H doesn’t know if he’ll ever have the opportunity, he’d love to have another match with Michaels. But he said he went into the match assuming he wouldn’t.

“I think we both went in with the mindset that this was a one-off for Shawn Michaels,” Triple H said. “You know, Shawn has a broken back. If you asked a doctor, he would tell you that Shawn is crazy for doing what he did tonight. Most people wouldn’t be walking if they were in Shawn’s position. We went out there with the mindset of, ‘Let’s shoot our wad, because we might not get another one. And if this is our only opportunity to live the dream with each other, we better make the most of it.’

“I can’t say this for sure because only the people that watched it can answer it, but I don’t think we disappointed anybody. I don’t think anybody who watches that match is going to say, ‘Damn it, I expected so much more from those guys.’ And if they do, kiss my ass.”