Shawn Michaels Talks Overselling Vs. Hogan, Returning To Ring

During a recent interview, Shawn Michaels defended his selling during his Summerslam match against Hulk Hogan in 2005.

Appearing on Sam Roberts' podcast, Michaels discussed critiques of his performance in his match; specifically, those who have said he over-sold against the Hulkster.

"Let’s just say, look, you could say I didn’t do a good job, but, I mean, you go and watch some of my work from, I don’t know, ’96, I bounced around all the time," said Michaels. "You look at Ziggler now. I mean, if what I did in the Hogan match was overselling, then what Dolph does on a regular basis, or Billy Gunn, when Billy’s a heel, that’s just, a lot of it is how we worked. I was out there trying, obviously too hard, I guess, in some people’s eyes. I was just trying to make it a good match because I felt like it wasn’t going to be.”

Michaels also discussed his return to WWE as an active wrestler in 2002, which originally was intended as a one-off battle against Triple H at Summerslam of that year. Instead, he made a full return to the ring, winning the WWE World Heavyweight Title later that year and remaining a key performer for WWE until his retirement in 2010, following a loss in a streak vs. career match to The Undertaker at WrestleMania.

"I didn’t know what my body could handle and couldn’t handle, so we didn’t say anything beyond that Summerslam match," Michaels recalled. "And then, of course, it went well, and I felt good, and before I could really sort of make a decision, I got a phone call from Vince [McMahon] asking me how I felt and, of course, ‘I’ve got an idea!’ And so, I guess the next thing was the Elimination Chamber. Even at that point, we were just taking things sort of one match at a time."

Michaels noted that every time he considered taking a break, something would happen that would provide the creative spark to keep him going.

"I think it was in December that [Chris] Jericho and I did this promo and I lost the championship back to Hunter and then, I think we went out and did some kind of promo with Jericho and I. I was supposed to leave for a while and I came back from doing that and then Chris walked back and both Chris and Vince were like, ‘Did you feel that?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that went really well.’ … And, of course, they were both like, ‘Something’s there, something’s there’. … It just sort of happened so quickly.”

Both Roberts and Michaels were part of the WWE kickoff coverage prior to WrestleMania 33, this past Sunday.