Shawn Michaels On The One Idea That Almost Brought Him Out Of Retirement

Shawn Michaels has stayed retired since losing to the Undertaker at WrestleMania 26 in 2010. But that doesn’t mean offers haven’t been thrown his way in the last eight years for him to return. 

Speaking to Inside The Ropes, Michaels discussed why he kept himself in shape despite no plans to return to the ring.

“Every time you’d hear about somebody getting hurt, my wife would go, ‘You’re gonna get a phone call tomorrow.’ And sure enough I would get a phone call,” he said. “Everything has always sort of happened in the last minute, so I might as well do my best to stay in shape. So then I decided to start working at the (Performance Center) and working with young guys. That’s sort of just the life in WWE. You’re never sure when you’ll have to go back and do something.”

Michaels has still appeared sporadically on WWE television since his retirement. He’s gotten involved in angles — most famously in 2013 when he was interjected into a feud with Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Triple H — but he’s never had one more official match. 

While WWE has thrown offers his way to return, only twice has Michaels seriously considered the offer.

“One was last year with AJ (Styles). It was a little easier to say no to that because so much time had gone by. I think if you’re going to do that — I appreciate that eight or nine years had gone by since I retired and people still ask about it and feel like if I did say yes, they’d be okay with it.”

“Michaels continued, noting that the other offer really gave him pause. “It was probably four years after I retired there was an idea that they gave me. It was with Undertaker again. It was, from a creative standpoint, it was easily the most intriguing idea. It was one of those where I ran it by the wife she said, ‘Oooh, that’s pretty cool.’ That was the one, when I said no to that, she said, ‘You really are done.’ It was because it just felt so complete,” he said. “I had spent the last 25 years painting this picture and all of a sudden one day, I stepped back, and when the picture is done, it’s done.”

At one point during the interview, Michaels said, “One thing’s for sure, that call will never come for one more match because every time they ask, I say no.”

The interview was taped in January of this year, prior to WWE coming into the Saudi Arabia deal. As fans know, Michaels is expected to come out of retirement for at least one more match on Nov. 2 at Crown Jewel. 

You can listen to the full interview with Michaels in the video above.