Shawn Michaels recently spoke with Inside The Ropes and reflected on the Montreal Screwjob. He said, at the time, he only cared about what the Undertaker thought and he wanted to make sure they were on the same page. Here are some highlights:
Michaels: “Clearly, you’re worried about going, I mean, but only just from, like, it’s one of those things where I wonder what it’s gonna be like. You know, what’s the atmosphere, temperature, you know what I mean? As far as what everybody thought, hand to God, I didn’t care. I asked about one dude. I went in, I said, ‘Where’s ‘Taker? Where’s Mark? ‘ They said he’s in there with Vince, and I said alright. Because you have to understand, we’ve been there for the longest time, yada yada, it’s two very different guys, very different personalities, but by this time, even then, we knew that there were two sort of pillars within the WWE that were, for the most part, everything was sort of built around. And that’s the only person I went, ‘I just need to know where he’s at on this.’ You know what I mean? I just need to know where he’s at because if there’s somebody you gotta sit there and have a chat with, it’s gonna be him.”
“For all this to move forward, he and I are gonna have to find a way to, you know what I mean, get simpatico on this. And so clearly Vince knew the same thing, and that’s why he was the first guy he talked to the next day. And to this day, because it’s one of those things where so much has passed and we’ve never even discussed it, but I’ve never asked him, ‘What’d he tell you in there?’ But I remember waiting on him, he came out, he walked up to me and he goes, ‘We’re cool.’ I’m like alright. And then it was all both barrels loaded after that, whatever it is they wanted, we went full gear.”
Michaels also reflected on what it felt like to be in his position after the Montreal Screwjob:
Michaels: “But yeah, honestly and I don’t mean it in a bad way, but again, it wasn’t fun by any stretch. I think that’s one of the things that, over the years, even Bret and I got us both to get sort of past our own personal feelings about it. I think when we finally started putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes, I think that’s what helped to get it all over with.”
“It’s not like I was thrilled to be that dude. It isn’t like when I was 12 years old, 15 years old, I sat at home going, ‘I don’t to just be a pro wrestler. I want to be a pro wrestler, and then when I’m in it, I want everybody in that industry to hate my guts and be the most hated guy in the wrestling business.’ You know what I mean, that isn’t what you hope for. When I would leave this and this show and that image and that kind of junk and go back to San Antonio, Texas, and just be Michael Hickenbottom and sit there in the mirror and realize, ‘Damn dude, you’re the most hated guy in wrestling.’ It sucked.”
The full interview is available here:
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