Why The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels is the Best Ever

Shawn’s undeniable advantage over some of the other great wrestlers of all time was his career’s second act. Not many athletes can say they were just as good in their later years as they were in their early years, but Shawn can. The first part of his career was the foundation on which his legacy was built, but his later run solidified and elevated his legend. The young Shawn might have been “The Showstopper” and might have had a couple classic Wrestlemania matches with Bret and Razor, but the older Shawn truly was “Mr. Wrestlemania.” He had classic ‘Mania matches with Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Chris Benoit, Triple H, John Cena, Ric Flair, and even carried Vince McMahon to a great match at Wrestlemania 22. In fact, Pro Wrestling Illustrated awarded a Michaels Wrestlemania match its “Match of the Year” honors 6 out of 7 years from 2004 to 2010, with the one exception also being a Shawn Michaels match which took place on Monday Night Raw against John Cena in 2007. His second run even featured a DX reunion which was very entertaining and comical despite being much tamer than the original incarnation. His career ended in the unforgettable Werestlemania XXVI main event against Undertaker. It was a rematch from the previous years Wrestlmania, where Shawn and ‘Taker had stolen the show and upstaged the main event, except this time it was “Streak vs. Career.” When it was all said and done, Undertaker’s streak would go on, and Shawn Michaels’ legendary career was over. He went out truly at the top of his game, he wrestled a near flawless final match at the biggest show of the year and lost with grace and class, something that might have been hard to imagine a young Shawn Michaels doing.