Manik Aftab on January 22, 2022
Shawn Michaels is one of the greatest performers of all time. There’s no arguing that. The Heartbreak Kid competed in every major PPV event during an illustrious career that spanned over two decades.
Michaels is one of the few men to have won the Royal Rumble on more than one occasion. He is also the first man to win the 30-man over the top rope elimination match after drawing the number 1 spot.
The Showstopper recently opened up about how “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig ignited his passion for putting on great performances at the Royal Rumble and helped him realize the significance of the event.
“I can say this, the first time that I really — it was watching Mr. Perfect, Curt Hennig out there in the Rumble and just everything he did and how he made everything look so spectacular,” he told WWE’s The Bump.
“He didn’t win, he never won a Royal Rumble, but he was the first guy that I watched to where I realized, ‘Oh my goodness, even in this event with 30 other people, you can become the focal point.’
“When I saw him do that, that’s when I looked at it from a standpoint of ‘The Rumble can now be a performance engineered type event where you can really get yourself over in a way that I thought was pretty challenging with 30 other people and so much else going on on the show.
“But after watching Curt that night it just stuck in my brain forever. It wasn’t so much about winning, it was about everything else you did in the duration of the time you were out there.”
He also revealed how he was sick prior to his Royal Rumble ’97 match against Sycho Sid. Michaels would go on to win the match, capturing his second WWE (then WWF) Championship in the process.
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January 22, 2022 6:05 pm
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