Shawn Michaels On Turning Down Major Role At WM 32, Eddie Rumors, Flair, Savage; JR On Dusty & Owen
As noted, Wrestling Inc. correspondent Scott H. was at "An Evening with Shawn Michaels" in Manchester, United Kingdom last Monday. The night was originally supposed to be hosted by Jim Ross, but JR and HBK did the show together on stage. Below are some more highlights from Scott, we will have the final set of highlights from the Q&A tomorrow.
* Shawn talks about how he came up with the entire match with Ric Flair at WrestleMania 24 and how it came to him in the middle of the night. He jumped out of bed and wrote down the finish and how he was going to mouth saying, "I'm sorry, I love you."
* JR says Flair didn't want to retire and that Shawn was picked as the guy to end Flair's WWE run and his career on a whole.
* JR says that he could have done a lot more with the Flair – Michaels match at WrestleMania 24 and felt he dropped the ball that night.
* JR noted that he never watches anything back of his work at all. He said someone told him that his WrestleMania 17 performance with Paul Heyman was great, but that he has never watched the show and probably won't.
* There is talk of Shawn working a long program with Randy Savage from 1993-1994 and then Savage would have become a commentator, which Lanny Poffo mentioned on the WWE Randy Savage DVD that was released last year. Shawn says that he never heard of it and that he and Randy were pretty close and he never once mentioned it to him. Shawn talks about how they worked together one time in England in 1992, but it was very early on in the HBK run.
* Shawn was asked about his supposed WrestleMania 22 match with Eddie Guerrero. Shawn says that he was told about all of his matches and had some input into them, and says that he was never once told that Eddie was going to be his opponent.
? Shawn reveals that he was asked a number of times to have the WWE World title during his second run, but he turned it down due to the schedule that a champion needs to fulfill.
? Shawn reveals that he was offered a major role at WrestleMania 32 but he turned it down because he simply feels like there is nothing left for him to do. He says he has loads more left in the tank, but that he has had enough. He said if you have a gun you don't fire everything in it.
* JR talks about how he didn't like knowing what was going to happen, he says that he felt it was more real when you didn't know what was coming. Some of today's commentators want to know step by step.
* JR was asked about the full role of being a natural heel. JR said that heels need to embrace it more, and he told about how William Regal loves being a heel and embraces it. He said being a heel is something that Regal gets a kick out of and it gives his character what it needs to develop. JR made everyone laugh when he said he told Paul Heyman you are just a natural heel, and Paul said thank you, to which JR replied, "yeah, your just so easy to hate Paul."
* JR reveals that he was filming some footage for a DVD on Owen Hart when his phone rang and rang; he said filming had to stop as his phone would not stop ringing. When he looked at his phone, he had 45 message telling him that Dusty Rhodes had passed away. JR tells that he is writing a book due out next year, and he says he will sit and watch the night we lost Owen one more time, purely for revision for the book.
* JR talks about Dusty Rhodes and says Dusty was himself 24-7, there was no fake, and that you could trust Dusty with anything.