Shawn Michaels

The Heartbreak Kid. The Showstopper. Mr Wrestlemania. Shawn Michaels.

In a 20+ year career, this guy did it all. This guy performed at like 16 Wrestlemanias, and ripped the lid off of most of them, won the championship 4 times - won 2 Royal Rumbles... and none of this "oh man, look at the size of this monster who can't wrestle at all!" bullshit - the guy's probably not even 6 feet tall, and went for an hour with Bret Hart, and brought the house down in the most pure display of wrestling the WWE had ever seen. Then he did it again, and again... His matches with Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle are some of the best shit I've ever seen.

Anyways - so then WrestleMania 25 (2009) rolls around, and he decides he wants to take on the most indestructibly-booked wrestler in the history of the universe, The Undertaker. The match was a classic, incredible emotion and great work - but Shawn loses... plus, the pair make a few mistakes in the match. The crowd go ballistic anyway. One more year rolls around, and we're at WrestleMania 26... like a week ago. Shawn decides he can beat Undertaker, and tries again. They bring the house down once more, but Shawn loses. Shit.

So his match last week was his last, and I personally don't think we'll see anything like the Heartbreak Kid again. Youtube some of his shit... its phenomenal. Such a badass rockstar - like a member of Van Halen was up there kicking everyone in the face. The glam-heavy-rock movement ended in like 1996 and Shawn just kept going, winning more people over and continuing to kick total ass, without adjusting his look... like, at all. What a champion.

Would've loved to have seen more matches from Shawn Michaels - at 44 years of age, he was still outperforming 90 percent of the performers in the entire business. Salut, HBK.