Shawn Michaels Thinks Naming Best Wrestler Ever Is A Personal Preference
Shawn Michaels has explained why it’s difficult to name one person as the best wrestler ever because it’s a personal preference that varies depending on who you are asking.
Every wrestling fan has a different answer when it comes to name their favorite wrestlers or the best wrestlers ever. That’s because we all like different things. Pro wrestling (or sports entertainment if you want to call it that) offers us a lot of different things.
One of the biggest WWE names that is mentioned when it comes to the “greatest” is “Mr. WrestleMania” Shawn Michaels, who put on a lot of classic matches from his days in The Rockers to his singles run through the 1990s and his incredible comeback from 2002 to 2010 as well.
Some of the men that Michaels wrestled throughout his illustrious career like Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Randy Savage, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ric Flair, The Undertaker, Edge, John Cena and many others could be named as the greatest wrestler ever depending on who you ask. Somebody could pick The Rock, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar and so on. Some people may choose women wrestlers like Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Trish Stratus and more. The choices are endless. You could pick somebody outside of WWE too. There are so many options, which makes it difficult to define the “best” wrestler.
In his current role as the WWE Vice President of Talent Development, Michaels is running the NXT brand and gets to help guide the stars that appear on NXT TV, but will also be the stars of tomorrow on the main WWE shows.
Michaels spoke to The Ringer in an article about Shawn’s history with the great Bret Hart, who Shawn will forever be compared to since they wrestled a lot and during a similar period where they left a strong impression on fans. Michaels would go on to say he would be thrilled to have wrestlers as good as Bret in NXT.
“Over the years I have sort of come to understand Bret and I will always be linked. I was the Joker to his Batman, or the Lex Luthor to his Superman. I think we were just two very different people who [saw] the wrestling business differently. But I think we were both fricking fantastic in our roles because when you talk about wanting to be out there with a guy, I’d pick him any day of the week [and] twice on Sunday. If we had 100 Brets come through here, I’d be thrilled.”
“If we had just one Bret, and I could work with him and [WWE developmental trainers] Norman Smiley and Robbie Brookside could make him even better, oh my goodness, I’d give my right arm for something like that. It would be a blessing.”
When it comes to choosing who is the best, Michaels said it was great just to be in the conversation because it’s just a personal preference after all.
“It’s the age-old question: ‘Who’s better? Shawn or Bret?’ At some point it dawned on me, ‘Oh my goodness, yeah, Bret was easily a better wrestler than I am. But I think I was a better performer.’ When we came into the age of the sports entertainer, I think that was my space, that was my area. It had to do with more than just the technical wrestling of a match. It had a lot to do with emotion and story. And also, look, the charisma, the entrance, all of it sort of combined.”
“At the end of the day, there’s no defining the best and the greatest and all that kind of stuff in this line of work. Every bit of it is personal preference. And I try to remind everybody like, ‘Hey, just the fact that I’m even in the conversation is fricking fantastic with me.’”
On the November 8th episode of NXT, they mentioned that Michaels will have some big announcement on the November 15th episode of the show airing on USA Network.