The Reason Shawn Michaels Dream Match With WWE Star Never Happened
A dream match with Shawn Michaels that WWE fans would have loved didn’t happen for a particular reason.
When wrestling fans discuss the best in-ring performers of the last 30 or 40 years, two names that are sure to come up in most discussions are two-time WWE Hall of Famer “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels and future WWE Hall of Famer “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles.
It’s a match that could have happened if the stars aligned, but it just wasn’t meant to be because when Styles arrived in WWE in January 2016, Michaels had already been retired for nearly six years.
There was one match that Michaels had post-2010 that took place at the WWE Crown Jewel 2018 PLE, which allegedly netted Michaels a $3 million payday. The match was considered to be a major letdown as Degeneration X’s Shawn Michaels and Triple H beat the Brothers of Destruction duo of The Undertaker & Kane. Triple H got hurt during the match and all four men looked like they were definitely past their prime.
AJ Styles worked that Crown Jewel 2018 show as well as he successfully defended the WWE Championship against Samoa Joe. However, a Styles/Michaels match wasn’t in the cards.
Did AJ Styles Ever Ask Shawn Michaels About Having A Match?
In an interview with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, AJ Styles admitted he never personally asked Shawn Michaels about having a match although he did bring it up to others in WWE.
“I remember walking up, it may have been Triple H or someone. I asked him, ‘Hey, does Shawn wanna have a match?’ And they’re like, ‘I don’t know.’ [I said] ‘But did we ask him?’ And they’re like no. I never got around to asking him like I asked The Undertaker. I never got around to asking Shawn. We weren’t close enough for me to ask him something like that, I didn’t have his phone number, [we are] closer now. So I never called him out.”
“But the truth is, he probably wouldn’t have that match anyway, because we’ve talked about it before. What is the benefit? Who benefits from the match? If Shawn wins, okay. If I win, okay. There’s a lot of truth to what he was saying when he told me that and it’s alright. It would have been fun to have but for me it was about a learning experience.”
While the Shawn Michaels match didn’t happen for AJ Styles, the Phenomenal One gets another crack at the Undisputed WWE Championship held by Cody Rhodes as they face off in an “I Quit” Match at WWE Clash at the Castle.