WWE Veteran Says Shawn Michaels Was “High Out Of His Mind” During Controversial Segment

According to ex-WWE writer Vince Russo, one of Shawn Michaels’ most inflammatory comments was made under the influence.

Back in 1997, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were at odds both on television and behind the scenes. During a May episode of Raw, Hart challenged Michaels to a match at King of the Ring with the stipulation that if Hart couldn’t win in ten minutes, he’d never wrestle in the United States again.

Michaels had a biting response for Hart, stating:

“You couldn’t go ten minutes in any situation… if you know what I mean. Even though you’ve had some Sunny days.”

The comment was inflammatory as Michaels was referencing backstage rumors that Hart and WWF Diva Sunny were involved in an affair, something they both deny. Sunny is well-known to have had an affair with Michaels around that time and went into detail about their exploits in her book. Hart was enraged, and the segment drove an ever further wedge between himself and Michaels.

Speaking on a recent episode of The Wrestling Outlaws, former WWE writer Vince Russo claimed that Michaels was intoxicated during the promo and didn’t give thought to the consequences of such a comment.

“He [Shawn Michaels] was high out of his mind. He’d tell you. Obviously he’s a different man today. He was high on whatever, bro, painkillers, whatever these wrestlers take. He was high out of his mind, bro, and he just said it and he didn’t give a cr*p. That line right there led to the [Montreal] Screwjob. Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, that line started it all.”

Continuing, Russo noted that he was the producer of the segment in question, but couldn’t do anything about Michaels going off-script as the show was being broadcast live.

“I was there when Shawn cut the promo that set it all off. I was the producer of that. The problem was, Chris [host Dr. Chris Featherstone], it was live and Shawn knew it was live, so I can’t [do anything]. Remember Sid with the do-over? There was no do-over and he said it. Bro, that started everything because Bret was like, ‘Bro, my freaking wife watches this show.’ That really set everything off.”

h/t Sportskeeda

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