WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair did battle at WrestleMania 24 in 2008, with Flair’s career on the line. This was to be the last match for The Nature Boy, but he’s wrestled multiple matches since then. The match included the iconic moment where Michaels mouthed “I love you” to Flair, then finished him off for the win.
Michaels recently spoke with Sam Roberts on the Notsam Wrestling Show and admitted that he was unsure about the line because of the nature of pro wrestling fans, and how they usually react to such things.
Michaels talked about how he came up with various happenings in the match, and how important it was to the competitors.
“I’ve mentioned it before, that particular match was something that came to me in the middle of the night,” Michaels said. “I woke up out of a sleep, I think at like at two o’clock in the morning, got up out of bed and then just, you know, went to the table and started writing and then I’m coming down to the end of it and that’s the thoughts that were in my head. And of your course, a little tear drop comes down and I was like, oh my goodness, I mean, is this too, oh my goodness, Namby/Pamby? I mean, the wrestling audience can be tough and I just thought, oh, I don’t know. Because it was so emotional for me against, because I knew where Ric was at that time, and I knew how important it was to him and it was genuinely important to me because it was important to him.”
“I wanted this to be really unbelievably special for him. This is my chance for him to, I don’t know say like, you know, of all the great matches he’s had, the best one was with Shawn Michaels at whatever age he was at that time, 56 or something. So there were a number of reasons I wanted it to go well, but then you’re looking at this ending, it sounds like a love story that may not really go over well, you know with a tough crowd. But I kept it. And, look, I presented that to Michael Hayes and Ric, you know, when we got there to WrestleMania and Ric patted me on the leg and goes, thank you. And I was still waiting like, does that thank you, like, it’s good or no? It’s still a bit worrisome again.”
Michaels continued and admitted that he may have booked a different finish if the bout happened in the social media age.
“I’ll say this, I don’t know because I was talking about it earlier, had social media and everything been out there the way that it is now, and you see all of those things, I’m not sure I’d have the guts to do that finish with Ric for fear that they would, you know, kick it back at us,” Michaels said. “I don’t mean to ever imply that, you know, our fans are mean, I would have been worried about it because like on social media, they probably won’t show you the 15-year-old wrestling fan in them, they’re a bit guarded. When you’re there in the moment and you’re there at WrestleMania, and you allow us to take you there, they were fine. I mean, grown men are fine, whimpering like, oh my goodness, that was beautiful, man. But I just don’t know that I’d have the guts to do it, had I’ve seen maybe what possibly could have been the other side, but that was my concern.”
The full interview with Michaels can be seen at this link. If using any of these quotes in your own article on other websites, please credit Joshie Lopez with a H/T link back to WrestlingHeadlines.com for the transcription. Check out the latest episode of The Hoots Podcast below:
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