One of the greatest performers in history, Shawn Michaels recently spoke about his match against Ric Flair at Wrestlemania 24.
Flair was Michaels’ childhood hero, and a huge inspiration to him. The pair have maintained a great friendship, something that Michaels’ cherishes to this day.
In a recent interview, HBK spoke about Flair’s last WWE match at Wrestlemania 24, and how he considers it one of his finest matches in his career.
“Truth be told, when it came to that kind of stuff, I am a bit of a control freak. Emotionally, I just knew where I wanted–especially with that match, that might quite honestly it was my ‘love letter’ to Ric Flair,” Michaels said.
“My way of trying to show him, not only the friendship that we have, but also the impact that he had on a 15 year old me, and trying to convey that to him through a wrestling match, and knowing that I couldn’t be the only guy that he had that effect on. You hope that the other 80,000 fans out there get that; clearly everyone did, and the millions at home did.”
“It’s sort of making that decision as a performer to say, look, this is something I want to do, please let me do it. It’s not because you don’t want them to do anything to mess it up, it’s your feelings and emotion, so you have to be the one that is driving that match if it makes any sense,” he said.
“That is why I was so adamant about that match. Honestly, that is how most of my matches were. I probably wrestled only one way too much from my heart than to my head, but honestly for me that is what made the difference in those matches, which was for me to do it in more from a 15 year old fan in me.”
It was one of the most emotional moments in WWE history, as the love and respect that poured in for Flair after the match was something that touched the hearts of everyone involved.
Here’s hoping that we can witness another such moment in this year’s Wrestlemania!
