“It’s fascinating to go somewhere where you’re away from everything. There are no houses, no buildings, no roads, no people. And for a little less extreme hunting, any place in the West – Colorado, Utah, Montana – that’s just beautiful country.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The only thing you have to have is patience and an attitude that you aren’t ever going to give up.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Don’t be afraid to be who you really are. Enjoy it and don’t take it and yourself so seriously. I probably wouldn’t have listened, but if I did, I would have saved myself some heartache along the way.”
― Shawn Michaels
“We are a family that lives probably 90 percent on wild game. We’re certainly working our way toward 100 percent self-sufficient. Looking to raise chickens for eggs, things of that nature, start a garden. We enjoy the simple life.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I live in a constant state of gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciation for the second chance I was given, so anytime in any film, when that is given to someone, I always appreciate it.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Being a good husband and father… that’s the most important thing I’m going to do on this earth.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I enjoyed the theatrics and the physical demands of everything that went on in the ring. But I was, initially, a relatively shy kid. I think that’s probably what attracted me to hunting is that it was such a polar opposite of the other, and it was that opportunity for peace and quiet and to decompress.”
― Shawn Michaels
“People will constantly bring up my past and throw it in my face, but the Creator of the Universe doesn’t. If you ask forgiveness from Him, then it’s gone forever. The past is never brought up to shame you or degrade you.”
― Shawn Michaels
“You do your best with the realization that nothing gets you in ring-shape better than being in the ring.”
― Shawn Michaels
“If we’re not a good steward of what God gives us, he takes it away. I think that’s what happened. I wasn’t a good steward of the gift that he gave me in this line of work. I abused it, so he took it away.”
― Shawn Michaels
“If I truly believe everything that’s in that book, God is in control. He is in control. He’s working for my good. Doesn’t mean everything’s going to be smooth, but that’s all I needed to know. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The entrance is important, but it’s the in-ring performance that fans truly remember. My zipline entrance has become so much bigger over time, but I still think fans remember the match more than anything.”
― Shawn Michaels
“My whole intention at ‘WrestleMania XIV’ was to drop the belt to Steve, but I was going to make everybody sweat it out and make them think I wasn’t. Obviously, I got that accomplished. That’s extremely unprofessional, but that’s exactly who I was and what I was doing.”
― Shawn Michaels
“My faith is sort of where I got my confidence. And it was the confidence of, ‘It’s going to be what it’s going to be.’”
― Shawn Michaels
“You don’t have to be a believer in Jesus Christ to be a gracious individual and understand that everybody messes up and that most are looking for a second chance.”
― Shawn Michaels
“It’s one of the things, certainly for me, anyway: I’m learning to take a bigger role in the things that I’m associated with.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I found you can believe the man in history that is Jesus who walked the earth. It’s a whole different thing altogether to know Him as the Son of God – to have reconciled yourself to Almighty God.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I suppose a lot of people don’t understand that one of the things that drew me to hunting was the peace and the solitude, the mushy spiritual stuff, strangely enough. The quiet away from 75,000 roaring fans. The fans, that’s very wonderful – I get a great charge from that.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Over the years, with hunting, I think what’s become my favorite part of hunting is how self-sufficient I’m becoming.”
― Shawn Michaels
“That’s what I love about my faith and Christianity. It’s the polar opposite of darn near everything I experienced in the wrestling business. I still love the business, and I’m thankful for everything that it’s provided, but the idea that it deals in the truth is the furthest thing from reality.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Bret and I were friends, but we were young, and we made bad decisions. We couldn’t see outside the wrestling business. It was the end-all, be-all. You were in that box constantly, so that’s all you thought about. It affects your decision-making.”
― Shawn Michaels
“There are Christians who think there were seven actual days, or that creation was over time. They have answers for dinosaurs and things of that nature. And I don’t claim to have any of those answers. And I understand people wanting to have discussions about it.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I don’t pass myself off as a Bible scholar or a pastor or someone who knows all the biblical facts cover-to-cover. I’m just a guy whose life was changed by it. And that’s about the extent of it. So I’m not easily offended when people struggle about where they’re at with their faith at all.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I think I was given a gift to wrestle. And I think when I came back, I had a much better appreciation of that. And I believe the way I went about doing it made me better at it. I didn’t identify myself with the job as I did so much in the ’90s. In the ’90s, I didn’t know who I was other than ‘the wrestler.’”
― Shawn Michaels
“I’m one of those people who would be OK with fading back into the background a little bit.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Acting is something I always wanted to try after wrestling, and I felt like this was a perfect fit.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I have no doubt that LeBron James would’ve loved to have played against Michael Jordan, but that simply is not going to happen.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I look at Samoa Joe, and I’ve told him a number of times that I see his stuff at ‘NXT’ and think to myself, ‘Man, I could have a great deal of fun with you.’ He’s a guy I have sort of enjoyed, and one of those sleeper guys that no one talks about.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I don’t consider myself a great multitasker, so I try to do one thing at a time, even though there were opportunities when I was wrestling.”
― Shawn Michaels
“There are faith-based movies that some people don’t consider good, but every time it comes to the scene where someone’s life is changed, that still affects me.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The Four Horsemen were limousines and Lear Jets, while DX was trailer parks and outhouses. One was white trash, one was upper crust. I always saw DX and the NWO as the natural rivals at the time.”
― Shawn Michaels
“If I’m appearing on ‘Raw,’ then I’m usually there to help sell tickets to something, and that’s when you see the ‘HBK’ Shawn Michaels come out. At panels, I can be more open and honest and show some more humility. They don’t want me talking about my family on TV, but I can in a panel setting.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I would love to have gotten into it with Harley Race. He was such a good wrestler and rough and tough. We wrestled at the same time but never each other. And wrestling Sting would have been something I would have enjoyed.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I wasn’t great at a lot of stuff, but I was good at not worrying about being a wrestler.”
― Shawn Michaels
“It wasn’t until 2002 when I returned to WWE and until I had physically been out there – it was during the match when Kevin Nash blew his quad. That next morning, I was sitting on the plane, reading my Bible and the Book of Joshua, and this feeling came over me that I was back here for a reason. God built me to be a wrestler.”
― Shawn Michaels
“There’s no one of us that’s perfect; there’s no one of us that can’t do just a little better.”
― Shawn Michaels
“One of the things my dad and I got to bond over was going to the San Antonio Spurs games when Gervin was there, James Silas… I can’t remember the rest of the guys’ names, but it was a fun time.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Whether it’s NASCAR or whether it’s football, or whether it’s the NBA, any time something spills over to the point where somebody makes a WWE reference, I always think it’s a good thing.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Regardless of what people think of the WWE, we’re great at storylines; we’re great at drawing money. We’re great at causing controversy, and when the other sports do it, they usually do better. It keeps it interesting and makes it fun for the fans.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The wrestling world is unique. There are things that happened, and there are things that didn’t happen, but in wrestling, you just say they all happened. Some of it’s fun to let stay out there – it adds to the mystique and wrestling lore.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Sometimes – and I don’t mean it disrespectfully – the easiest people to work in the wrestling business are the people in the locker room.”
― Shawn Michaels
“There were times that we’d be in the locker room there before everyone else, and a guy would walk in, say, ‘Is this the Kliq locker room?’ So we’d draw with a sharpie on the back of a program and write ‘Kliq locker room’. I can promise you that none of those signs were ever on WWE letterhead.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I think everybody would like to see me against AJ Styles at ‘WrestleMania’. That’s one that people have talked about, but I also really like Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins.”
― Shawn Michaels
“My life now is about my heart going pitter-patter for my children.”
― Shawn Michaels
“My faith and family has helped me a great deal in that it helps me to live to a different standard.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I learned very early that you don’t get time back. I’d miss my children growing up, so that’s the reason I retired.”
― Shawn Michaels
“No, I don’t want to go back and wrestle again… But some big bubble could break, and I might need money like everybody else.”
― Shawn Michaels
“If you’re desperate enough for attention, any attention will make you feel better.”
― Shawn Michaels
“You’ve got to be able to go 100 miles per hour in the ring, out of the ring, partying, and you’ve still got to make all your commitments.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I’ve always wanted to be a rebel. I’ve never wanted to do what everybody else is doing. Man, I’ve got news for you, that is what I am really doing now, and it’s the coolest thing ever. I got to know the person of Christ. I see him as one of the greatest rebels of all time. That’s what really appeals to me. It’s hope. It’s victory.”
― Shawn Michaels
“As a wrestling fan, I can remember years ago seeing my first Street Fight between Wahoo McDaniel and Tully Blanchard, and I remember thinking to myself that I will really think I’ve made it when I can come to the ring in jeans and cowboy boots with my hands taped and stuff like that.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Tully was the first young, handsome, cocky, well-dressed bad guy. He was our version of Ric Flair before I knew who Ric Flair was. This was before cable TV or any of that, and Tully was our Ric Flair.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Confidence is one of those things that no one ever wants to talk about in this industry because confidence and ego run neck and neck. But you have to understand, those are things that you have to have in order to make it to where Edge has made it. You’ve got to have a certain amount of ego and confidence in yourself to get there.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Even though I wrestled Ric Flair very early on in my career, it was a short match, so getting to wrestle him later on in my career was a benchmark. Wrestling Hulk Hogan was a benchmark for me.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I love wrestling, and I think there was something in me that needed to come out, and I was very fortunate to allow it to come out in the WWE and make a living doing that, and I enjoyed every second of that.”
― Shawn Michaels
“For me, being in retirement, it was just having the opportunity to watch other stuff and do different things.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I like learning new stuff, also, and I can sit there and watch shows on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel or stuff like that and learn something new. I think once you’ve gone through such a long stage of learning one thing, you’re not as well-rounded as you’d like to be.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The whole thing about me being The Showstopper – and Mr. WrestleMania – is that it was something I said once, and it took on a life of its own from there. Truthfully, I think the idea of going out and stealing the show is something you ought to do every time you wrestle. But if you focus only on that element, you end up doing almost too much.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I talked a bunch of crap for years and then went out and worked hard. That’s the extent of it. There’s no magical genius to it, as much as I’d like to think there is. I’m just a guy who works hard – and I hope guys are challenged by that.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Years ago, I was always serious, and now I chuckle and make jokes to create a calm environment because ‘WrestleMania’ can be a high-pressure atmosphere.”
― Shawn Michaels
“In all the years with WWE, I never really got to really establish the branding of The Showstopper as well as I would have liked to.”
― Shawn Michaels
“My years in the WWE, a lot of stuff came out that you’re not even aware of because they come out with it so fast, and there’s so much of it. It’s tough, certainly, to have any hands-on association with it, so I was happy to be able to have some input into the ‘Deuce Brand’ watch.”
― Shawn Michaels
“To WWE and to everyone who owns WWE, it’s a business, and if you become something to the people, you’re going to become something to the company. It’s just that simple now.”
― Shawn Michaels
“For those of us who are on the Raw brand, to hook up with the guys from the Smackdown brand is our chance to go in there and get a hold of guys that you normally don’t get a chance to work with.”
― Shawn Michaels
“When you’re just in there with the same guys on a regular basis, I think there’s a chance to become a little – I don’t want to say lazy, but I’ll say complacent. So to get a chance to go in there and mix it up with these other guys is exciting.”
― Shawn Michaels
“’Wrestlemania’ is the time of the year where careers are made or broken.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I think people would like to see Kurt Angle and myself get in there and perform with one another. I think he’s an amazing athlete, a talented wrestler, and it’s a match people probably don’t think that they’re going to see.”
― Shawn Michaels
“When I started, you didn’t focus so much on production, certainly not – gosh – down to the finest little detail of how you shifted your eyes or how you turned to somebody. A lot of the shots were far away from a still camera. There weren’t as many close-ups and intimacy.”
― Shawn Michaels
“We can bring it all down to the subtleties of the shifting of an eye because we know the camera will catch it. That has been a great thing to learn, and it makes it interesting for a guy who has been in it as long as I have.”
― Shawn Michaels
“You have to continue to hone your craft.”
― Shawn Michaels
“As long as I did the good things associated with religion, I thought I was in good shape spiritually, too.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I was raised Catholic, and I knew of Him and certainly what He did, but I never truly experienced knowing Him.”
― Shawn Michaels
“You see the standard hunting show; it’s an outdoor television show. A lot of times, it’s just a guy sitting in a tree, waiting on an animal. I don’t think it does it justice, and I don’t think it captures the enjoyment and the splendor of the incredible outdoors and the feeling of being out there.”
― Shawn Michaels
“In every aspect of my life, I live under the protection of and in accordance to the laws of this nation. At the end of the day, it’s a wildlife biological fact and a conservation fact that the game must be managed. There’s only so much habitat, i.e. food, out there.”
― Shawn Michaels
“If you have 100 acres worth of food, and you’ve got 500 animals out there, the young ones and the old ones are going to starve to death because they can’t compete. When they starve, they start to eat things they shouldn’t be eating and spread disease not only to them but to us.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The part inside the ropes, the part where people decide if it’s a good match or a bad match, that’s the part that I take very, very, very, very, very seriously and that I respect the most.”
― Shawn Michaels
“As badly as everybody feels like I’m a sellout for one thing or another, I guess, ultimately, when it came to wrestling, I just wanted to wrestle where I want to wrestle. And something had to be bigger and more important than the money, and for me, it was the time inside that ring.”
― Shawn Michaels
“The life of a WWE superstar is awesome, but I want my kids to have a life balanced by more traditional ideas about what our life and our country used to be. And still can be if we want it to be.”
― Shawn Michaels
“I’m the ‘Showstoppa’, the Main Event, the icon!”
― Shawn Michaels
“I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing Howard Finkel does not get a lot of chicks!”
― Shawn Michaels
“I am to wrestling what Elvis was to rock n’ roll!”
― Shawn Michaels
“I’ll go out there and give you a show like you’ve never seen. Why… Because I can!”
― Shawn Michaels
“’WrestleMania’ is pressure-filled anyway, and more so when you’re going for the first time in what might be the main event. If you are being dubbed, or people seeing you as the next guy, those things mount up.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Our line of work is very cynical, and a lot of it is driven by cynicism, cruelty, and meanness. It’s easier to believe the negative stuff than the positive stuff. The feel-good stories don’t usually spend a lot of time on the front pages.”
― Shawn Michaels
“When I returned to wrestling, I went back a changed man. I had adopted a new way of thinking. All I wanted was for God to help me be a good witness on the platform He had brought me back to.”
― Shawn Michaels
“Being called ‘The Heartbreak Kid’, ‘Mr. Wrestlemania,’ and all those other names doesn’t even begin to compare to what it feels like to know that the Almighty God who created the universe calls me His child.”
― Shawn Michaels
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