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Shawn Michaels Says He Won't Wrestle Again amid WWE Rumors About Kevin Owens Match
December 22, 2022
Shawn Michaels' in-ring career is definitely over.
In an interview on the Culture State podcast (h/t Robert Gunier of Wrestling Inc.), the Heartbreak Kid addressed a recent report that he talked about potentially doing one more match after seeing Stone Cold Steve Austin take on Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38.
"Yeah, I've had that final match. Nope," he said. "No, father time waits on no man. I'm good. I'm unbelievably happy with my career and it is now time to watch the next generation flourish."
According to Fightful Select (h/t H Jenkins of Ringside News), Michaels spoke with Owens about the WrestleMania match and told him "he'd be lying if he didn't think about doing another match" at some point.
After losing a retirement match to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26, Michaels remained adamant for years that he wanted to honor the stipulation.
WWE got Michaels back into the ring one more time in a tag match with Triple H against The Undertaker and Kane at Crown Jewel in November 2018. The match was widely panned, with all four legends looking their age. It didn't help that Triple H suffered a torn pectoral muscle during the match.
Despite the one final bout as part of D-Generation X, Michaels did tell the Challenge Mania podcast (h/t Sean Rueter of Cageside Seats) he doesn't think that counts as an official match because the event was a "glorified house show."
The Showstopper revealed on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast in 2017 he was offered a match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 33 (h/t Dan Garland of SI.com) but said he turned it down.
If Michaels was going to do one more match, that probably would have been the time to do it. He's 57 years old now and has been the head of creative for NXT since September.
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