WWE WrestleMania 28: Book Shawn Michaels in Hell in the Cell NOW

According to its website, this week WWE booked Triple H versus the Undertaker in a Hell in the Cell match for WrestleMania 28. My response:

So what?

Allow me to tell you what I know: Triple H versus the Undertaker will prove nothing without the addition of Mr. WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels.

You know who else knows it?

The Undertaker.

Remember how he antagonized Triple H on RAW, saying: “You know, Hunter, I think I just figured it out—you know that you can’t do what your buddy Shawn Michaels couldn’t do. Because you know that Shawn was always better than you.”

If it was only about Triple H and the Undertaker, why not leave it at the first line? Why not say you can’t do what Shawn couldn’t do (which leaves the focus on Triple H, the Undertaker and the streak). Why add to it that Shawn is better than Hunter?

Because the Undertaker knows this match needs Shawn Michaels.

You know who else knows this very same truth?

Triple H.

Remember that it was this very accusation—that Shawn was better—that led the Game to turn around, strip off his tie, unbutton the restrictions on his dress shirt, march back to the ring and accept the match with the Undertaker for WrestleMania 28.

At that moment, the three of them were standing in the ring: Triple H, the Undertaker and the Shadow of Shawn Michaels.

Yes, the Shadow of Shawn Michaels, but it’s nothing new for Triple H, I suppose—standing in the shadow of HBK.

Do you recall how he got the name Triple H? It was a play on Double A [Arn Anderson]—reflecting the fact that Hunter was the Arn Anderson to Shawn Michaels’ Ric Flair. Hunter was, at best, back then, the enforcer; at worst, he was no more than “the buddy.”

I recall a promo in 1998 where the Rock stood side-by-side with Shawn Michaels, while Triple H stood in the ring with his version of DX.

Rock, as champion, challenged Triple H. Michaels interrupted, saying of Triple H, “Wait a minute Rock—[Triple H] is only used to hanging out with main eventers. He’s never been in a main event.” Michaels dug the knife further, adding, “He only hangs out with world champions. He’s never been one.”

I don’t think it is a spoiler to anyone to tell you that Triple H became a world champion. In fact, he became a 13-time world champion.

Still, none of us knew back then how much he admired Ric Flair. How difficult it must have been to call himself Arn Anderson. I can’t say if it was enough to make him hate his best friend, but history proves it was enough to make him hate his best friend’s legacy.

When Shawn returned in 2002, Triple H was at the forefront of WWE. The Game compared Shawn Michaels to an NWA legend from the 80s, but it was not Ric Flair. It was Ricky Steamboat.

If Hunter viewed Michaels as Steamboat, who do you think he believed himself to be? If the answer is not obvious, Ric Flair would endorse Triple H on camera many, many times to drill the message home.

If belts were all that mattered, Triple H surpassed his former friend. In fact, he surpassed him broadly, 13-4.

But while Triple H was busy racking up title wins in an era where championships increasingly meant less, Michaels was busy doing something never before done: He was taking being Ricky Steamboat to the next level. He was busy being the best match on the card no matter where he was. He was busy being in the best, most personal feuds, providing the most intrigue and delivering the best promos.

He was busy becoming Mr. WrestleMania.

And where was the Undertaker in all this?

The Dead Man moved in silence (as dead men tend to do), progressing triumphantly along the road to a WrestleMania streak like no other may ever experience.

Despite the many championships won by Triple H, it was not the Game who would retire Ric Flair. It was Michaels. Neither was it the Game who would put the exclamation point on the WrestleMania streak of the Undertaker.

It was Shawn Michaels.

And it’s not like Triple H can surpass what Michaels and the Undertaker had in their two WrestleMania matches at this year’s WrestleMania. Triple H has already had two WrestleMania matches with the Undertaker—last year and at WrestleMania 17. Anything that Triple H does in a third match with the Undertaker—without Michaels—is void of comparison because Michaels did what he did in two matches.

Triple H needs Shawn Michaels in this match.

I know it, the Undertaker knows it, Triple H knows it, the fans who reigned down “HBK” chants during the Undertaker/Triple H promo know it.

And what about Mr. WrestleMania?

I think he knows he needs to be in this match as well.

He was insistent on getting Triple H into this match and nobody has questioned why. Just yesterday, WWE.com delivered an interview with Michaels (by phone) that makes me optimistic that Michaels and the WWE understand that this match needs to happen. That Michaels needs to be added.

See, although there was a new Shawn Michaels in 2002 who was willing to take the backseat on world title wins (he said he came back to put over talent and ride off into the sunset), this new Shawn Michaels has never took the backseat on shining, on being the show stopper and show stealer, on being Mr. WrestleMania.

In yesterday's phone interview, Michaels said it was a curse. Wherever he goes, the spotlight follows.

It sounds like WWE gets it—that spotlight needs to follow him into a three-way Hell in the Cell match at WrestleMania 28.

If it does, the WWE is knocking on the door of possibly the greatest WrestleMania of all time.

The conversation has been about a dying breed—Triple H and the Undertaker. Well, Michaels is retired, not dead.

If you add him to the match, can you imagine how that would change the game?

Not only would we wonder how Triple H and Michaels would play against each other, but there would be the nagging question of if they would be willing to become DX again, in the course of the match, to ensure that one of them ended the streak.

And what about the Dead Man? I believe he is leading them into what he has wanted all along.

Triple H has suggested that the Undertaker wants this match in order to finish himself. I am suggesting that Triple H is right, but for all the wrong reasons.

I believe the Undertaker wants both Triple H and Shawn Michaels—the best of his wrestling class—because the Phenom has felt humanity in the aches and injuries in his body.

I believe he knows his time is near, if not now.

What greater tribute? What greater punctuation at the end of the 20-0 WrestleMania career of the Undertaker than to take Mr. World Champion and Mr. WrestleMania and vanquish them both in the cloud of his own departure?

I get it, the Undertaker gets it, Triple H gets it and Shawn Michaels gets it.

It seems WWE does as well.

So, book it. Now, please.