Shawn Michaels and Triple H Defeat The Undertaker and Kane at WWE Crown Jewel

In his first match in eight years, Shawn Michaels teamed with Triple H to defeat The Undertaker and Kane at WWE Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. 

Triple H scored the pinfall victory for DX after hitting Kane with a Pedigree.

Despite being 53 years of age, Michaels pulled out all the stops during the match, including a moonsault and flying elbow drop:

Crown Jewel marked the first time that the founders of D-Generation X had ever clashed with The Brothers of Destruction in a tag team match.

The seeds for the highly anticipated contest were planted during the build toward WWE Super Show-Down in Melbourne, Australia, which pitted Triple H against The Undertaker.

Michaels and The Undertaker engaged in a war of words that saw The Phenom claim that Michaels was afraid to step back inside the ring.

The Heartbreak Kid countered by saying that he stayed away out of respect for The Undertaker since The Deadman beat him in a retirement match at WrestleMania 26.

That led to Michaels being in Triple H's corner at Super Show-Down, as well as Kane accompanying his brother.

The bout was changed to a No Disqualification match, which permitted Michaels and Kane to be heavily involved throughout.

In the end, The Game managed to defeat Taker in a singles match for the first time since 2002.

It initially seemed as though The Undertaker and Kane were going to accept the loss graciously and show DX respect, but they instead decided to attack Michaels and Triple H in a fit of rage.

The actions of The Undertaker and The Big Red Machine left Michaels and Triple H seething to the point that they decided to challenge their rivals to a match at Crown Jewel.

HBK long maintained that he would never wrestle again after losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26, but given the circumstances and the blatant disrespect shown by The Brothers of Destruction, he decided to make an exception.

All four Superstars have a ton of history with each other, and that showed through during Friday's nostalgic match.

While Michaels and Triple H won, the most important factor was the manner in which the combatants captivated the fans watching live and across the world.

Given the success of his in-ring return, there will undoubtedly be plenty of talk regarding Michaels wrestling additional matches in the coming weeks and months as well.

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