Why Shawn Michaels Doesn't View WWE Crown Jewel As His Final Match

WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels has elaborated on why he feels that his last match did not take place in Saudi Arabia at the Crown Jewel event in 2018.

Back at WrestleMania 26 in 2010, Shawn Michaels lost to The Undertaker in a career vs. Streak match in the main event. Unlike other pro wrestling retirements, The Heartbreak Kid looked to be done for good with no indication that he would come back one final time. However, following a storyline rivalry between DX and The Brothers of Destruction, a tag team match was set for Crown Jewel 2018 with Triple H and Michaels taking on The Undertaker and Kane.

While there was excitement and curiosity of Michaels having his first match in over 8 years, many were in agreement that the end result was not good. With Triple H getting injured, Kane’s mask falling off and a number of botches, all 4 men have stated in interviews since that it was not their best work and one to forget. For Michaels, he does not view it to be an official match of The Showstopper.

While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Michaels was asked if he considers the WrestleMania match or the Crown Jewel match to be his final outing, to which he responded that the Mania 26 bout fs the one. Continuing, Michaels added that the Crown Jewel match felt more like a separate one-off:

“It’s that one with Undertaker [at WrestleMania 26]. Because the other one, it was a tag match, it was DX, and I feel kind of bad, because I don’t mean it in a negative way, but that was just sort of like, I don’t know. It was like Kiss going out, and not even with the original members or whatever, and playing a concert at The Troubadour or something. It was like, Oh, but they’re not really retired, and I know Kiss never retired, just felt like a special, separate one-off. HBK and Mr. Wrestlemania, The Showstopper, whatever, that ended with Taker at WrestleMania, because I still came back and refereed the match between Hunter and Taker and again, and will always play a role in the WWE. Would it count if I went into the Rumble this year or something? Don’t get me wrong.”

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When Michaels was asked in the interview about his Rumble comment, the Hall of Famer confirmed that he was joking and one more match would not happen before continuing to talk about the Crown Jewel match:

“Oh, heavens no! Probably shouldn’t have said that. I was just using that as an example. But no, I don’t consider those a match. A single performance by me, by HBK, by that guy. That’s not who that was. That was a dude hanging out with his buddies and having a match. So one was the artist, the other one is was a dude, like I said, hanging out with his buddies.”