All language subtitles for WWE Rivals - Season 5 - EP-04 - Triple H VS. Shawn Michaels

- Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

- You make your rules,

and we will break 'em.

Yeah.

- Shawn Michaels and Triple H
are-are best of friends.

They're closer than a lot of
brothers.

- He was my buddy, and he hung
with me every step of the way.

- When that best friendship
turned into a rivalry,

it felt personal,

even for those of us watching
at home.

- You can go to hell for all I
care.

- I'm in the hallway, and he
goes off on me in the hallway.

In front of everybody in that
locker room,

we went at it.

- All this stuff becomes real.

- When they were on TV,
you were like,

"Oh, okay this is dangerous.

This is must see TV."

- Putting his life on the line

- Oh.

- God the carnage.

- Some of the bloodiest battles
are against people

that are former friends.

- I don't know how much more
personal it can get.

- You're outta line.

- I don't know how much
more personal it can get.

- When two legends collide,

their rivalries stays
pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break
down the legendary stories

behind the greatest
rivalries of all-time.

I'm Gabriel Iglesias
and this is "WWE Rivals."

- Two men who are at one
time best friends.

Shawn Michaels left the game
due to a broken back

but this is about pride and
passion, about evilness and ego.

- Triple H, the Cerebral
Assassin.

The Game versus Shawn Michaels
The Heartbreak Kid aka

Mr. WrestleMania.

Hall of Fame legends,

and uh, it's awesome to be
talking about 'em.

- They both, from as young as
they could remember,

wanted to be wrestlers.

They wanted to wrestle.

That's what they wanted to do.

- The commonality that they
had is that they both loved

this business so much.

They have a deep, deep passion
for it and a deep understanding.

- You know, Shawn Michaels just
he walked out there,

the place just went ballistic
and it was like

a live wire that
wasn't grounded

Triple H was very calculated.

- They were so comparable in a
lot of ways.

They were absolutely night and
day in others.

- Hunter Hearst Helmsley is a
guy that says he's going

to bring class and civility
to the WWE.

- Hunter Hearst Helmsley was
sort of built on the

northeastern Connecticut snob,
the very proper, you know,

American former Englishman.

That was Hunter's character
to get in the door,

but that kind of had a ceiling
on it,

and he offered so much more.

- Michaels isn't calling for
it.

- Hunter

- That Sweet Chin Music

- Hunter, you gotta get out
of there.

Mr. Perfect do something.

- Can Shawn Michaels connect
on the chin

of Hunter Hearst Helmsley?

Yeah.

- No.

- Cover.

One.

Two.

- No.

- Yes.

- In the mid 90s, there was no
comparison

to Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

Shawn Michaels was the top
of the industry.

He showed everybody
he belongs on top.

No one could compete with him,

storytelling, in-ring wise or
charisma wise,

so it was night and day.

- Shawn was the greatest workers
ever put on a pair of boots.

- The showstopper.

The headliner.

The main event.

- A big reason why I love
Shawn Michaels

was just the presentation
of it all.

He's out there wearing these
ludicrous clothes,

and yet he's the coolest man
I've ever seen.

- You will not ever see a man
more charismatic or more

talented than The Heartbreak
Kid, Shawn Michaels.

- But also,

- I don't give a damn
what anybody thinks of me.

- You know,
Shawn had an attitude,

and Shawn could be difficult
to deal with at times.

- I'm getting sick and tired of
people like you,

always coming down on me.

I've been here longer than
anybody.

Any superstar the World
Wrestling -- has to offer.

Nobody's been here longer
than me.

And still, I can't make any
of you bastards happy.

- But I think that Shawn's
talent,

and at the end of the day,

always doing what was right
for business.

Shawn's talent outweighed
his attitude.

- Shawn was a prick.

Like, straight up prick
to most people.

He just had a chip on his
shoulder and an attitude,

and I think at that point, Shawn
was in a place in the business

where he was doing things nobody
else was,

and working on a level from a
in-ring performer standpoint,

but wasn't getting the accolade
of it and was just

he was angry
and bitter about it.

Drugs and alcohol didn't
help that.

- The anger is what
allowed me to be uninhibited.

But that's what set HBK apart
from everybody else.

Is there-there just,

at that time there wasn't
anything and that's- I don't

people don't grasp that there
wasn't anything

that I wouldn't do.

- That same level of performance
was something that he expected

out of the rest of us, you know?

One of us didn't
live up to it.

I remember getting my ass chewed
by Shawn a couple times.

- Shawn putting the bad mouth
on the 1-2-3 Kid.

- He had so many personal demons

that he was fighting and
battling with.

Um, his ego was out of control.

Talked to very few people.

Exception to Hunter.

- We both had a mutual friend
that helped us out a bunch early

on in the business,
and that was Terry Taylor.

- You can tell when some guys
think they know everything.

And then you can tell when
somebody genuinely wants

to learn to make
the business better.

You could tell those
guys had it.

- In many ways, we are very
similar,

not athletically, I wish,

similar mindsets and
similar ways of thinking

of things and our sense of humor
in a lot of ways.

But it wasn't always easy
being Shawn's friend,

wasn't always easy just being
around him all the time.

Shawn had a lot of substance
issues at the time,

and a lot of things going on
that I helped him through,

I guess.

- It could have cost
him his career.

He never-
and he could have.

He could have thrown me
under the bus.

He never wavered in his
friendship of me.

He took a lot of [bleep].

He took a lot of heat at times
when

no one knew
what I was going to do.

He was a saint in that respect.

- People smelled blood
in the water.

It's easy to go there,

but Shawn and I had each
other's backs on everything.

- Triple H did a real good job
on, uh, curtailing that,

- Reining that in.

- Yes.

Being a being-a being a very
good friend for-for Shawn.

- Triple H has this incredible
fast sense of humor.

We're seeing this guy who's
limited very much by his gimmick

that he's in with the
aristocrat,

and you're thinking,

"If he could ever get that out
there,

he is really entertaining."

Fortunately, DX came along and
he got it out there.

- We are D-Generation X.

You make the rules
and we will break 'em.

Yeah.

- Shawn saw a huge future in
Hunter.

Wanted him to be part of this
thing.

It was a unique configuration
of individuals

and it really worked.

It just didn't emerge,
it exploded

- As we sort of were
moving into more of the DX.

He was allowed to now have much
more of an attitude,

a lot more personality, again,
have more humor, intensity,

anger, all of those things.

- There's one piece of artillery
I'm not going to use.

I'm going to save that
for your old lady.

And it's the big bazooka.

[laughing]

- You don't know what is going
on behind the curtain.

So for a lot of the people who
got to watch

this whole thing go down,
they were wondering like

"Why was Shawn Michaels
teaming with Triple H?"

But behind the scenes they're
thick as thieves.

- Creating D-Generation X and
being, um, crass and abrasive.

When they were on TV, you were
like, "Okay, this is dangerous."

This is must see TV.

They were the Attitude Era.

Shawn Michaels and D-Generation
X, want you to suck it.

- Disgusting.

And you got a smile
on your face.

- Ready to go, kids?

Here you go.

- By 1998, DX was the hottest
thing in wrestling.

But one unfortunate event would
put all of it in jeopardy.

Welcome to the 11th Annual
Royal Rumble.

- The edge of that casket,

right on the lower back
of Shawn Micheals

- I think Shawn is hurt.

I think he's hurt bad.

- At the 1998 Rumble,
Shawn was having a casket match

with The Undertaker and

he sustained a terrible
back injury.

- This whole match is a
testament to Michaels'

intestinal fortitude.

- So, I basically crushed
several discs in my back

and I had to get my lower
back fused.

- When Shawn got hurt,

he was at
the top of his game.

And for him at that point,
you know, to be pulled out.

And not only that, but to leave
Hunter by himself.

It was a huge crossroads
for Shawn.

- At the time, as far as anyone
knew,

the majority of people
that got that done

were older people that
then began to live

a very limited quality of life
after that.

They said
I'd never wrestle again.

I was incredibly angry.

Everything's over.

- We have one of the greatest
and most controversial champions

of all time here tonight.

Shawn Michaels will join us
later on tonight.

- HBK in the house in just a
little bit.

- So at this time,
Shawn is hurt.

He's away from the limelight,

but he's still behind the
scenes.

Uh, very much involved
in what's going on.

- And you better believe Shawn
was still under contract

if he was in a hospital bed,
he'd still be under contract.

- Once Shawn Michaels left,
this could have been a bit of a

career disaster for Triple H,
because the leader of DX

was no longer around to lead
the pack.

- You dropped the ball.

But don't worry,

HBK, because Triple H
picked it up

and now the ball is in my court.

There were conversations with me
about going forward

with DX from there,

there was also conversations
that I knew that

were happening of like,
"Can he do that on his own?"

I'll take care of the worries.

I'll take care of the problems,

and I'll make the decisions.

And at that point, I'm still
seen as secondary to Shawn.

And can I handle that?

Can I-can I make that happen?

Am I a main event player?

This is the genesis of
D-Generation X.

- He had such confidence
and he was just so-

It was so clear.

Like Shawn's gone, yes,

but we're just going
to get bigger.

- Now, Triple H was the leader
and X-Pac

was brought in at a certain
point.

I got two words for ya-

- Suck it.

- Yeah.

- You cannot replace a
Shawn Michaels and I didn't.

I was just me and I was having a
great time and,

yeah, people got with it.

- Let's get ready to, suck it.

And who rules the world
in professional wrestling?

[crowd chants "DX"]

- If you would have told me
we are going to lose

the best wrestler in the
business,

and within a month
this group

that he founded but is
no longer a part of it,

is going to be hotter than ever.

I would have thought you
were crazy.

- This is my DX

My army.

- It's a real testament to
Hunter to figure out

how to reinvent DX without
Shawn,

which I don't think
anybody could have

imagined DX without Shawn.

- And then to watch everybody
else as the industry at this hot

point keeps on rising,
and you had so much to do

with getting it to this point.

- Yes.

He did it,
he did it.

- You're where
I'm supposed to be,

that belongs to me.

There's going to be a little bit
of animosity there, right?

- Yeah.

- You better remember
I've had chunks of guys

bigger than you in my stool.

- The next segment with him,

he just buried the [bleep]
out of me.

- Always remember
I was DX before DX was cool.

- I just didn't think it was
cool to do.

Like, I'm the one that's there
helping draw money

and you're at home and you come
in here, everyone, you know,

that's kinda selfish
[bleep] thing to do.

- Shawn, um, he's got a kid and
he's married, but he's still,

he's-he's got his issues,

and we were nowhere near
as close as we were

before because of it.

- This is a job where if you're
not having fun,

holy [bleep], does it make it so
much more difficult.

- And how's the back feeling?

- Hurts.

- Bad?

- Bad.

- His drug use was out of
control.

- The thing is, I can't keep
coming out here

week after week after week,

going back and forth
with all this,

I've got to get busy with my
rehab,

my physical therapy,
my physical therapy for my back.

- There was a moment where
it's me, Taker's there,

I think it's Austin, Rock,

in walks Shawn,

who is just a mess,

taking a bunch of pills.

He's drooling.

He's like, can barely stay
awake.

He's stumbling around the room.

He's like making inappropriate
comments.

He's half in, half out.

Everybody else goes to Vince.

"It's [bleep] embarrassing.

He shouldn't be here."

What's going, you know, blah,
blah, blah.

So next morning,
Vince calls me in and goes,

"Hey, I just wanty ou to know
I'm going to have a conversation

with Shawn and I'm going to send
him home."

He goes in and has a
conversation with Shawn.

Shawn comes out of that
conversation.

I'm in the hallway and he goes
off on me in the hallway.

And everybody's there looking,
and I'm fine with it.

And I let him-

let him vent and go through
all his [bleep].

And then he got done, and he
stormed off to the locker room,

and I sat there stewing in it
for a minute, and then I said,

"You know what?
[bleep] this [bleep]"

And I went down the hallway,
went in the locker room

and in front of everybody
in that locker room.

We went at it, not physically,
but close.

- You can go to hell
for all I care.

- Man, get out of here,

- I blister him and, you know,

you know, say [bleep] stuff,
that stuff.

stuff that-I said hurtful stuff
and-and, uh, and left.

- Then basically.

[bleep] you, [bleep] you.

We're done.

- Hunter had everything
you need,

really smart guy and a terrific
wrestler,

but he knew he had
to transform himself.

- You guys talk about

being students of the game.

I am The [bleep] Game, JR.

There is nobody that eats,
sleeps or breathes

this business more than me.

- He's as deadly as they come.

The Cerebral Assassin.

- Just a few years earlier,

Triple H had been the number
two guy in DX.

By 2002, he's a top guy,

main eventing,
multiple huge shows

and holding
World Championships.

- The Game has done it.

- Hunter being the responsible
one, there was still a guy that

felt like he deserved his shot,
believed that

he could attain anything,
and he didn't want anybody

holding him back from that.

- I think that at that point
Hunter had kind of taken

that top spot,

and, uh,
there was some friction

between Triple H and Shawn
during the time

that they weren't on the
road together.

And I guess I kind of was, uh,
was trying to mend, you know,

some fences of some old friends
of mine that, you know,

and get kind of get us all
in the same page.

- Kevin Nash called me and said,

"Hey, you know, Shawn's trying
to clean up.

And he feels really bad,

like he started to see things
clearly and all that and.

You know he wants to call you,
but he's afraid,

and if he calls,
will you answer the phone?"

And I said,"Of course.
I'll answer the phone."

- Turning my life around with my
wife and our children

and my faith,

and knowing he's the first guy I
got a call, you know, and

that you know and beg him to
forgive me and to say I'm sorry.

- Uh, Shawn called me,
and, um, you know,

he had reached a different point
in his life.

He had realized the issue,
sort of,

I think, you know, one day he
woke up and looked at his son

and "Oh, what am I doing?"

Found God and cleaned
himself up and

was just in a completely
different place.

And-and we spoke and sort of

buried the hatchet.

Somewhere there he mentions
about wanting to-

to have one more match.

- By 2002, Shawn had patched
things up not only with

Triple H, but with WWE
as a whole.

And despite the discouraging
prognosis

he had gotten four years
earlier,

Shawn Michaels seemed determined
to have one more match.

- He came back here and there
like as a on air figure.

He was a commissioner,
I think, for a while,

and, you know, beyond a
superkick here and there,

you never saw him
do anything physical.

- All of a sudden all these

ideas start going through
your head.

And now you're standing there
ringside and I'm thinking

to myself, physically, I can
still do all of that again,

maybe not to the degree
that I once did it,

but certainly what I'm seeing
now I could do in a-

in a limited fashion.

- But his issue is he doesn't
know if his back can hold up.

He doesn't know anything,
and he only feels confident

if he does it with me.

He only feels, like, his words,

"The only person I can do that
with is you if you say no,

I understand."

- He had gone and
created The Game and who he was

and it wouldn't have wouldn't
have bothered me.

And I get practically misty eyed
and crying.

It wouldn't have bothered me
one bit if he-

had he felt he was bigger than
that, you know.

But, uh, sorry.

[laughing]

Um, but he didn't.

And so it was very cool.

It's good to see ya.

- Group hug.

How you doing, man?

You all right?

- So it's now been four years,
and the WWE is trying to figure

out a way to get him back
into the storyline,

how to bring him back
into the mix.

- Times change and the Triple H
was no longer the apprentice and

Triple H, as this [bleep]
character doesn't see his friend

returning as a positive,

ultimately,
he sees it as a threat.

- Look out.

Look out.

The hell happened?

- The hell happened?

- Oh, wow.

Oh, wow.

- Shawn,
I swear to you,

and I swear in front of all
these people,

I'm going to find out who did
this to you.

- The police in Greensboro sent
me some surveillance footage.

It was you, Hunter.

- Shawn had
done so much

to help elevate Triple H,

and Shawn was heartbroken
by the fact that his friend,

his guy he'd been riding with,

his guy that he'd set up
DX with,

had now stabbed
him in the back.

- You damn right
it was me, Shawn.

- Four and a half years seems
like "Oh, that's a lifetime.

He's-
Surely he can't wrestle anymore.

His back, all this stuff.

You hear why he retired."

- They say
I'll be 100%.

100% by say, uh.

Summerslam.

[crowd cheers]

- Once we made
the decision

to go with Hunter and I at
SummerSlam,

I got more anxious.

- The match was made a street
fight, which meant that Triple H

and Shawn Michaels could use
objects that they would find

at ringside and break
all the rules,

which would alleviate
any potential ring rust

that Shawn Michaels could have.

- The quick movements of my body
are the things that I wasn't

sure I could adjust to, um,
which I would need in a-

in a classic wrestling match.

So this match, uh,
being a street fight,

works more for what I think I'm
capable of doing now.

I hadn't been in the ring
in four years.

One time I was considered a
pretty decent performer,

to say the least.

And you worry about living up to
that, that stature again.

Also, besides injuries for
years, I mean, I'm 30-

I am older now.

- And the idea that, oh my God,
Shawn Michaels

could come back and could
wrestle again was, uh,

astonishing in itself.

- I don't even think he had
gotten in the ring to train.

He just got himself a little bit
of physically good shape and

knew that his back felt better
to some degree, but hadn't

hadn't taken a bump, hadn't hit
the ropes, hadn't done anything.

You know, that was probably one
of the hardest for me going into

it because I'm like, "Man,
if just if he can't do this,

like Holy [bleep], what are we
going to do?"

I remember having the
conversation with his mom

walking up to me with tears in
her eyes, and me telling her

"I won't let anything happen to
your boy."

- I had no barometer.

I didn't know what I could do
and what I couldn't do.

And so,

and then to have to do it your
first time on a pay per view

in front of a gazillion people
is, you know, again,

it's a bit- a bit of an anxious
moment.

- Are you ready for this, JR?

- I'm ready, but is HBK ready?

- We didn't know if this thing
was going to be eight minutes

long or 30 minutes long, or that
he might take two bumps and say,

never mind, and this is a
terrible idea and end it.

- There he is.

- We just really didn't know.

- Are you ready for this, JR?

- I'm ready, but is HBK ready?

- I was excited, but also,
of course a bit nervous because

I hadn't been in the ring in
four years.

- There he is.

[Shawn Michaels' music]

[fireworks]

- He is a show stopper.

What an amazing, amazing
athlete.

His last match,

March 29th, 1998 at
Wrestlemania.

- They did everything they could
to get me and help me

to be comfortable.

And honestly, the biggest
comfort was being in there with

my best friend.

Given, you know, his talent and
everything that he he could do,

I figured he'd be able to work

around me if I was
really limited.

- Well, we are witnessing
something that we quite frankly,

thought we'd never see.

- I was already a wrestler and I
had to show that day,

so I made the promoter
put me first.

So I drove home right after the
show and made it in time

to see Shawn's comeback.

- This match about passion
and pride.

- Oh, here we go.

- Shawn Michaels throwing that
shirt right in the face.

- I could see from his attitude.

The right side of Shawn was
there, needed to be there.

- Michaels off the top rope.

- Wow.

- And there's a shot.

And The Game.

- Oh look out.

- Oh, The Game, my God.

My God, what a backbreaker.

- We walked up did like 2 or 3
things and I remember going

like, "Buddy, you are [bleep]
fine, let's go."

- Oh my God.

No no.

- Michaels helpless,
hanging upside down.

- I remember being very
concerned for Shawn,

and they, uh, they told that
story

really, really, really
well.

- Oh.

- He's bleeding, he's knocked
down and-

- Oh God.

- Look at this.

- Oh God, Shawn Michaels
kipped up.

Where in God's name
did he get that?

- Don't do it.

Don't do it.

- Michaels with a superplex.

Shawn Michaels is off the
page.

- Oh

- The Game a high knee to
Shawn Michaels.

- Everybody else comes back and
they're older,

they got injuries.

Shawn came back and was better
every single time.

- Like "Are you sure you were
hurt?"

- Right?

Yeah.

- Shawn has always been a man

that loves to give the
people what they want.

- Shawn Michaels putting his
life on the line.

Oh God, the carnage.

- Thinking like,"What he's
been training the whole time?"

- Shawn Michaels,

for the love of God the elbow.

- I don't understand how
he can be this good, and

me just constantly asking
him, too, "Are you okay?

Are you okay?"

"Yeah, good."

You know.

"Good."

- Bang no.

It's blocked.

I thought he had it,
it was blocked.

- Oh no.

- Pedigree.

My God, it's happening.

Michaels roll up.

Will it be, can it be?

[bell rings]

- Yes, HBK.

My God HBK

[laughing]

- That's when I knew he was the
most physically gifted,

wrestling performer-

- Ever.

- Yeah.

- I thought, this is the
comeback match.

Shawn puts a final exclamation
point on one of the great

careers in WWE history.

I did not know it was just
going to be the beginning.

- Oh, oh, oh my God.

- God Almighty

- Hit him in the back with
a sledge hammer.

- God Almighty not the hammer.

Right in the back.

Triple H hit Shawn Michaels.

- Get that away from him.

- Get that hammer away.

- No, no.

- No.

- No, don't fight.

No.

- In theory, I'm such a Shawn
Michaels fan,

I should have been irate at what
Triple H did to him after

with the sledgehammer,
but I knew it meant,

oh, there's going to be more,

so I was so happy.

- That was the most courageous
victory

that many of us have ever seen.

That son of a bitch used that
hammer.

He's going to rot in hell for
what he did here tonight.

- Can it be?

Yes.

HBK.

My God, HBK.

- None of us had any inkling
that Shawn would be

continuing this after this
match.

- It went from "Hey you did the
one match to what do you think

If you did it, you know, another
1 or 2 or a couple of these

to you know what, if you came
back in a limited capacity?"

- I want to say it was just a
few weeks later,

he called me and mentioned what
they wanted to do

with the Elimination Chamber.

This Sunday at Survivor Series,
I will be one of six men

to compete in the first ever
Elimination Chamber match.

- You don't know if any match
could be his last match

because he did have a serious
back injury.

- It was only a
career ending back injury.

It was only partial paralysis.

- But as long as he's cleared
and healthy and raring to go

and wants to go, we're certainly
going to take advantage of that.

- With back with spine, it's
tricky because you don't always

know if you can come back.

Uncertainty is just it can
really eat at you.

- Everything's going wonderfully
and you're like,

"You know, a shoe's got to drop
here, right?

I mean, it can't be, you know,
things can't be going this well.

It's been four years since

HBK has been
in Madison Square Garden.

I can assure you.

I'm walking out of the garden,
walking out of that

Chamber Match the new

World Heavyweight Champion.

- After his unbelievable
comeback match with Triple H

at SummerSlam,

Shawn Michaels
was thrown right back

into the fire because the
Elimination Chamber certainly

wasn't designed to go easy on
a surgically repaired back.

- Yeah, you'd hear, oh,
now we're building it,

the whole thing.

And the next time I saw it was
Madison Square Garden,

where I walked out and was like,
"Holy [bleep]."

- For this?

Yeah, we're all [bleep].

Can you put that in the show?

[laughing]

- Yes.

What's that?

Big.

Big.

Pretty-pretty cool looking,
though.

Very cool looking actually.

- Well, you never get
a second chance to make

a first impression.

- Right.

- Shawn Michaels only his second
match in four years

after sustaining what we
thought

was a career ending back injury.

What a kick.

Sweet Chin Music.

Michaels eliminates Jericho

and we're down to two.

Shawn Michaels and Triple H.

- Uh oh.

- My God what is Shawn Michaels
doing now?

What a Shawn Michaels thinking?

- Oh,

- Oh the elbow.

Shawn Michaels and the elbow.

- From the top of the Chamber

- That kick was blocked.

- Didn't I tell ya?

- Pedigree, it's over.

Is this how it's going to-

no, it's not how it's going to
end.

It's not going to end that way.

- What?

Look out.

- He just-he just back body
dropped The Game.

He came out of it.

Sweet Chin

- Oh he got him.

- Sweet Chin Music

The cover.

The cover.

He's got-

- What?

- Shawn Michaels.

Shawn Michaels,

is the world champion.

- The winner of this bout and

new World Heavyweight Champion

HBK, Shawn Michaels.

- Elimination Chamber,
when Shawn wins the title,

a couple of months before that,
you thought he was done forever.

Now we're in November 2002,
he's a champion.

As a Shawn Michaels fan,

doesn't get better than that,
you know?

- He and I now in this storyline
with each other that again,

that leads to another match.

I was still very skittish
at that time.

I, you know, I was trying
to be very conservative

in my aspirations and hopes.

I didn't want to get anything
too far down the line

because I didn't know
physically where I was at.

I was a husband,
I was a dad.

I had sort of gotten used
to a different life.

Eventually you find out, like,
I guess I'm back.

Since the last two performances
I've had,

I think have been pretty
gosh darn okay,

I figure we see how much more
this old body

has got left in her.

- He comes back in 2002,
and he picks up

where left off and was as good
as he ever was.

- Then it was back on the road
and just working again.

It was great.

He got a whole second run
of a career.

- I remember becoming a fan
again, watching, you know,

the Triple H-Shawn Michaels feud
and watching it progress.

And it brought me back to the
feelings when I was a kid of,

"Oh my goodness, I can't wait to
see what happens next."

- The Cerebral Assassin

is a calculating career killer,
and tonight The Game

wants to win the world title.

And he'd love to end
Shawn Michaels career.

It is Michael's and-and
The Game.

It is a true gut check.

- No.

- Oh my God.

Oh, good God Almighty.

Shawn Michaels has crashed and
burned thanks to The Game.

- He's the World Heavyweight
Champion JR.

- It is-what an amazing
performance by both men.

- Hunter and Shawn
had remarkable chemistry.

Especially to me when Hunter
was the bad guy.

- I think it only made sense
that Hunter was usually a bit

more of the aggressor and the-
the bad guy in the story,

because he just played
that bad guy

so so so so well.

- What the hell is going on
here?

- Triple H slammed the table.

- He's going to try to
incapacitate Michaels

once and for all.

- With the relationship between
Triple H and Shawn Michaels,

they were so close together
as friends

that Triple H wanted
to make sure

Michaels look as good
as he could.

Shawn wanted to make Triple H

look as good as he possibly
could and

together they made magic.

- We're having these matches
that are a bit physical,

you know?

- This match has taken its
physical toll.

Neither man could get up before
the ten count.

-The battles were bloody,
they were gory,

they were personal.

Some of the bloodiest battles
are against people

that are former friends.

- Squeeze my hand, sir.

Good.

- My left hand feels like, ah.

- This one?

- Yeah, it feels like it-

it's broken,
my hand is killing me.

- When you get to the point
of hatred,

that just fuels the fire.

- I don't know how much more any
of us could have asked from

these two men physically,
than they gave us here tonight.

- Shawn and Hunter's rivalry
would continue

over the next couple of years.

They always seemed to find
their way back to each other

and the matches always
delivered.

- One match that sticks out
in my mind,

Shawn had a torn hamstring

that happened just
a week before.

The match they had,

and the guts that Shawn showed
throughout,

90% of the match might have been
him hamming it up big time.

But that's just part of the art
of the story.

And it made for such
a special match,

such a different kind of match
too.

- Michael's hits the elbow.

- Michaels trying to will
himself back into it.

- It's not enough just to be
a good wrestler.

You have to be able to put all
the pieces of the puzzle

together, and he was able to
bring the emotions and the drama

and the energy they knew how
to bring you in emotionally,

connect with the audience on
a different emotional level

that was unparalleled.

- Shawn Michaels with as much
heart and passion as anybody

that I've ever laid eyes on in
my 30 years in this business.

- Despite going to war with each
other, there was always an

underlying bond between the two,

and no matter how much they
battered each other,

there was always that chance

that we would see them
together again.

- DX was big and we were
the original guys,

that was something
we had teased here and there.

- There you see the old DX chop
there.

- I mean, they had that magical
chemistry,

whether they were squaring off
against each other in the ring

or as a tag team,
I think it was inevitable.

- And there's a nice "Suck it"
for good measure.

- Two guys who their histories
were so interwoven that

you understand it doesn't take
much for these guys

to be bonded back together
again.

They had a very special ability
to go whichever way they wanted

at any point and still make
it compelling.

- It appears that we have
just seen

the reuniting of DX.

- There's so much of a story
as far as the arc of injuries

and this and that, and then
finally for them to come back

and full circle and pull it off
and it not feel stale.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- There was an opportunity for
us to have sort of a really fun

run without the the youth
inspired angriness or bitterness

or drive or desire,
like we're all very comfortable

at that point of our placements,
and this is like a bonus run.

[crowd chants "DX"]

- We are back, baby.

- I think what made the reunion
of DX work,

to the extent that it did,
was the self-awareness

of Triple H and Shawn.

- We're not the same guys.

You can't be hip and cool like
you were at 29 or 30

when you're 40.

And so we put
a different spin on it.

- Isn't that Mr. Fuji over
there?

- I love Mr. Fuji.

- When you see Triple H and
Shawn Michaels out there,

like together as friends,
you know what I mean?

Like literally having all the
fun, like, that's that's why

it's so entertaining
because it's real.

- Right.

- The second coming of DX,
the biggest thing for me

is the reach that they had.

I didn't spend a day at school
without someone

crotch chopping me.

- I'll tell you what was not
a feel good moment was getting

the phone call from um, my son's
school to let me know

that we needed to come down and
talk to, uh, his teacher,

because apparently, uh, my son
was being very expressive

to his classmates about
what they could do.

- You can't even explain it.

- You can't even explain it
without looking like,

like more of the problem.

- We all got two words for ya,

[crowd "Suck it."]

- The stuff was good,
them as rivals,

but I honestly think
they're better as friends.

[laughing]

- This job, and especially
in this place and with some

of us that have been here
through it all,

all this stuff becomes real.

The brotherhood
that we've shared,

I've spent more time with Paul
Levesque in my adult life,

than I have anybody else on the
face of God's green Earth.

You are my best friend.

You know, I would go to the ends
of the Earth for you.

And now we find ourselves
where we're at now,

doing and creating something
else with each other.

- It's really remarkable to me
that these two guys who and,

you know, like 96 or 97 wanted
to take over the business,

have, in fact, taken over the
business.

- Shawn Michaels and Triple H
are still together.

Triple H is the head of creative
for WWE.

- But when the lightning bolt
hits, I want a pyro boom.

I want everybody in here to go.

"What the [bleep], right?"

- Yeah.

- And Shawn Michaels is molding
the future of WWE

at the Performance Center.

- I can't say enough positive
things about Shawn Michaels

and how much
he helped my career.

I always say that time was like
getting my PhD and he just

thinks at a different level.

- A lot of people believe that

Shawn is the greatest
performer in this business.

Not-

But it's not because of the
spots that he did,

you know, it's not the
moonsaults.

It's not the elbow off the top
of the ladder.

It's not any of that stuff.

It's the emotion, which with the
way that he did things with.

- I've been so impressed with
Hunter since

he's been in that role, you
know.

- It's the ability to watch,
to adapt.

But to more than anything,
just be aware.

They're so aware
of what's going on.

- Oh, my God,
that was freaking great.

- Sometimes it's mind
blowing to us.

- DX was looking ahead the
Elimination Chamber match

in 2002 that was looking ahead
and NXT is looking ahead

and the two of them have their
fingerprints on everything.

- Being able to live vicariously
with these kids and help them

and give back and just reignite
that passion.

It's-it's awesome.

- When everything is said
and done.

Hunter and I are still
wrestling fans,

and that's where all
of this started.

Whether it was DX,
whether it was the friendship,

whether it's how we do
our jobs here,

it all originates from that.

- It's a small little thing.

- It's fun.

And that's all I can say.

We've come a long way.

We've come a long way.