- "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels.
- Shawn Michaels would be like the Michael Jordan
of professional wrestling.
Stone Cold does what he wants, when he wants.
- We were two very strong characters.
They wanted to see him absolutely murder me.
This is it.
This is it, Austin.
- Mike Tyson will be with us.
- To have Tyson as part of this promotion was a natural fit.
- Whoa, here we go.
- Here we go, Tyson and Austin.
- We were fighting our ass off.
- Having Mike, it was a game changer
- Fleet Center in Boston is sold out for the March 29th event.
- The World Wrestling -- Champion.
- I'm not going out there.
You'll be lucky if I make it to WrestleMania
- Shawn obviously is off the rails to some degree.
- There's a lot of ego involved because I mean everybody
takes pride in being number one.
- I'm going to make this rough on everybody.
- Austin, Michaels, Tyson.
The -- on, and that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.
- This rivalry has just escalated into a war.
- When two legends collide, their rivalry stays pinned
in our minds forever.
This is where we break down the legendary stories behind the
greatest rivalries of all time.
I'm Freddie Prinze Jr, and this is WWE Rivals.
- Your ass belongs to "Stone Cold' Steve Austin.
- So it's 1997, and the rivalry we're going to discuss today,
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin versus Shawn Michaels.
- Shawn Michaels was truly in my estimations at that time
the best in the business.
- You will not ever in your lives see a man more
charismatic, more flamboyant, or more talented than
"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels.
- Unbelievable.
- Shawn was better than everybody else.
He was that good.
- And he gets right back up.
How does that man do it?
- I think from a performance level,
I was a guy that was innovative.
- Shawn Michaels would be like the Michael Jordan
of professional wrestling.
- He's the greatest athlete in WWE history.
- Do absolutely anything, any style, anytime, anywhere
to perfection with anyone.
- The showstopper, the main event, the icon, Shawn Michaels.
I was the top guy at that time.
I was a very, very good bad guy.
I had real life heat.
- As a human being back then, I have no use for him whatsoever.
It was just his demeanor all around.
- Shawn was a --, like straight up -- to most people,
so he had a lot of heat with a lot of people.
- Quite frankly Shawn does get described as an -- back in the
day, and he just seemed to have not just a lot of confidence,
but a little bit of arrogance on top of that confidence.
He was a cocky guy.
- We are D-Generation X.
You make the rules and we will break them.
Yes.
- I think that the DX version of Shawn Michaels was more true
to the person that Shawn was at the time.
- DX respects absolutely nobody.
DX first began, it was Hunter, myself, and Chyna just wanting
to push the envelope a little bit more
- Mooning, crotch chopping, telling people to suck it.
What we were doing was resonating.
- I love everything DX did, all their antics.
- We're going to sit down here and we're going to play
a little strip poker.
- I did the suck it chop many, many times in grade school.
Didn't know what it meant but still did it.
- Oh.
D-Generation X are the most controversial entity.
- 1998 is going to be the year of D-Generation X,
and absolutely nobody is going crash our party.
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin doesn't care
who is in the ring with.
- I am the toughest SOB in the WWE and can't nobody stop me.
Man, I was over the edge, I was aggressive.
Stone Cold does what he wants, when he wants.
- The rebel attitude.
He was doing what everybody wishes they could do and saying
what everybody wishes they could say.
- If anybody wants to see Vince McMahon get his ass whipped
give me a hell yeah.
[crowd yells "Hell yeah"]
- Stone Cold represented what you wanted to say
to all your teachers, "You got to listen to me."
I just wanted to flip them off and give them a stunner you know
- You can kiss my ass.
- Whoa.
- Oh, God.
- Man, this dude can do whatever he wants, man.
I love it because you wanted to be the guy who's able
to flip his boss off.
- And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.
- We have the ultimate anti-hero in "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
This guy said and did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
- He was different, he was edgy.
Every single person watching WWE wanted to live vicariously
through Steve Austin.
[crowd chants "Austin"]
- When Steve got hot, any building in the world
you put his name on, we sold out.
That was the hottest guy I've certainly ever seen
in the business.
- Stone Cold was at the top of the card and for good reason.
I mean, he was just that good.
- What an ovation for the Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold.
- We're dealing with a real burgeoning superstar.
Now, he just needs to get to the top of the mountain,
and the guy on that mountain is Shawn Michaels.
- There he is the incomparable WWE Champion.
Yes, he has bravado.
- We were two very strong characters.
Stone Cold was just take no nonsense ass kicker,
and of course my guy was the epitome of somebody you wanted
to see get his ass kicked.
- It was a natural progression for those two to finally
come together.
- No more Mr. nice guy until after this Rumble.
Jim, someone told me the other day at the airport,
"Steve, if you think you can win the Rumble,
give me a hell yeah."
I give a, oh, hell yeah.
- This is going to take us to the Royal Rumble,
and that was the moment the rivalry started.
- Elimination occurs when a superstar is thrown over the top
rope and both feet must touch the floor.
- 29 other WWE Superstars who have the exact same goal
in mind, which is headlining and main eventing WrestleMania.
- Look out.
He's from behind.
- Austin came from the crowd.
- Winning the Royal Rumble automatic ticket
to WrestleMania.
- Stone Cold Stunner, and the Rock is gone.
Stone Cold, Stone Cold, Stone Cold is going to WrestleMania.
- Kind of a culmination of me spinning off and getting as hot
as I was, and the fans really gravitated towards me.
It was a natural thing.
- Stone Cold will meet the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XIV.
- Certainly knew at the time like, "Yes, that's the next guy
who needs to have a run with this championship."
- The proverbial brass ring was his to grab except one person
stood in the way, the Heartbreak Kid.
- Shawn was the best of his time and Steve was the best
of what was to come.
- On the same night that Steve Austin punched his ticket to
WrestleMania, Shawn Michaels was defending his WWE Championship
against the Undertaker in the Undertaker's match,
a casket match.
- To win this match, one man must place his opponent
in the casket and shut the lid.
- I'm going to take a back drop out of the ring
but over the casket.
- I threw him over the top and I think he was trying
to clear the big casket.
- Missed it.
- Michaels back dropped on that big old wooden casket.
- And I didn't quite clear it, so my back
caught the edge of it.
You know, you hear a little donk.
- The edge of that casket right on the lower back
of Shawn Michaels.
- And it hurts a little bit, but everything in there
hurts a little bit.
- Oh
- A dynamic elbow drop right off the top.
- Honestly, I didn't know how bad it was.
- He got caught.
- He got him, he got him.
- Michaels with a knockout blow on the Undertaker.
- I didn't think much of it.
Went and finished the match.
- And the lid is shut.
- Shawn wins.
- You know, you crawl in bed, sleep for however long,
and then when I got up, I just couldn't move.
So, call an ambulance.
[sirens blaring]
By the time the ambulance gets there, I've made it probably
about, I don't know, 20 feet from my bedroom.
But, I just rolled off the bed and I was army crawling
on the floor trying to make it there.
You know, they got me up on the stretcher and
all that kind of stuff.
Apparently, I had burst the disc.
They just said I was going to need surgery right away.
Then, of course, it gets all very dramatic, and it's over,
and this, that, and the other, or you can't wrestle again.
- Stone Cold will meet the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XIV.
- Stone Cold wins the Rumble.
When you hear "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels are
going to headline WrestleMania, that's a match for the ages,
so that's good.
The bad is Shawn Michaels gets hurt.
- The edge of that casket right on the lower back
of Shawn Michaels.
- This is a dream matchup and right at that time,
Shawn gets hurt and it's just heartbreaking.
It's Shakespearian.
It's so tragic.
- If you've ever had a back injury, you know how bad that
can be and how bad that can hold you back.
I mean, your back is everything in this business.
- Sitting up, getting pinned, kicking out.
I mean, the most basic of basic things in a professional
wrestling match you will be so limited by.
- Shawn was in the prime of his career, and to all of a sudden
look at it and have several doctors tell you,
"You're never going to wrestle again."
- You take all that in and then it's like, "Hold on.
If I can do therapy and all that kind of stuff, I can get through
a match at WrestleMania."
You know, of course the doctors were like, I mean
"Technically, I guess you could, but I wouldn't recommend it.
I mean you know it can be really dangerous."
- Hello again everybody and welcome to WWE Raw.
- I give Vince a call and it's like, "If I can just maybe come
in for TVs and let me just do therapy on this thing,
I can get to WrestleMania."
- He was in no condition to perform in the ring the night
after the Rumble, but he wanted to be on Raw that night.
- Last night, I went to bed.
Tossed and I turned.
- Shawn needed to take time off, but it was also just a lot going
on up here with Shawn.
- There is only one more mountain for
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin to climb.
Not only is "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels at the top
of that mountain, he owns that mountain.
- This was a guy who was legitimately bitter about not
being smack in the center of the spotlight.
- Here's the thing.
When you're the top guy and you're carrying the company,
and they're depending on you, that's a big responsibility.
On top of that, there's a lot of ego involved because I mean
everybody takes pride in being number one.
I just know that the guy probably wasn't the best state
of mind business-wise, and he wasn't real enthusiastic about
passing the torch to myself.
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, the Heartbreak Kid lays down
for absolutely nobody.
It's like technically that's the right guy, but when you're
getting replaced, it's never fun.
- You have to protect Shawn along the way to this match just
in the hopes that he'll heal up so that he can do the magic
that Shawn Michaels does.
- Interestingly, at the same time that the Michaels-Austin
rivalry was taking place, both WWE and WCW were locked
in a death match for television ratings.
- The nWo is the reason for the success of Monday Nitro.
- At that stage, no one really knew who was going to win.
- Mike Tyson will be with us where we hope to make
a huge announcement.
- Mike Tyson brings a lot of eyeballs from boxing and
mainstream media to what we do.
- And there he is, "Iron" Mike Tyson is in Fresno.
- When he came in the door, I was like, "Okay."
We're a group that couldn't be beat Just something for you to
think about.
Maybe, you know.
- I'd like to do that.
- If you can fit it into your schedule, we-
I don't recall them ever letting me know upfront what
we were going to do with that.
- "Iron" Mike was "Iron" Mike.
You watched him and you still recall the ferociousness,
the dominance that he reigned over the sport of boxing.
And of course, some of it is infamous.
When you bite Evander Holyfield's ear, I mean,
there's little to nothing that you won't do.
And so that means anything's up for grabs.
So, when you watch Mike Tyson, you want to say,
"Okay, was he hungry?"
- The baddest man on the planet, ladies and gentlemen,
"Iron" Mike Tyson.
- Mike Tyson in a WWE ring.
- Let's hope it's not the last time we see Mike Tyson
in a WWE ring.
- I'm a wrestling guy.
I've been watching wrestling since the '70s,
since Bruno Sammartino.
- Bruno Sammartino.
Man, I go way back from the '70s.
I'm just proud to be involved in this, you know.
So, it's like a dream come true.
- But "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ain't having it.
- Mike Tyson is standing in Stone Cold's ring,
and business is damn sure about to pick up.
- Something's about to pop off.
That's what we say in the neighborhood.
- I ain't going to shake your damn hand because I ain't out
here to make friends with you.
I respect what you've done in the boxing world, but -- son,
when you step in this ring, you're messing with
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin and that's something you don't do.
- It's the craziest thing ever, because at the time, Mike
Tyson was the craziest thing ever in boxing and
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin was the craziest thing in wrestling.
So to see these two worlds collide on Raw was crazy.
- What I'm telling you is I want a piece of Mike Tyson's ass.
- Whoa.
- Who the hell says that?
- Nobody.
- Who the hell says they want a piece of Mike Tyson?
- Right now you got your little beady eyes locked on the eyes of
the world's toughest son of a bitch.
- You see the only person I've ever seen not back down made
Steve the baddest man on the planet.
- Do I think you could beat my ass?
Hell, no.
Do I think I can beat your ass?
Why, hell yeah.
I don't know how good your hearing is, but if you don't
understand what I'm saying, I always got a little bit of sign
language, so here's to you.
- Whoa.
- Mike Tyson is standing in Stone Cold's
- Have Tyson as part of this promotion was a natural fit.
There was an electricity and there was friction that people
felt was real, and they wanted these two to collide.
- Whoa.
Here we go.
- Here we go, Tyson and Austin, Tyson and Austin.
All hell has broken loose.
- Look at this.
- Let's just be honest.
Jim Ross yelling, "Tyson and Austin, Tyson and Austin."
It's one of the greatest moments in WWE history.
- We just had a good time.
We were fighting our ass off, having a ball.
- Tyson wants Austin.
Austin wants Tyson.
- There was the big crazy brawl and Vince is yelling.
[yelling]
- This is pandemonium in the WWE.
- Mike Tyson has gotten the go ahead to get back into the ring.
Only this time, it's the wrestling ring.
- Iron Mike Tyson is back in the fight.
This time in a wrestling mat.
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin stepped into the ring, yelled
at Tyson, and things got ugly.
- That was one of the greatest scenes in wrestling history.
- Every local news channel.
- Every local news channel had that.
Everybody in the country, everybody in the world knew
who Stone Cold and Mike Tyson were at that point.
- It wasn't a great time.
Let's just say that.
- [laughs]
From the WCW's perspective.
- Because I was in WCW, okay?
You know, we was on a great run at that point in time,
and then all of a sudden, the pendulum, you know, shifted.
- It was the most effective use of an outside celebrity ever.
I credit the WWE beating WCW in the Monday Night Wars in a lot
of ways to that Mike Tyson run.
- Became watercooler talk brought many people to the
business of pro wrestling and we thrived because of it.
- Look, everybody knows that the WWE is always about going beyond
just the wrestling business.
That's exactly what Mike did.
It was a game changer.
- Mike Tyson will be in effect the enforcer.
He will be on the outside of the ring in somewhat
of a guest referee capacity.
With Mike there, it'll draw more attention to the
athleticism and the showmanship of the athletes in the World
Wrestling -- and more attention to the World Wrestling
-- in general.
- The story evolves, Mike Tyson becomes the special enforcer.
He's going to assist in helping the referee.
- When it comes down to it, Steve, it's going to be
you and me.
I don't need any help.
I didn't get where I got-
- I'm glad to hear that.
- -if I need a bunch of help.
It's going to be you and me.
- Mike, I know you're going to be there, don't you worry.
- Yes. Just remember that.
- Those three are going to be in the ring at WrestleMania.
We thought this is going to be amazing.
Don't know what's going to happen.
Have no idea.
Don't care.
You're going to see a car wreck and it's going to be beautiful
somehow, we know that.
- End result is going to be "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's
going to open up a can of whoop ass and Shawn Michaels is going
to eat it one way or anohter.
- You know something?
If I chose to make an ass out of the toughest SOB,
I can do that anytime I want.
[crosstalk]
- It was just chaos.
- Good morning, the Fleet Center.
WrestleMania XIV tickets?
Okay, if you like to purchase tickets through us,
you would either go through Ticket Master
or you have to come to the box office in person.
- Yeah, WrestleMania baby.
- I've been here since 10:00 PM because I want to see Stone Cold
whip Tyson's ass.
- I got up at the crack of dawn for this.
- Boston 3:16.
- Tyson's going down.
- Folks, the Fleet Center in Boston is sold out for
the Match 29th event.
There ain't a ticket left.
- Right here. Woo.
- They were gobbled up in less than 2 minutes,
90 seconds to be exact.
- I got two ringside.
Hey, Vince.
I'm going to WrestleMania.
- We had seen tension starting to bubble over between Mike
Tyson and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but then one Monday
night, Shawn Michaels comes to the ring.
- Here we go, JR.
- I am calling your ass out right now.
You get your people out of here, I'll get my people out of here,
and you and me will handle this man-to-man.
- Michaels has got- well, he's got some courage.
He's right in Tyson's face.
[D-Generation X's music plays]
- Wait a minute.
- What?
- What the hell?
What in the hell is this?
- For Mike Tyson now to be with one of your
hottest groups was gold.
- Mike Tyson is the newest member of
D-Generation X it appears.
- And it was also something that the audience never expected
in a million years.
It also stacked the deck against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
- Mike Tyson with the-- doing all of this.
It was cool.
- I still get this.
Take a picture like this, Mike.
I love it.
- How in the hell can Tyson be the enforcer at WrestleMania?
- Now the enforcer isn't going to be fair, we feel.
Now, he's a part of this faction of DX, which stacks the deck
even more against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
- Those were the things that were really good and
enjoyable about that time.
Right now in the moment, you're out there with Mike Tyson.
What's going to happen if Stone Cold gets in your way?
- I'm going to knock him the -- out.
[laughing]
- When it comes down to at its foundation
is good versus evil.
- A trip by Michaels, and Michaels and Helmsley
dragging Austin outside.
- Throughout the weeks, they do things where they tie
Steve up in the ropes.
- We all wanted to see Stone Cold finally get to the top of
the mountain, but now Stone Cold has to deal with Shawn Michaels,
and apparently Mike Tyson is fighting on the side
of Shawn as well.
- Your ass belongs to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
WrestleMania XIV, March 29th.
Austin, Michaels, Tyson, the -- on, and that's the bottom line
because Stone Cold said so.
- Shawn Michaels has apparently reinjured his back while
training just a few days ago in San Antonio.
- Shawn had gotten injured at the Royal Rumble, and the word
was he would be in no shape to wrestle until WrestleMania.
- When best meets best, when Stone Cold meets the Heartbreak
Kid, I want you to be at your best because an ass whipping is
always the same no matter how good of shape you're in.
- I think it was stop and go from Royal Rumble all the way to
Mania as to whether or not Shawn would actually make it.
There were different instances and different times where Shawn
would threaten he wasn't going to make it because of his back.
- Working day-to-day was miserable.
You can't do anything to get comfortable.
You can't stand, you can't sit, you can't sleep.
There just weren't a lot of times that
I wasn't in a miserable state.
- He was angry and bitter about it, drugs and alcohol didn't
help that, so it was a tough place for him.
- The closer it got, the worse it got.
This Sunday, Stone Cold, the Heartbreak Kid is going to turn
your lights out for the last time.
- We want to thank everybody for coming out to the
D-Generation X public workout.
- Yeah.
- The build up to this match, they're holding open workouts
like boxing or UFC, which I thought was so cool.
- The public workout was designed as a photo op between
myself, Shawn, and Mike Tyson.
- I think they figured, I don't know, 1,500, 2,000
people would come.
We're in the limo.
We come driving up and it's like 10,000 people out there.
It is a mob scene.
- Shawn Michaels the World Wrestling -- Champion.
- It was a mad house, it was insanity.
I don't know that the city was prepared for as many people
as showed up, so security was an issue for sure.
- The World Wrestling -- is doing you the honor by
bringing you the greatest event in Sports Entertainment history.
So we're out there cutting a promo, and all of a sudden just
somewhere out of the blue, boom.
- As he was cutting the promo, somebody threw a battery
at him and hit him in the face.
- --, and then I turned around.
I just start leaving the ring.
- That would piss anybody off, but when you're wound up as
tight as Shawn, in a bad a place as Shawn was,
it really ticks you off.
- I'm out of here.
Hunter's like, "What?"
- Shawn obviously is off the rails to some degree at this
point and time in his life.
- Let's not have anything thrown if you want to hear from DX and
the World Wrestling -- Champion.
- Shawn turned around and went back to the limousine,
and refused to come out of the limousine and refused to go out
and do what we needed him to do.
- I'm in the limo and Shane McMahon's in there.
Shane drove with us and, "You got to go back out there."
"I'm not going out there.
You guys can kiss my --.
You're going to be lucky if I make it to WrestleMania."
- So I went to the limo, and I pleaded with Shawn and
I begged Shawn to please, please do this.
And he was like, "There's no security out there.
I'm not doing it."
Blah, blah, blah.
Said, "Okay."
- What are you going to do to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
if he gets in our face?
- Now, Stone Cold, I want to see what my--
[Stone Cold's music plays]
- Before you know it, right at the time that Shawn was supposed
to head in the ring, I felt a kick in the back of my head as
Shawn had leaped over me to get into the ring and actually do
what he was supposed to do.
- I come running out of the limo, run up there, put the
boots to him, tie him in the ropes, do the kiss on the head.
- It all added to his aura of this arrogant -- who just needed
to get put in his place.
- At the end of the day, he did everything he was asked to do.
- I was a young, immature, drug addict,
so I was absolutely freaking livid.
The reason that it always makes it hard is because you know
the truth, and the truth is, Steve was the next big thing.
- You're looking at the next WWE Champion right here,
and that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.
- It was just a tough pill to swallow.
Where I was at the time I did not have the ability
to handle that well.
- It wasn't always easy being Shawn's friend.
It wasn't always easy just being around him all the time.
It really was a situation of kind of having each others back
through thick and thin.
In many ways, we are very similar.
- [stammers]
Right.
- Shawn was moody, Shawn was very difficult
to deal with at the time.
- You know that's what drugs do to you, you're very moody
and you can be up one second and down the next.
- Shawn had a lot of substance issues at the time.
Pulling into a hotel, Shawn being completely passed out
in the car, drooling on himself, pushed him to his room
and then, you know, took care of it.
- I don't know what would've happened if he wasn't
there to sort of babysit.
Where are we going to go?
I don't even know where to go.
- He could have you know washed his hands and said,
"Look, dude, this is going too far.
I'm not going to stick by you.
You can go do all this on your own.
If you get your backside handed to you, you get your
backside handed to you."
He never did that.
He stuck by me.
- If it wasn't for Triple H, I don't know if he would've
made half the functions that he needed to get to to make
that match happen in the ring.
- Shawn was battling back issues and Shawn was second-guessing
everything because Shawn was also looking at the reality
that he may never wrestle again after WrestleMania.
- I was on fire, you know, and I was blowing past everybody.
He had been there pulling the wagon, working his ass off.
He took a lot of pride in his job.
You know all of a sudden here comes a fresh horse
and we're going to put the saddle on this horse.
He didn't like it that much.
- The one thing I'm going to do, because it sucks, is I'm going
to make this rough on everybody.
I am going to make sure everybody knows that this
is a huge pain in the ass for me, and I'm going to be a huge
pain in the ass to everybody.
- The greatest pay-per-view extravaganza ever,
WrestleMania XIV.
- It's WrestleMania, Stone Cold, Shawn Michaels, and Mike Tyson
is there as our special enforcer.
- Most people did not want to talk to me that day.
I think Steve may be came in once and I've never done
a WrestleMania with that little information.
I put him in a really crappy spot, I mean, it was tough.
- The only way I can describe Shawn's behavior prior to
WrestleMania XIV is kind of strange but only strange
in the sense that I wasn't around him.
- It wasn't him really that I was angry at.
- He's the greatest WWE Champion of all time, folks.
- In my mind, I was being discarded.
You know what I mean?
[Stone Cold's music plays]
- Can you feel the emotion that we're all experiencing here as
the WWE Championship is about to be put on the line?
The number one contender for the WWE title "Stone Cold" Steve
Austin must overcome the greatest WWE Champion
of all time and-
- "The Baddest Man on the Planet" "Iron" Mike Tyson.
He looks in great shape too.
- Again, how can he be impartial?
- You always knew whenever Shawn stepped up to bat,
he was going to hit a home run.
- From high above.
Oh.
Unbelievable.
- Always made sure that no matter where he was on
WrestleMania, his match was the one to beat.
- Nobody has ever outperformed Shawn Michaels
in a big-match situation.
It don't get no bigger than this.
- And I think that aggravated him more than probably anything.
He couldn't give you what he wanted to give you because
his body wouldn't let him.
- This is it.
- The World Wrestling -- title.
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin against Shawn Michaels.
- Shawn Michaels is dealing with a legitimate back injury.
Working injured and working hurt are two different things.
- He wanted to be the guy, and he was the guy, and then he got
injured right before what could have been one of the
greatest matches of all time.
- To know the type of style Shawn Michaels is capable
of doing, the Shawn Michaels that we know, the showstopper,
the entertainer, the best entertainer in the business
that's ever seen.
We don't know that until the match goes on and happens.
- Nobody has ever, ever outperformed Shawn Michaels
in a big-match situation.
And folks, it don't get no bigger than this.
- Where I found my joy was inside the ropes,
and that was always the best time to me.
Everything to me came down to my performance.
- Folks, I've been doing this a long time.
I never felt this intensity.
- Shawn's best in the world when the bell rings,
even if he is in a bad place.
- You can tell because of who he is.
He was pushing through 100%.
- Look out.
- Oh, my God.
What velocity.
- The biggest thing was my lack of mobility.
Again, my brain working, tick, tick, tick like that,
and my body not responding to it.
- I think Shawn is hurt.
I think he's hurt bad.
- It is ridiculously disheartening when your mind
and your heart wants to do something,
but your body just won't let you.
- Shawn Michaels is obviously in pain, gutting it out here.
- To watch him and think and know that he pretty much
has a broken back to see what he did that night.
- The WWE champion using every ounce of strength
and energy that he's got.
and Shawn Michaels somehow kips up.
My God, can you believe this man?
- Can't help but have a incredible amount
of respect for that.
- Michaels, now, he's injured.
And the elbow.
- The match is reaching that crescendo.
- Oh, wait.
Uh oh. Referee Mike Chioda.
- The referee gets taken out.
There's only one man who can step in and fill
the shoes of the referee in this match.
And you know, it's Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson has to go from enforcer to referee.
- Mike Tyson has got to do something now.
- You firmly believed that he was down with DX
and that he would cost Steve Austin the championship.
That's how it felt.
That's what it seemed like was going to happen.
- Austin ducked it.
Austin going for the stunner and Michaels countered.
Michaels going for another kick.
Austin.
- He got it.
- The stunner.
Mike Tyson in.
Austin is the champion.
Stone Cold, Stone Cold.
The Austin era has begun.
- To finally be the world champion, it felt right.
- Stone Cold's eight-year journey has been culminated
with WWE Gold.
- Mike holds your arm up in the air,
it ain't going nowhere
because Mike's holding your arm up in the air.
- This is the start of the next chapter for WWE because we never
really actually had a champion like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
- It felt that was the passing of the torch from one era to the
next, and now it was Steve's ball to run with.
- We've got a new WWE Champion.
Mike Tyson holding up the 3:16, and I don't think Shawn Michaels
can believe what he's seeing.
Michaels said, "No, Mike, you were supposed to be with me."
- Shawn looks at Tyson like, "What the hell did you just do?
You were supposed to be one of us."
- Oh, Michaels insulting Tyson.
Michaels standing up to the baddest man on the planet.
- If you're going to go out, go out with style,
go out in with a blaze of glory.
- A right hand.
Down goes Michaels.
- We kind of went over it in the back.
I just remember telling him, "I'm going to go like this."
and he moved so fast.
He was like, whew, whew.
- A right hand, Tyson, Tyson.
Down goes Michaels.
- Betrayal.
[laughs]
Betrayal.
- Mike Tyson has knocked out Shawn Michaels.
- Ladies and gentlemen, will you ever forget WrestleMania XIV?
- For Shawn to still get up and do what he had to do with Mike
Tyson, knowing that this might be the last time I ever do this.
Oh, man.
- A right hand.
Down goes Michaels.
- At the end of the match, as we see Shawn Michaels, Triple H,
Chyna, all of DX embracing, it's almost like
it's one last goodbye.
There's an eerie feeling that tomorrow is going to look
very different for all of DX.
- The idea of not going out on your own terms and then
realizing that there's absolutely nothing
on the other side.
I grabbed my stuff and I'm leaving and as
I'm getting escorted out, I hear talking or whatever.
"What's going on there?"
Oh that's a press conference,
Steve and Mike and Vince are all in there.
Shawn Michaels says, "I don't lay down for anybody."
I didn't ask him to lay down.
I hit him with the stunner.
One, two, three.
He was looking up at the lights, so I beat him.
- Me and him knew what we were going to do.
We were going to take this title.
We fooled the D-Generation X all the time.
- As the two of them were talking, I looked out the back
door and I saw a very injured Shawn Michaels limp by.
- And shane comes running up to me, "Stop."
I once again cursed him, and then turned around
and kicked the door.
I have no idea what I was going to do other than make a scene.
- Yes, it's -- up.
It's selfish and it's stupid, but that's where
he was at that time.
- Any time that you have the new guard come in and the old guard
leaving, it's a tough moment.
- All the focus now was on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
[crowd cheers]
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
- Austin went on to be the guy.
And Steve Austin went on to be the face of the company
for several years.
Basically, solidify his place in the history books.
- Austin driving that monster truck right in here
to the arena.
Listen to the ovation.
- The era of Steve Austin really,
really changed the face of WWE.
All of a sudden, we became the hottest TV show in the world.
And Steve Austin was the driving force behind WWE being on top.
- Can you imagine the lost opportunity?
We have the Attitude Era and we have Stone Cold
stay incredibly hot.
Then you have The Rock get hot.
Can you imagine if we had Shawn Michaels during that time?
- Well, talk about this because it's a short-lived rivalry.
A lot of the rivalry, a lot of the discussion around
it is we only got one match.
- [chuckles] Yes.
Steve had so many matches with The Rock.
He would have had that many or more with Shawn.
Shawn would've had that many with The Rock.
I mean, the lost opportunity for the world of wrestling
is immeasurable.
- You can certainly have a lot of what-ifs.
Time, wisdom, maturity, and all those things.
Take me to a different place just because of where
my life went to.
- Shawn Michaels took several years off and got his stuff
together, if you will.
- His last match, March 29th, 1998 at WrestleMania.
- He got a whole second run of a career, but he also had
lost all of the negative baggage to where now he was
just a pleasure to be around.
[laughter]
- He's dumping it on my head while we're talking.
I'm like-
- He seemed like a completely different person.
A changed man.
At least maybe his mind was rested and he wasn't so cocky.
- Just as Shawn is healed up, like two ships in the night,
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin is the one that's saying goodbye.
And ironically, Shawn's first WrestleMania back in WWE
is Steve Austin's last WrestleMania in the WWE.
- Austin saluting these fans here at WrestleMania.
- After I retired, and he was retired,
we went hunting a few times.
- It was kind of a new venture for him, it was something that
I'd been doing my whole life, gave us something to actually
talk about because we didn't have too much in common.
- He'll call every now and then and be like, "How you feeling?
How are you still walking and stuff?"
[laughs]
[Stone Cold's music plays]
[crowd cheers]
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
This is an incredible moment.
- After years go by, Stone Cold and Shawn Michaels get one more
WrestleMania moment together.
- My childhood hero Shawn Michaels, "Stone Cold" Steve
Austin in there with us.
- [laughs]
HB-Schizzle.
- He's a sexy boy.
- That in it of itself is like, how did we get to this point?
- Oh, no. Stunner.
- Goodnight.
- Guys, what an incredible moment.
- You get to see Shawn Michaels and Austin have a moment
together in the ring.
- When you work with an egomaniac like this in the Hall
of Fame, you can't even call your entrance.
Your ass belongs to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
[crowd cheers]
- Shawn and Austin is a classic rivalry, but I don't think it's
the rivalry that we expected.
- Tyson and Austin.
Tyson and Austin.
- Shawn was legitimately going through something terrible.
Steve was on the hottest run of his life.
And they're in each other's way.
- This is as close as you ever will get.
Steve was the perfect guy that they wanted to see
him to absolutely murder me.
- He got him.
The stunner.
Austin is the champion
- That rivalry is what made Steve
Austin the number one guy in WWE.
- The Austin era has begun.
- All the pieces of the puzzle said,
here's your -- champion right here.