While Shawn Michaels and Triple H have been incredibly close friends for a number of years, their relationship hasn’t been without its ups and downs.
By the time Michaels left WWE in 1998 due to a serious back injury, it was well known that he was struggling with substance abuse issues. These continued while he was ‘retired’ and only made occasional appearances on WWE television. In fact, numerous angles involving Michaels during this period were scrapped as he was in no condition to feature.
Speaking on DX’s Biography episode, Triple H recalled one particular occasion where Michaels was a “mess” backstage. The Game said that things came to a head with Michaels’ behaviour in March 2001 when Vince McMahon purchased WCW. HBK was said to be “embarrassing” and this led to a fight between the two men in front of the entire locker room.
“After he takes his time off, just intermittent in and out of Shawn, but he’s still a mess. We were nowhere near as close as we were before. There comes a moment where it’s getting worse and worse and it’s the night that Vince buys WCW. We all go into an office to watch this go down. Just as it’s about to happen, in walks Shawn, who is just a mess, it’s just embarrassing. Everybody else goes to Vince, ’embarrassing, he shouldn’t be here.’ Shawn comes out of that conversation and in front of everybody in that locker room, we went at it,”
Triple H added that the pair didn’t speak for around a year after the incident, eventually settling their differences after Michaels apologised. Shortly after they worked together on-screen once more, with Triple H being Michaels’ first opponent when he returned to the ring at SummerSlam 2002.
The rest of their careers remained intertwined, resulting in a number of legendary moments including HBK’s appearance as special referee as Triple H battled The Undertaker.
Shawn Michaels Replaced Triple H As Head Of NXT
With both men’s in-ring careers over, Triple H became the figurehead of NXT and Shawn Michaels eventually joined his backstage team. When The Game was forced to step back from his role due to serious health issues, Michaels took the reigns and has remained in charge ever since. Shortly after returning to work with the company, Triple H became Head of Creative for the main roster.
H/t to Sportskeeda