Bruce Prichard has revealed that a WWE Hall of Famer was once hit with the largest fine in company history after an infamous segment featuring The Undertaker.
On the September 15th 1997 episode of Monday Night Raw, Jim Ross conducted one of the most infamous in-ring interviews of all-time.
To kick off the segment Ross called Shawn Michaels to the ring and HBK proceeded to go fully off the rails. The star appeared in a pair of shorts that left little to the imagination stuffed with a pair of socks. By the time he made it to the ring he danced around, and all over, JR while appearing to be under the influence.
During the interview itself Michaels went into business for himself completely ignoring the script, the star emboldened by the fact that Vince McMahon wasn’t in attendance. With the segment in full flow he also called out The Undertaker who appeared in a pre-taped segment. HBK took aim The Deadman knowing that he wasn’t at the taping to respond.
Due to the show being taped a week in advance much of the segment was edited out before the show aired, but both McMahon and The Undertaker were less than impressed with Michaels’ antics.
Speaking on a recent episode of his ‘Something To Wrestle’ podcast, Bruce Prichard recalled the incident, revealing that Michaels was handed the biggest fine in WWE history up to that point.
“I think everyone backstage looked at that as, hey, Vince isn’t here, this is Shawn acting out, and it wasn’t a professional move,” said Bruce Prichard. “Just when you boil it all down, that’s it. It was unprofessional.
He was livid. Vince was extremely livid about it and gave Shawn, at the time, the highest fine he’d ever fined anyone.”
Continuing on, Prichard explained that in the coming weeks and months McMahon changed his mind regarding Michaels’ behaviour, instead praising similar actions for putting the ‘attitude’ into the “Attitude Era.”
H/t to Sportskeeda for the transcrption.