What Shawn Michaels Really Did During His Four-Year Retirement From WWE

At the beginning of 1998, Shawn Michaels was coming to the end of his first run in WWE. His Casket Match with The Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble pay-per-view saw "The Heartbreak Kid" suffer a back injury that would change the course of his career forever, and after dropping the WWE Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 14, Michaels would effectively retire from wrestling. Of course, Michaels would make his triumphant comeback to WWE in the summer of 2002, but in the four years he spent away from the ring, what did Michaels get up to?

Long time fans of WWE will remember that despite not being an in-ring competitor anymore, Michaels actually made a number of appearances in WWE during his four year retirement. In the summer of 1998, Michaels would return to WWE and appear on a number of episodes of "WWE Raw" and "WWE Sunday Night Heat" as a special guest commentator, while also making a number of non-wrestling appearances on weekly television. By the end of the year, he had taken the on-screen role of WWE Commissioner from Sgt. Slaughter and even had a brief stint in Vince McMahon's Corporation stable.

Michaels would have a brief reunion with D-Generation X at the beginning of 1999, but would eventually go in for his long-awaited back surgery, and DX was effectively dissolved by the time he was healthy enough to return to TV. "The Heartbreak Kid" famously appeared as the special guest referee on the second-ever episode of "WWE SmackDown" in 1999, helping Triple H retain the WWE Championship against The Rock. He would then return in 2000 to referee another match between Triple H and The Rock, this time their iconic 60 minute Iron Man match at Judgment Day 2000, which also saw the debut of the "American Badass" version of The Undertaker, but after handing his Commissioner duties over to Mick Foley, Michaels would finally disappear from TV by the end of the year.

Michaels was reportedly paid handsomely during his time as a non-wrestler, reportedly earning around $750,000 per year according to WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross, who claimed that whenever the company needed to make budget cuts and HBK's contract was brought up, Vince McMahon would always shut those talks down. However, Michaels would effectively be sent home for good as he was backstage at the March 26, 2001 episode of "Raw" drooling on himself from being high on drugs. Triple H would even have an argument with him that was so bad the two men didn't talk until Michaels returned to WWE in 2002.

Life away from the WWE was eventful for Shawn Michaels as he was still active within the wrestling world despite not being medically cleared to compete.

In the world of wrestling, some fans might be surprised to learn that Michaels appeared as a special guest referee for the FMW promotion in Japan. He called the match between Hayabusa and Mr. Gannosuke in the main event of the company's 10th anniversary show at the Yokohama Arena in November 1999. FMW had ties to ECW at the time, leading to some fans speculating that Michaels would end up making an appearance for ECW around that same time, but that never materialized despite ECW being on good terms with WWE. Michaels also un-retired for one night in April 2000, winning the Texas Wrestling Alliance Heavyweight Championship from Paul Diamond (then known as Venum) in a Bunkhouse Brawl, but he would enter retirement immediately afterwards and vacate the title in the process.

Away from the spotlight, Michaels would also open up his own wrestling school in 1999 following a productive conversation with his lawyer who gave him the idea. The Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy was owned by Michaels and his partner Rudy Boy Gonzalez, and the likes of Raquel Rodriguez, Paul London, and even Bryan Danielson would pass through the doors of the school on their way to success in companies like Ring of Honor and WWE. However, while WWE always claimed that Michaels was the one who trained the man who would go on to become Daniel Bryan, the "American Dragon" himself has stated that the majority of his wrestling education came from William Regal and not Michaels. The school remains open to this day, now named the Texas Wrestling Academy, with Gonzalez still the sole owner as Michaels would be forced to leave his position at the school after re-signing with WWE in 2002.

Despite his legendary rivalries in the squared circle, it was away from the ring during his four year retirement where Shawn Michaels had his toughest battles.

Michaels being sent home from the March 26, 2001 episode of "WWE Raw" has already been mentioned, but that was just the tip of the iceberg for "The Heartbreak Kid." Michaels had struggled with substance abuse for nearly 15 years, and while he was seen as the more athletic alternative to the muscle-bound beasts that dominated WWE in the 1980s, HBK had his own demons throughout his entire first run with the company. His time away from the ring didn't help as he needed various drugs just to cope with the pain of his back injury and the surgery that followed it, and these struggles almost got the better of him.

His wife Rebecca, who Michaels immediately fell in love with after seeing her appear as a Nitro Girl on an episode of "WCW Nitro" stated in a 2007 documentary about HBK that her husband was a wreck. She believed that he wanted to self-destruct as there were parts of himself that he despised and used substances to deal with it. The saddest thing she claimed to have seen was Michaels trying to read their two-year old son a bedtime story while high and struggled to keep his eyes open the entire time. He needed a change, and in 2002, that change came in the form of the lord.

Michaels became a born again Christian in April 2002, abandoning his drink-and-drugs lifestyle in the process as he didn't want his son to be negatively impacted by it. He dedicated his life to the church and has remained clean and sober ever since. A few months later, Michaels would be back in the fold when it came to wrestling, and after cleaning up his act and getting clearance from the doctors, "The Heartbreak Kid" was back in the ring at SummerSlam 2002 to face his old friend Triple H in an Unsanctioned match. That bout would kickstart an eight-year run with WWE that some fans claim to be just as good, or even better, than his original run at the top during the 1990s.