Jim Ross Says Shawn Michaels Was “Polarising and Volatile”

Speaking on his Grillin’ JR podcast, legendary wrestling announcer and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross opened up about what it was like to work with Shawn Michaels between 1997 and 1998.

A lot has been spoken about regarding Shawn Michael’s attitude issues during the late 1990s, with current AEW announcer Jim Ross noting that HBK was a “polarising and volatile” figure backstage.

One of the most iconic Shawn Michaels moments from his first WWE run as his promo where he revealed that he lost his smile. This came after he found out he’d be dropping the WWE Championship to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13.

Jim Ross revealed on his podcast that he found out Michaels would be relinquishing the title on Raw as opposed to losing it at WrestleMania to Bret Hart on the day of the promo, courtesy of Inside The Ropes:

“I guess [I found out] earlier that day. He was volatile. He was polarizing and volatile so anything you heard about Shawn, it was not going to be a total shock. You kind of got used to it. But, surrendering the title, I don’t know if he lost his smile because he was injured or lost his smile because he couldn’t handle the pressure. He was influenced by outside sources that liked to poke gas on his fire. I don’t know…So once you get the message of what’s going to happen in the production meeting that morning, it was like, geez, that’s pretty extreme. Maybe you give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe something is really wrong. We didn’t know. But I always thought his feelings were hurt more than his knee or his back or whatever, and I don’t know exactly why. He had a hard time handling and accepting the responsibility of being the top guy in the territory.”

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• jim ross
• bret hart
• shawn michaels
• wwe

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