What if Shawn Michaels wins the Royal Rumble?

This fall saw the unlikely materialize as Shawn Michaels abandoned an eight and a half year retirement to return to the ring and team up with Triple H under the banner of DX to face off against The Undertaker and Kane at Crown Jewel.

This was a case of the stars aligning to facilitate his return. He was working alongside his real-life best friend and the guy he had trusted to come back against the first time he returned to the ring back in 2002. Moreover, he was working opposite two trusted veterans, and he had a history and trust in particular with The Undertaker. It was a first-time tag team match that made sense and would protect Michaels with Triple H being able to carry more of the load if needed. On top of all that, there was the matter of a Saudi funded payday ensuring HBK a good chunk of change for the night.

Rumors have swirled about Michaels working a handful of other matches on this comeback tour. His official word thus far is that he was only coming back for that match. However, as WWE finds it in a rough spot with Roman Reigns out to battle leukemia, Triple H injured in the tag match at Crown Jewel, and Braun Strowman reportedly working hurt, it seems like an ideal time to break the glass on Michaels as an emergency option on the road to WrestleMania.

So what if Michaels was not only the mix but actually won the Royal Rumble? This article looks at five prospective implications.

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5. Shawn Michaels vs. Brock Lesnar

One way of booking an HBK Rumble win would be to set him up to challenge Brock Lesnar

Roman Reigns is out of action. The rumor mill suggests that Braun Strowman is working through knee issues but may not be entrusted with a world title at this point. WWE has chosen to put the Universal Championship on Brock Lesnar, and so the question has quickly become who could possibly be built as a credible challenger to him, especially for a show like WrestleMania?

AJ Styles would be a possibility, particularly if he were pull off the upset against Lesnar in their champion vs. champion match at Survivor Series. Batista is rumored to be lined up for WrestleMania, too, and could offer an intriguing matchup, especially with his presumptive dance partner Triple H out of action. John Cena will always have the cred for this kind of spot, but pairing him against Lesnar hardly feels fresh at this point.

Shawn Michaels offers up a totally different kind of matchup for the Beast Incarnate, though. Physically speaking, he’s a bit laughable as a serious opponent for Lesnar, but in the context of WWE lore and being acknowledged as one of, if not the single greatest Superstar of all time, WWE could tell the tale of him going toe to toe with the Beast Incarnate. A Royal Rumble win, in particular, could position Michaels as a legend back to stand tall for one last showdown.

4. Shawn Michaels vs. AJ Styles

A match with AJ Styles may be the best championship bout WWE could book for HBK

If WWE doesn’t use HBK as an opponent for Brock Lesnar, the other most logical option for him as a Royal Rumble winner would be to have him challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. Michaels-Styles is a dream match that fans have speculated about for some time, pitting the best in-ring performers from two different generations in the ring with one another to let them work magic.

A bit counterintuitively, Michaels may be less likely to win this match than one with Lesnar. While HBK could cash in his legendary status to somewhat credibly upset Lesnar, Styles is HBK’s modern day equivalent, and Michaels would likely as not work this WrestleMania showcase match in order to put him over to a higher degree and shore up Styles’s legacy as an all-time great WWE Champion.

Of course, the best news for fans is that even with Michaels’s having lost a step, putting these two in the ring together would almost certainly still result in at least a four-star classic.

3. No marathon run

HBK looked great at Crown Jewel, but an iron man run at the Rumble still isn't in the cards for him

When fans remember Shawn Michaels’s history with the Royal Rumble, they tend to recall him winning back to back Rumbles in 1995 and 1996. More specifically fans recall his impressive end to end performance, entering the 1995 match from the number one position only to outlast the entire field and punch his ticket for a WrestleMania title shot.

Based on his showing at Crown Jewel, Michaels is still in very good shape, and he certainly exceeded the level of performance some skeptics expected from him at this stage of life and after so many years out of the ring. Michaels isn’t a spring chicken, though, and has no business working another marathon run in 2019. He’s better suited to a late entry—particularly as a surprise entrant—who can play spoiler to other big stars en route to an upset victory. He can also claim a slice of history in joining Stone Cold Steve Austin as the only other man to win three Royal Rumbles. That’s more than enough for him to get out of this Rumble.

2. A Triple H angle

Where Shawn Michaels goes, Triple H can't be far behind

Reports indicate that Triple H tore a pectoral muscle in the Crown Jewel main event. While he is known to be in phenomenal shape and to work hard at rehab, there’s next to no chance of him being in ring shape for WrestleMania. While there’s no reason to expect DX to team up again in the next few months, let alone for Triple H to work singles matches, if Shawn Michaels does get a main event push going into WrestleMania, the odds are Triple H will factor into the angle.

Triple H could be situated as an antagonist authority figure, standing in Michaels’s way. It would probably make more sense at this point, though, for him to play HBK’s cornerman, returning the favor from the multiple times his friend backed him during his retirement. Michaels doesn’t necessarily need a mouthpiece, but Triple H’s gravitas and position within the company can certainly enhance HBK’s message and help sell whatever storyline he has heading into ‘Mania.

1. One more title reign

Shawn Michaels could have last world title win left in him

Winning the Royal Rumble has ensured stars a title shot, or the championship itself since 1992. Not every Rumble win actually paves the way to a title victory, however, as demonstrated by Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka as recently as this past year.

If WWE were to go so far as to have Shawn Michaels win a historic third Royal Rumble, though, the odds are the company will be looking to go all the way with his push. That probably means winning a world title at WrestleMania, though it also might mean picking up a world title down the road from there. In either case, winning one more world title would offer a fine capstone to his legendary career, besides more thoroughly justifying coming back in Michaels’s mind. Particularly with the number of top-tier stars injured or tied up in other storylines, this may be the ideal time for an HBK victory lap before he rides off into the sunset for real.