What If The WrestleMania 10 Ladder Match Had Flopped?

#4 Shawn Michaels’ main event status is in jeopardy

Would Shawn Michaels have won a world title at WrestleMania 12 if he hadn't performed so well at WrestleMania 10?

Shawn Michaels didn’t necessarily have main eventer written all over him in the early 1990s. Yes, he was a sensational athlete and, once he got a singles push, proved himself as one of the top in-ring performers of his generation. Nonetheless, he was relatively small in an era when big men were favored for headlining positions and, according to Bruce Prichard’s comments on Something Else to Wrestle With, Vince McMahon didn’t see him in the top spot.

Michaels won over McMahon and other WWE brass through the sheer quality of his performances. This amazing match with Ramon—largely attributed to Michaels’s work rate and willingness to take big bumps made a huge statement, and all the more so for happening at the biggest show of the year.

Would HBK have wound up a main eventer anyway? There’s a real argument that talent like his couldn’t be denied, not to mention that he was known for shrewd politicking. Still, it probably would have at least taken him longer to reach the top without this performance.