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www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/012006/012006/01292006/163043

World Wrestling Entertainment star Shawn Michaels body-slammed Major League Baseball and Barry Bonds this week, saying pro wrestling is more real than baseball.

 

Bonds has pulled out of the World Baseball Tournament, saying he won't play for the USA team because he doesn't want to risk injury.

 

But some are speculating the real reason might be the stringent Olympic-style steroids testing involved.

 

Asked if WWE stars, most of whom are pumped up like Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons, take steroids, Michaels declined to give a general answer.

 

"I can't speak for anybody but myself," Michaels said Wednesday in a phone interview. "I can pee in any cup any time, anywhere."

 

He said he thinks baseball stars like Bonds are given more latitude than pro wrestling stars.

 

"We do everything we can to make it legit, but people are on the WWE like white on rice," Michaels said.

 

He said wrestling, despite its scripted morality play dramatics, is honest with its fans.

 

Baseball, Michaels said, is not.

 

"If Barry Bonds can't hit [73] home runs without being on the gas, he should be a man and tell people that.

 

"The American public is very forgiving of people confessing they made mistakes," Michaels said. "Baseball isn't doing that."

 

The image of pro wrestling is over the top, but Michaels said that, in his case, what you see is what you get.

 

"My persona is who I am--a born-again Christian," he said. "Everything I do is real."

 

Michaels, who is scheduled to appear tonight on a WWE pay-per-view event, has just published a book, "heartbreak & triumph--The Shawn Michaels Story," with co-author Aaron Feigenbaum.

 

"A lot of guys younger than me in the wrestling business have written books," he said somewhat defensively. "I wanted to wait till I had something to talk about. and I think it's a good story. I'm happy with the finished product."

 

Sometimes known as "The Heartbreak Kid" and "The Showstopper" in the WWE, Michaels writes about the decision he made to leave college to pursue a career in pro wrestling.

 

"Thank goodness ignorance is bliss. I was 19 years old. I just knew I wanted to do this. I didn't have the ability to think about what a huge risk it was if it didn't work out. I had no conception of what real life is about. If I had, I might have been a little less ready to do it. I didn't think any farther than my first wrestling match.

 

"At that time in this industry, there was no real future," Michaels said. "Any other sport has agents and a players union. In the wrestling business at that time, there was nothing. It was a shark tank."

 

He said he's grateful his parents didn't try to dampen his spirits.

 

His father, an Air Force colonel, was dubious but kept quiet.

 

Michaels' father told him recently, "The idea of you coming to me years later saying, 'You never gave me the chance'--I didn't want that on me. I just wanted to shut you up.'

 

Michaels said he still has to occasionally remind himself he doesn't have anything else to fall back on.

 

"I have my relationship with this company--that's all."

 

But, he said, he has learned a lot about production, marketing and even dramatic directing in the WWE.

 

Wrestling is different from sports like baseball, he said, in that athletes can greatly prolong careers if they've become personalities.

 

"Those guys have become a part of your life," he said.

 

He cited 50-something Hulk Hogan as an example.

 

"Getting to see 90 percent of him is better than not seeing him at all. That's something we have that no other sport has."

 

 

 

 

To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408

Email: [email protected]

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QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 11:42 AM)
thousand dollar bet counter-hilarious!!!!

 

Are you prepared to bet me? Or shall i embarrass you again? Will you "nut up" to the bet? I defend homeland security. I am a lawyer. I have also been tested with a 199 IQ, I make Stephen Hawking seem like the guy from "Flowers from Algernon"(before he got smart). I am your worst night mare, and I shall have your thousand dollars to prove it.

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QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 05:33 PM)
Why dont you go do that and than he will just kick you in the face lol  :P

i am faster than him. plus, chuck norris is my uncle. he would take shawn's leg and shove it up his ass.

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QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 04:40 PM)
Shawn Micheals was the f***ing man. I watched Raw last night(For AJP) for the 1st time in atleast 5 years.

When the hell did he get back in wrestling? I think I might start watching again just for him. HBK had some guts.

 

He has been back for at least 4-5 years that I can remember. Its not even a novelty that he came back anymore.

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QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 03:40 PM)
Shawn Micheals was the f***ing man. I watched Raw last night(For AJP) for the 1st time in atleast 5 years.

When the hell did he get back in wrestling? I think I might start watching again just for him. HBK had some guts.

He came back a couple years ago. His back is feeling better, although it's always a concern. He's working a regular schedule, though, so he must be doing all right physically.

I don't like the angle they have Michaels in right now. Just another rehash of the "don't cross the boss" crap Vinnie Mac has already used with Austin, Foley, Rock, etc etc etc.

Problem is, Michaels isn't seen as enough of a rebel character anymore, since being born-again in real life. The angle doesn't work, IMO.

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QUOTE(The Critic @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 05:28 PM)
He came back a couple years ago. His back is feeling better, although it's always a concern. He's working a regular schedule, though, so he must be doing all right physically.

I don't like the angle they have Michaels in right now. Just another rehash of the "don't cross the boss" crap Vinnie Mac has already used with Austin, Foley, Rock, etc etc etc.

Problem is, Michaels isn't seen as enough of a rebel character anymore, since being born-again in real life. The angle doesn't work, IMO.

 

 

LOL, me and Milkman Delivers were trying to figure out if anyone on this site is much of a wrestling fan. Seems I found out without having to ask directly, ;)

 

I agree with Shawn Michaels angle right now. He needs someone from his past to start messing with him, he has feuded with just about everyone on both shows for the past 3 years, and nothing has really stuck. Vince is getting a little paranoid with TNA making a small splash in the market lately, so he has been making himself seen alot more and you can tell who has the heavy hand in the storylines lately. He has been threatening to fire Michaels in the past couple weeks, maybe HBK is looking for some time off.

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QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 04:33 PM)
LOL, me and Milkman Delivers were trying to figure out if anyone on this site is much of a wrestling fan.  Seems I found out without having to ask directly, ;)

 

I agree with Shawn Michaels angle right now.  He needs someone from his past to start messing with him, he has feuded with just about everyone on both shows for the past 3 years, and nothing has really stuck.  Vince is getting a little paranoid with TNA making a small splash in the market lately, so he has been making himself seen alot more and you can tell who has the heavy hand in the storylines lately.  He has been threatening to fire Michaels in the past couple weeks, maybe HBK is looking for some time off.

HBK has possibly the WORST hair plugs this side of Paul Konerko.

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QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 05:09 PM)
HBK has possibly the WORST hair plugs this side of Paul Konerko.

 

Looks like he is going bald naturally. Not that I would know what hair plugs are.

 

Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, and Randy Orton are 3 of the best in the biz right now.

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QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 04:33 PM)
LOL, me and Milkman Delivers were trying to figure out if anyone on this site is much of a wrestling fan.  Seems I found out without having to ask directly, ;)

 

 

Wrestling used to be for me what the sox are now, it literally used to be my life and Michaels was my favorite in the business until Austin came around. I don't remember what turned me off of it completely but I'm thinking the death of wcw had something to do with it.

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QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 04:33 PM)
LOL, me and Milkman Delivers were trying to figure out if anyone on this site is much of a wrestling fan.  Seems I found out without having to ask directly, ;)

 

I agree with Shawn Michaels angle right now.  He needs someone from his past to start messing with him, he has feuded with just about everyone on both shows for the past 3 years, and nothing has really stuck.  Vince is getting a little paranoid with TNA making a small splash in the market lately, so he has been making himself seen alot more and you can tell who has the heavy hand in the storylines lately.  He has been threatening to fire Michaels in the past couple weeks, maybe HBK is looking for some time off.

Yeah, guilty as charged. :D

 

I've been watching it since the mid-70's :ph34r: - it's one of those things I wish I could quit watching, but it's just a habit now.

I rarely watch an entire episode anymore, though - I usually tape it and fast-forward through the stuff I don't like. I can go through a Raw or Smackdown in like 20 minutes tops, and TNA about the same (which is saying something, since Impact! is only an hour long).

On the TNA front, rumor has it that Spike is thinking about moving Impact! to Thursday nights at 8pm Eastern, followed by a block of UFC programming. I think it's a good move if it happens - no direct WWE programming against it and a much better timeslot than 11pm Eastern on Saturdays.

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QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 09:14 PM)
Don't get to attached to him.  He might retire soon because his neck is in such bad shape.

 

He's been hurt since 2002 pretty much and has always had great matches...except with Mark Henry this past Sunday.

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QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 09:51 PM)
Yeah, but his neck is apparently getting worse.  It's on a few of the rumor sites.

 

Look back at like 2002 compared to know. He has lost lots of mass. I'm sure there is some excercises he can't do because of the neck.

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