WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels on whether Undertaker's Streak should be broken, who he would like to face in the ring if he were wrestling today, whether Undertaker retiring him was planned in out years in advance

By Haydn Gleed

WWE: 30 Years Of Wrestlemania Podcast Episode #1

Guest: Shawn Michaels
Hosted By Renee Young
Available at WWE.com

Michaels on his Mr. WrestleMania name: "Honestly, the whole Mr. WrestleMania thing, it wasn’t anything that I said until WrestleMania 21, and it was just one of those silly lines you throw out there to just for the sake of sounding cool on a promo."

Michaels on whether the Undertaker’s Streak Should End: "Oh, no. I think The Streak is The Streak. It can’t really be called The Streak if there’s a one in the loss column."

Michaels on how he feels about the Undertaker retiring him: "I was thrilled about it, again, it’s certainly for me much like all of my career. There wasn’t a lot of planning, a lot of thought, the majority of what I did in my career was reactionary, because that’s when for me I hit the truest and most honest emotion out of myself. I think everybody in this industry loves to do everything in hindsight, and in hindsight everybody’s a genius, but the immediate reaction is what I go on. There was no planning that Undertaker would be the guy to end, none of those things were thought about. All of those things fell into place and I felt good about them and that’s what I based it on. I didn’t give it a lot of thought, it's sort of like when you know something's right you know it’s right and that’s how it was done."

Michaels on his WrestleMania 12 entrance: "We wanted to start making my entrances a little grander, and I got a rope and I swung down from the top of the house that was on the entrance. And I vaguely recall Kevin Dunn mentioning that at WrestleMania we are gonna try and get you a pretty cool entrance and that’s all I knew of it. Then I got to the Anaheim Pond that day, and went walking out and Vince was standing there and said 'You gotta try this!'"

Michaels on who he would face at WrestleMania from today's roster: "That’s an easy one for me, it would have to be Daniel Bryan. I’d throw in any of The Shield members. I think those boys are talented. Throw in (Dolph) Ziggler in there, throw in Damien Sandow, I think Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family are really good. There are a number of guys put in the right positions that you could just tear the house down with. And at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, it's going out there and having a whale of a time making people yell."

Gleed's Verdict: A really good first podcast from the WWE. Shawn was surprisingly candid about a lot of things, without obviously bringing up any controversies that he was involved in. He was very political in his answers, especially about his favourite WrestleMania opponent, but it was clear he was comfortable saying what he wanted as demonstrated by a story about his toilet needs before the zip wire entrance at WrestleMania 12. It’s worth listening for that and Renee Young’s reaction alone. Speaking of Young, she was a fantastic host and is exactly what WWE need right now with the network coming up. She's very well spoken but at the same time is obviously incredibly tuned in to the wrestling business. Shawn also discussed his maturity levels at his first WrestleMania, who he thinks will win the Elimination Chamber, his feelings on retiring Ric Flair, and much more.