Hey everyone, back in August I told you about the Cable Fax Awards, and Shawn’s nomination in the Best Actor category. Unfortunately, he didn’t win. The only award WWE won was for Best Surprise Ending: Vince McMahon’s Limo Explosion. Vince also was inducted into the CableFax Hall of Fame. You can view the entire list of winners here.

Chris Jericho was interviewed by the Baltimore Sun and mentioned Shawn:

Like a lot of people, I was a big fan of your program with Shawn Michaels. How much creative freedom did the two of you have?

Most of the best programs and story lines have a lot of input from the principal characters, and I’ve never been the type of guy to just have somebody write something for me. Obviously, behind the scenes, some of the things that you do from Monday to Monday I have no control over, but I do a lot of writing for all the promos, and Shawn and I did a lot of writing together for some of the things that we did.

The story line was supposed to be a month-long thing, and then it ended up blossoming into me winning the world title as a result of it going seven months. So it really did get bigger than it was ever supposed to, and we took a lot of pride in that because we worked long and hard on it. I think for both of us it was one of the best angles that we’ve ever been involved in. To me, it was definitely the most intricate, and it was fun because people didn’t know for sure if it was real or not. There was so much stuff that happened that was so outside of the box of what you usually see on our shows, and people really took notice of that.

Speaking of real, I’m guessing the punch to Rebecca Michaels’ face wasn’t supposed to be as real as it was. What was Shawn’s reaction once you both got through the curtain, and what did you say to him and Rebecca?

I mean, what could you say? It was one of those things where there’s always the X factor that something could happen like that, and we all knew what the danger of it was. Obviously, Shawn and I felt terrible. Rebecca did not. She loved it. She thought it was awesome. And the fact that she didn’t end up with any permanent damage – no broken teeth, a fat lip for a couple weeks – it’s probably the best thing that could have happened. That really kick-started the angle and took it to a different place. Obviously, I felt so bad about it, but when all was said and done, it actually worked out for the best.

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Amanda donated these scans of a Shawn interview from Fighting Spirit Magazine.

Molly sent this link to a slideshow of her live photos from No Mercy.

We are going to be doing some maintenance on the server tomorrow so the site may not be available for a few hours – don’t panic!! Everything should be back to normal by Wednesday afternoon.

Thanks to Molly for the heads up on this. Since it’s brought up about 100 times a day on the chatbox, I thought I’d post JR’s thoughts on it.

Hey Sir Jim Ross, I wanna ask u that whether HBK is gonna retire at WM25 or some near time? Cause it’s appearing like he’s not been treated well by the company and his ShowStopper image is completely vanished by WWE. I don’t know whether you are allowed to state this but if u can then i’ll be waiting for your answer sir

Couldn’t disagree more. HBK earns big money, works a schedule that he is ok with and is still the best big match wrestler in the biz. Shawn is at a place as to where if he is unhappy he won’t be around. The WWE needs HBK much more than Shawn needs them.

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World Heavyweight Champion Batista & Shawn Michaels def. Chris Jericho & JBL

After Chris Jericho entered the ring for the night’s main event, live footage was shown of JBL mercilessly beating Shawn Michaels in the locker room area. Afterward, the self-proclaimed “wrestling god” emerged, smugly walking out to meet his partner. Due to the cowardly attack on HBK, World Heavyweight Champion Batista was forced to fend off both JBL and Jericho for much of the match. But proving that you can’t keep a good man down, Michaels emerged ready for action, giving his partner the help he needed to pin the Longhorn Loudmouth.

Chris Jericho made his entrance. Meanwhile, they cut to a backstage shot of JBL beating the hell out of Shawn Michaels. JBL threw HBK inside a room and closed the door. Back in the ring, Jericho watched the footage on the big screen and smirked. Jericho clapped as JBL made his entrance. The announcers questioned whether Batista would have to go it alone. Batista made his entrance. Lawler said he received word from backsatage that HBK would not be able to be part of the match. Batista and Shawn Michaels defeated Chris Jericho and JBL in 12:55. Batista wore a wrap on his left knee. Cole said it was the same knee that Jericho worked over through their Cyber Sunday match. Batista dominated the heels and cleared them both from the ring leading into the break. Batista continued to hold his own with the two heels after the break, but Jericho clipped his bad knee and the heels took control of the match briefly. JBL hit a big boot and then went for his finisher, but he ran into a spear. With both men down, Shawn Michaels hobbled to ringside and took his spot in Batista’s corner. Batista tagged HBK, but the referee didn’t see the tag. Jericho tried to hit Batista with the title belt, but Batista ducked. HBK teased Sweet Chin Music, causing Jericho to roll out of the ring. Meanwhile, Batista hit the Batista Bomb on JBL and scored the clean pin. The announcers hyped Batista vs. Jericho in a cage, and DX vs. Miz and Morrison for next week to close the show.

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Sports-entertainment has seen its share of immortals. There have been icons, some Great Ones, a few Olympians and a whole lot of legends. But there has only been one Showstopper, and he is Shawn Michaels.

In an industry where the hyperbole is the norm, there may not be enough ways to describe HBK. He is truly incomparable. Michaels has made a career of stealing the show – competing in matches that are talked about for years. His rivalries over a career spanning more than 20 years are truly the stuff of legends.

Michaels first started revolutionizing the sport during his partnership with Marty Jannetty as The Rockers. Their wars with “Playboy” Buddy Rose & Doug Sommers in the AWA and then the subsequent rivalries with The Hart Foundation and The Brain Busters in WWE changed the face of tag team wrestling and captured the imagination of our fans. Arguably, Michaels could have gone down as one of the greats if he had chosen to stay primarily in tag team competition. But HBK knew he could become an all-time great. One superkick to Jannetty during Brutus Beefcake’s Barber Shop closed the door on a popular partnership and opened another to Michaels’ legend.

HBK’s career can’t be just measured in titles, even though his trophy case is spilling over. He was WWE’s first-ever Grand slam Champion, holding the European Championship, World Tag Team Championship, the Intercontinental Title and WWE Championship. He, along with Triple H, co-founded one of the greatest factions of all time, D-Generation X, whose popularity and anti-establishment philosophy continue to capture the imagination of our fans today.

WWE.com has announced the following matches will be taking place on Raw tonight: Tag Team Main Event: Batista and Shawn Michaels vs JBL and Chris Jericho.