From Jim Ross:

Yes..I enjoyed Friday Night Smackdown this week. Hairy chested CM Punk vs HHH was old school good while HBK vs Mysterio was PPV quality.

Good interchange w/ HHH and HBK. I thought one of those two would win the Rumble match and I was wrong.

Thanks to Emma for sending me this story about aspiring wrestling Chris Brackin, who talks about Shawn:

He gradually became more interested in the product, attending a live event in Dothan in 2006 before landing tickets to WrestleMania 23 in Detroit, Mich.

“After that first live event, the energy blew my mind, and I thought this was something I might want to try,” Brackin said. “I bought two tickets, one for me and one for my dad. When April came around, we hopped in the truck and high-tailed it to Detroit. That night, the whole situation just completely destroyed me. The main event between Shawn Michaels and John Cena for the WWE Championship blew my mind, and I knew I had to be a wrestler.”Upon returning to Dothan, Brackin, then 21, came into contact with wrestling trainer Will Pritchard, owner and operator of the Dothan-based Southeast Extreme Wrestling.

And………

But Brackin points to one of wrestling’s most famous superstars as proof that wrestling and religion aren’t mutually exclusive.

“Hands down, my biggest inspiration is Shawn Michaels,” Brackin said.

Michaels, a three-time world champion who still performs regularly on WWE television, has been outspoken about his conversion to Christianity nearly a decade ago and regularly devotes his summers to charity work.

“He’s a Christian like I am, and he wears his faith on his sleeve,” Brackin said. “He’s in his 40s now, and he still goes out and performs better than guys in their 20s. It’s about what the crowd wants to see, so he goes out and puts in his absolute all. To me, he’s the epitome of what this art form is.”