Jim Ross: Shawn Michaels Is Lucky Vader Didn't Beat The Sh*t Out Of Him After WWE SummerSlam 1996
HBK wasn't happy with Vader in their WWE Title match
Aug 26, 2021
Jim Ross believes Shawn Michaels is extremely lucky that Vader didn't 'beat the sh*t out of him' following their WWE SummerSlam match in 1996.
During the match for the WWE Championship in the SummerSlam 1996 main event, Michaels audibly yelled at Vader to move out of the way during a spot.
The problems between the two during the match reportedly led to further issues during Vader’s time with WWE, after Vince McMahon took Shawn’s side during the argument.
Ross believes Michaels went too far in losing his cool on this occasion and was lucky that Vader didn't beat him up after the show.
Recalling the backstage reaction on his Grillin' JR Podcast, Ross said: "You don’t have to lose your cool like that. Shawn had the license to lose his cool because of his influence with the office and Shawn knew that Vince was going to back him no matter what he did.
"Shawn overplayed his hand, in my estimation, it was very unprofessional and he’s just lucky Vader didn’t beat the sh** out of him because Leon could have.
"Leon was hungry, Leon wanted the opportunity, he needed an American base and now he’s in the main event of a major pay-per-view wrestling for the biggest title we have. Leon had traveled a lot of miles, had lost weight and showed a better commitment to what he was doing.
"I just thought it was totally uncalled for, Shawn had the deck stacked cause he had Vince in his back pocket. Vince often told me ‘You know that goddamn Shawn Michaels reminds me of me when I was younger.’ Did you do a lot of super kicks when you were younger Vince?
"But he was talking about Shawn’s attitude, demeanour, that type thing. It wasn’t good and the damn match got four stars and could’ve been five stars if some of that childish bulls*** didn’t happen."
H/T Wrestling Inc.