Shawn Michaels Explains Why He Took Creative Control Of His WrestleMania 24 Match Against Ric Flair

WWE Hall Of Famer Shawn Michaels recently joined the “In This Corner” podcast to talk about several professional wrestling topics. One such topic was his WrestleMania 24 match against two-time WWE Hall Of Famer “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. The pair put on one of the best matches in WrestleMania history. It was the last match Flair would work inside of a WWE ring.

During his interview on the show, Michaels divulged that he took creative control over the match and choreographed it himself. He described himself as a “control freak”:

“Truth be told, when it came to that kind of stuff, I am a bit of a control freak. Emotionally, I just knew where I wanted–especially with that match, that might quite honestly it was my ‘love letter’ to Ric Flair. My way of trying to show him, not only the friendship that we have, but also the impact that he had on a 15-year-old me, and trying to convey that to him through a wrestling match, and knowing that I couldn’t be the only guy that he had that effect on. You hope that the other 80,000 fans out there get that; clearly everyone did, and the millions at home did.

“It’s sort of making that decision as a performer to say, look, this is something I want to do, please let me do it. It’s not because you don’t want them to do anything to mess it up, it’s your feelings and emotion, so you have to be the one that is driving that match if it makes any sense. That is why I was so adamant about that match. Honestly, that is how most of my matches were. I probably wrestled only one way too much from my heart than to my head, but honestly for me that is what made the difference in those matches, which was for me to do it in more from a 15-year-old fan in me.”