Vince McMahon Ribbing Caused Shawn Michaels To Turn Against WWE Match With Hulk Hogan

Former WWE writer Court Bauer has claimed that Vince McMahon's ribbing caused Shawn Michaels to sour on his SummerSlam 2005 dream match with Hulk Hogan.

Speaking on The Insiders podcast for AdFreeShows.com, Bauer noted that he personally had a great experience working with Hogan, but that McMahon made comments that got under the Heartbreak Kid's skin:

"In the agent meetings, starting in June and into July, Shawn was sitting in those agent meetings. He was not office at that point. He was a respected elder member of the roster. I don't say that in a disrespectful way, but he had tenure, and he was a legend, and would contribute in a very positive way in a lot of meetings. 

"He'd sit there and we'd go over every taping. You know, okay, Hogan is doing this, but, Vince would start being playful and kind of messing with Shawn and say, 'Well, of course it was leading to that match at SummerSlam, and we know who's winning that one'. 

"His eyeglasses were down looking at Shawn. For a while, Shawn had a really easygoing disposition with it. He was like, 'Of course. Haha. Right'. He was easy. But week, after week, after week, after week, I think Shawn's disposition changed and he wasn't so into it. He was kind of getting salty about it. I'm like, I see the writing on the wall. This could get weird".

As the match approached, Bauer saw Michaels beginning to resent having to put Hogan over, which he believes resulted in his infamous over-selling during the headline bout:

"As it got closer and closer to the match, there were some bad feelings from Shawn's side. I don't know if Vince meant it. I don't know if he's trying to manipulate the situation, because if he did, the outcome I don't think was something he desired. The outcome was a match that looked like a parody of a match and then no one wanted to do business after the match.

"So it's like, congratulations. I don't know if your ribbing was just good-natured just to bust Shawn's balls or you were trying to motivate him to step up and have this amazing match or something. In the end, Shawn just felt like he wasn't into it and just didn't want to do it. So you got to be sensitive with talent. In that case, if he was just having fun with Shawn and I don't think Shawn at the end wanted anything to do with Hogan. 

"When a work turns into a shoot kind of thing, I think all of a sudden he really resented Hogan going over. Again, another guy that you had heard all these stories about was so easy and relaxed with everything, and all of a sudden like the horns came out, but you know, he was getting poked. You poke the bear enough, something's gonna happen".

Hogan only wrestled one more WWE match following his encounter with Michaels - a win over Randy Orton at SummerSlam 2006.

H/T WrestlingNews.co