Why Shawn Michaels Never Joined WWE SmackDown

Shawn Michaels was one of the most gifted wrestlers to ever step foot inside the squared circle. During his two stints with WWE, the Heartbreak Kid was always one of the highlights of the company and was involved with some of its most memorable moments and matches over the years.

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Dubbed "Mr WrestleMania", Michaels was synonymous with WWE's grandest stage, but he was also known for spending his entire career as a member of the company's Raw roster. That's right, while many superstars would spend time on both of WWE's brands during their careers, the Hall of Famer only ever represented the red brand and would never join the Smackdown roster, despite the company actually having plans for him to do so at one point.

That's right, in the mid 2000s, WWE approached Michaels about joining the Smackdown brand, one that was thriving at the time, with the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Edge and Rey Mysterio lighting it up, but he straight up rejected the idea, refusing to leave Raw and here is why.

Michaels Regularly Defied The Company's Plans

During his career, the Heartbreak Kid regularly butted heads with his fellow wrestlers and WWE's officials behind the scenes, never afraid to look out for himself first and foremost. This led to the Hall of Famer famously being embroiled in numerous backstage controversies over the years, including when he refused to drop the Intercontinental Championship to Shane Douglas in 1995.

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During his four-year hiatus, though, Michaels found God and became a born against Christian. This saw him become a much better, and fairer man, and his backstage politicking decreased dramatically during his second run in WWE.

With that being said, he wasn't prone to still occasionally going against the company if he felt it was necessary, his match with Hulk Hogan at Summerslam in 2005 is very famous proof of that. His refusal to join Smackdown was another example during the final years of his career, which was ironically caused because of his new relationship with God.

HBK Felt The Smackdown Schedule Would Clash With His Newfound Faith

Smackdown was arguably the hotter brand during the mid 2000s, and it's safe to say Michaels joining the roster would have brought about some incredible dream matches that would have taken the show to a completely different level. Unfortunately, Michaels refused to join the brand as it would have interfered with his faith.

For the majority of the show's run, Smackdown was taped days in advance of it airing on television and during the 2000s it was taped on a Tuesday night, something which just didn't work for Shawn. The man himself revealed that he had rejected the idea to join the show due to the day it was taped on as it would have affected both his and his wife's bible studies.

In the latter stages of his career, religion was very important to HBK, and he even admitted he was fine taking a paycut over the decision, declaring that God had already decided how much money he was going to make that year and WWE weren't going to be the ones to dictate that.

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It's a shame as the potential matches between Shawn and the likes of Guerrero could have been all-time classics, but you've got to admire the man for standing up for what he believes in, and putting his faith and religion ahead of his career during that time. As a man known for going into business for himself for all the wrong reasons on so many occasions, it's nice to see an example where he did so for the right ones.