Dans une entrevue pour The Baltimore Sun, Shawn Michaels affirme qu'il comprend Ric Flair dans sa décision de poursuivre sa carrière à la TNA.

Il souligne que Flair l'a appelé, après avoir décidé de participer à la tournée avec Hulk Hogan, puis lors de son arrivée à la TNA.

HBK respecte le geste de son ami, ajoutant que son match contre lui à "Wrestlemania" (qui devait être le dernier du Nature Boy) demeure spécial à ses yeux.

Voici les commentaires originaux.

Citation :

"He did call me. He called me once to let me know he was going to do the [Hulk] Hogan match in Australia. He wanted to know if it was OK and I of course told him that it was. Then he called me again when he was going to sign with TNA and asked the same thing. There's nothing you can say. I certainly don't have what it takes to look at somebody and say, "Don't go make a living." I told him that, for me, nothing can take away that special moment.

It will still always be to me that I had Ric Flair's last match. I tried to do the best job I could for him. I think it was a special moment. Anything after that [pauses]. I feel for him, but I'm certainly not angry or disappointed or anything. I would like to think that Ric probably would have liked that to have been his last match, too.

The fact that it couldn't be, I understand. Those are circumstances that I certainly can't control. One of the things you have to understand is that if you're going to be a friend of Ric's, you sort of know that there's some baggage that comes along with that. Certainly the older I get the more I'm learning about conditional situations, and the difference between that and unconditional — unconditional friendship, unconditional love. All those types of things we can talk about but it's a whole other thing to put them into action.

I do my best to put them into action. I want what's best for Ric, even if Ric might not always be aware of what that is, I still want that for him. Nothing will take away from that moment. It's sill truly special. I still wear my watch every day, so it's still something I'm really proud of."

Petite anecdote: Michaels porte la même montre Rolex que Flair!