Live on the phone is Shawn Michaels from San Antonio, who says that life is treating him very well, thank you.
Dr. Tom asks about Michaels' changed lifestyle, and how it has affected his family?
"What does your wife and son think about you being back on the road?"
"They think it's fine," says Michaels, "my son's only 2 1/2. All he knows is that I'm gone for a day, and then I come home, and its time to play again. My wife is wonderfully supportive: after all, it IS only one day a week!"
(While Michaels is talking the chyron is showing images of HBK's return to Raw.")
"Did you watch much of the WWE before you came back?" asks Dr. Tom.
"To be honest," says Michaels, "I didn't watch any of it. For about the first year, I still watched, but when my wife and I were having a family, that went by the boards. Now, I'm trying to catch up with everything. I'm with a lot of guys I knew before, so that helps a lot. I'm still more in touch than I was, but I'm still trying to get my bearings, still trying to understand what's going on."
"For about the first two years," he continues, "Every week I would get calls from people asking "Are you climbing the walls, yet?" After four years, I was telling them, "look, you can stop with the calls, because I'm over it, really. I'm fine where I am.
"When I met my wife, she completed what I wanted out of life. Then my son arrived, and it put my life at peace, and I went in another direction. I'm not saying wrestling wasn't fun and all, it's just that I needed to take some time away. I'm glad to be back. Now I'm taking some time to get a feeling on where the business is and where I'm at in the business."
Dr. Tom wants to know what changed him from the Heartbreak Kid back into Shawn Michaels?
"Was it getting married and settling down that did it?"
"I had improved greatly from what I was before," says Michaels, "the change is in my faith. My wife Rebecca was a born-again Christian before she started working for WCW. Then, she got that job, met me, we got married, she left WCW to take care of me and our son, and a year into our son's life. She said she kicked Him to the curb because she was so focused on me and our son, and that wasn't what she wanted.
"So she started going back to church and to Bible study and worshipping God every day. I watched my wife change into a more fabulous woman; it was just a transformation, and I thought, "Jeez, I want to do that!
So she bought me three or four books about being a real man, being the kind of man God wants you to be. It is very easy to be a real man in Hollywood's eyes, but it is more difficult to be one in the eyes of those you care about, and who care about you.
"You make some sacrifices; I was putting myself first instead of God first, so I switched that around, and all of a sudden I fell deeper in love with my wife and my son, and now I am just in a sort of free fall.
"Everything is happening so fast, I don't know where to stop. I understand people being skeptical, and it will take them some time to understand this about me. The guys I work with have noticed the change, and they are the toughest one's to convince that the change is for real. They've been gracious and understanding. Those that don't, well, it'll take them a little longer to be convinced. My commitment is to my God and my family, and after that, there's not much else I can control."
Dreamer, genuinely touched, says that, if Michaels can look in the mirror and be pleased with what he sees, that's all that matters."
Then Dreamer, on behalf of himself, the Internet, and Stevie Richards, wants to know "if there is one more match left in Shawn Michaels?"
"I honestly don't know," says Michaels, "right now I don't think so. But I am training, and that takes time, so who knows? For four years, I'd keep getting calls for matches, and I'd think, "better stay in shape, you never know." Then when the calls stopped coming, I went on a chocolate chip cookie diet with my son for about six months..."
Dreamer laughs, and says he's been on that diet, and
"Sometimes when they drop on the floor, I still pick 'em up and eat them!"
Dr. Tom, looking ill, manages to say "Uh, ver-y good... I think."
Michaels can be heard snickering in the background.
(The Byte This! chyron is now showing clips from the controversial 1997 "Survivor Series" from Montreal, Canada. I wonder if Michaels can see this? Or Bret Hart, for that matter?)
"I think the way to do it would be to let me hang out at ringside," says Michaels, "maybe taking a few easy bumps, or put me in a multi-man match where the other guys could camouflage me. In my earlier matches, it was always about me taking the bumps. Now, I've go to learn a completely different style from what I had learned before."
Dr. Tom says that Michaels had a reputation for controversy that was reinforced by Montreal. "Do you ever think about how that match affected you career?"
"It does, but just a little bit," says Michaels, "our business is the only one where guys can stay around forever. We have a history like other sports, like baseball or basketball, and our fans remember particular incidents a lot longer. For a long time there, every time I'd leave my house, people would ask me if I was wrestling again? "Hey, I'd say, if I was wrestling, you'd already have heard where and when, right?"
Dr. Tom asks about how Michaels liked the "WWE Confidential" show? Michaels says it gave him a chance to tell his side of the story, as distinct from the events as related by Vince McMahon and Bret Hart.
"I got to tell the truth about it," says Michaels, "I was told what answer to give, and like a good soldier, following an order. I gave it. I get accused of downplaying the incident. I know there was a history between Bret and I, but it wasn't in evidence on that day. We let bygones be bygones. He and I talked, discussed some things about the match, and we had shaken hands as friends.
"The whole incident was between Hart and Vince McMahon; I was the lucky stiff who got caught being on the other side of the ring. I just wanted to finally tell the truth. It wasn't anything earth shattering. I just gave an answer to those who said "I knew he did," and those who were saying "I knew he didn't!" It was something I wanted to get off my back. I knew that Vince wouldn't care, because he and we all have moved on. Even Bret has moved on."
Joe from Rochester (NY?) wants to know about how Michaels' going through the levels back in his early career, disposing of Marty Janetty (sp?) and others, differs from where he is now?
Michaels says that it's a long way back to where he started, and things have changed, the face of wrestling has changed a lot since then.
"I developed the reputation that some people didn't like," he says, "I believed that I could be more than I was, and at times, I'm not sure it was the right thing, but I wasn't going to accept that I was a little guy in a big man's business. I was told that 'you are only going to go so far in this business, all because of your size. Well, the fans put me where I am today, because I convinced the fans I belonged up there with the big guys. Once you win over the fans, you can go anywhere."
Dan from Chicago, a regular caller, says Michaels is his favorite wrestler, and asks if he keeps in touch with Marty Janetty? Michaels says that he hasn't talked with Janetty personally in over a year, but a friend of his keeps in touch with him, and he says that Marty Janetty is as crazy as ever!
Dr. Tom asks about the return of Vince Russo coming back to WWE?
Russo's return is fine with Michaels, who says that Russo knows the veteran wrestlers. Also, most of the writers in WWE don't come from a wrestling background, whereas Russo does!
"Everybody does their best under Vince McMahon," says MIchaels, "Russo always wrote great stuff for D-X and the rest of us."
Dr. Tom wonders if the rest of the locker room feels the same way, what with Russo bailing out on WWF in the past, to go work for WCW and all?
"I can't say how the other guys will get along with him," says Michaels, "but there are guys in the WWE locker room who did the same thing as Russo did, and are now back in WWE the same as he is. It's ultimately about the money. So it really doesn't matter, because it always goes back to Vince, and Vince always wins. Vince will only be in 2nd place for a very short while, and that's the truth."
Fred from New York wants to know if Shawn Michaels is in WWE only for the name boost?
Dreamer says since Michaels' answered Fred's question before, then why doesn't Fred just say hello and be a person with HBK then?
"This is HBK here," says Dreamer, "a great man. Talk to him. Say hello. Represent New York!"
Fred says of course, but if he's a fan, his wife is a stone fanatic over HBK!"
Dr. Tom asks if she ever went to shows without him, which cracks up the Byte This! "studio audience."
Well, we get about five minutes of reminiscences from Fred about his wife and HBK, before Dr. Tom gets control of the show again.
On the subject of Steve Austin leaving WWE, Michaels says that, yes, it will hurt. He doesn't want to give an opinion, because opinions have a way of turning into an accusation.
"If Austin wants to talk, I'm only a few miles away from him in San Antonio," says HBK.
Dreamer says that, with the new writers, and the Rock coming back to the Raw show, it's all gonna be getting really good really fast.
Mike from Ohio wants to know why HBK names his finisher "Sweet Chin Music?" Michaels says that he heard it during an interview, and decided to keep it.
Dr. Tom asks HBK who he thinks will be the future superstars?
Michaels picks Rob Van Dam over everybody else, because of his unlimited ability, and learning ability. He also says that X-Pac is under-used.
"In the King of the Ring elimination bout, we saw RVD and X-Pac do eight minutes of solid wresting," says Michaels, "maybe we should give them twenty minutes, and then let's just sit back and be amazed, okay?"
Michaels also says that Booker T is talented.
"Then what'd you kick him in the face for?" asks Dreamer.
"Well, you know...he didn't fit with us... but he has ability!"
Katy from Richmond, VA is just excited to see Michaels and Nash working together, and asks if the "Clique" is gonna get back together, meaning Michaels and HHH?
(Didn't HHH have Michaels ambushed and beat up in a snowstorm back in the "Degeneration X" days? Does Michaels remember that? Do YOU remember that?)
Michaels says that they had written a skit for him postulating a reunion with HHH and have him joining the NWO, which in essence would put the Clique back together.
"It's not out of the realm of possibility," says Michaels. "Time will tell."
Dreamer recalls the Smackdown match between HHH and Billy Gunn, calling it yet another DX reference.
Speaking of the "Clique," Michaels picks HHH to win the Undisputed Title from the Undertaker at the PPV, and Brock Lesnar to win King of the Ring. Though he does say that Rob Van Dam/Chris Jericho is the one to watch. "Lesnar vs. Test is the "Battle of the Dinosaurs," says Michaels.
Dr. Tom and Tommy Dreamer thank Shawn Michaels for coming on the show, and Dreamer says that they held up all of Stevie Richards' emails and phone calls so he wouldn't bother Shawn Michaels.
"Richards is a strange, strange man," says Dreamer.
"Boy, you guys are really hard on him, aren't you?" laughs Michaels, "After all, he's My Biggest Fan!"
Michaels leaves the show, and Dr. Tom thanks Tommy Dreamer for sitting in with him today.