Despite his legendary rivalries in the squared circle, it was away from the ring during his four year retirement where Shawn Michaels had his toughest battles.

Michaels being sent home from the March 26, 2001 episode of “WWE Raw” has already been mentioned, but that was just the tip of the iceberg for “The Heartbreak Kid.” Michaels had struggled with substance abuse for nearly 15 years, and while he was seen as the more athletic alternative to the muscle-bound beasts that dominated WWE in the 1980s, HBK had his own demons throughout his entire first run with the company. His time away from the ring didn’t help as he needed various drugs just to cope with the pain of his back injury and the surgery that followed it, and these struggles almost got the better of him.

His wife Rebecca, who Michaels immediately fell in love with after seeing her appear as a Nitro Girl on an episode of “WCW Nitro” stated in a 2007 documentary about HBK that her husband was a wreck. She believed that he wanted to self-destruct as there were parts of himself that he despised and used substances to deal with it. The saddest thing she claimed to have seen was Michaels trying to read their two-year old son a bedtime story while high and struggled to keep his eyes open the entire time. He needed a change, and in 2002, that change came in the form of the lord.

Michaels became a born again Christian in April 2002, abandoning his drink-and-drugs lifestyle in the process as he didn’t want his son to be negatively impacted by it. He dedicated his life to the church and has remained clean and sober ever since. A few months later, Michaels would be back in the fold when it came to wrestling, and after cleaning up his act and getting clearance from the doctors, “The Heartbreak Kid” was back in the ring at SummerSlam 2002 to face his old friend Triple H in an Unsanctioned match. That bout would kickstart an eight-year run with WWE that some fans claim to be just as good, or even better, than his original run at the top during the 1990s.