Shane Helms Says He No Longer Has Any Heat With Shawn Michaels, Explains How They Sorted Out Their Issues

– Speaking with Jeffrey Harris for the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast, former WWE Cruiserweight champion and current WWE producer Shane Helms talked about how he has resolved things with Shawn Michaels. In the past, Helms has called Michaels the “biggest hypocrite” in wrestling, suggested that Michaels being religious was a work, criticized him for hunting animals, and said he was once so upset with Michaels that he wanted to fight him backstage. Now though, Helms says he and Michaels have ironed things out.

On if he still has heat with Shawn Michaels: “No, not at all. It kind of went away when my son was born about 10 weeks early. And this is the kind of the person I am too. I’m not a grudge person. My son was born super early and it was a very terrifying time. And everything worked out beautifully, amazing, no complications whatsoever, but at the time, it was a pretty worrisome moment in my life. And a fan tweeted and for whatever reason, tagged Shawn in the tweet, saying ‘did you know about Hurricane’s son’, and Shawn said ‘I’ll pray for him’. And so at that moment right there, all the heat was done for me. Even though it was just a tweet and only took five seconds, things like that mean more to me than any beef in pro-wrestling.”

On meeting Shawn in person for the first time after his tweet: “And so then fast forward and I never saw Shawn again, and never had a chance to really converse with him, or talk to him or explain to him what I said and when I said it or anything like that until I went down to the [WWE] Performance Center, whenever my first visit there was, I guess it was, I’ve been an agent there now five or six months, so we’re looking at probably eight or nine months ago, and Shawn was there, and I didn’t want to, I wasn’t going to avoid him or anything like that, I just said ‘hey, can I talk to you’, and before I could even get the words out of my mouth, on anything, he just immediately started talking to me and whatever beef was there, we both just kind of threw out the window. And we got a really solid relationship as it stands now. I just saw him at [Wrestle]Mania, first thing we did is shook hands, hugged, talked about different things going on, so that beef got squashed pretty quick. And it wasn’t even really a beef, it was just a different way of looking at things.”

On keeping their resolution to himself and the impact his son has had on him: “Actually I don’t even think I told anybody. It was something that we kept to ourselves, it was two men talking, it wasn’t something I was going to go on Twitter and talk about just for the sake of getting the attention. And even before, the things I said at that time, I meant it, that doesn’t mean I’m taking anything back, at that time I felt that way. Now I feel a different way. I think as a human being, that’s just a part of growing. Things change. My son coming into my life really changed a lot about how I saw different things. And things that used to make me angry, don’t make me as angry anymore.”

In the full interview, Helms also talks about his thoughts on Jon Moxley’s controversial interview and the debate over scripted promos in WWE, his experiences working with The Rock and Kane as The Hurricane, getting heat over trying to get AJ Styles hired in 2002, his surprise Royal Rumble 2018 appearance, his work behind the scenes for WWE, being at Starrcast and more.

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Introduction (0:00)
On his experience at Starrcast (0:44)
On coming on board WWE as a producer, what his job as a producer entails (1:20)
On getting heat for trying to get AJ Styles signed by WWE in 2002 and Style’s rise to the top of WWE (5:19)
On AEW Double or Nothing and AEW being competition to WWE (7:21)
On the origin and development of the Hurricane character and making the gimmick work (9:34)
On working with Kane and becoming tag team champions with him (12:44)
On his win over the Rock on Raw and whether it’s a career highlight (13:40)
On turning heel on Smackdown, whether he preferred Hurricane or heel Shane Helms (15:30)
On his heat with Shawn Michaels and when they resolved their issues (16:48)
On how fatherhood has changed him (19:58)
On the WWE Performance Center providing a new avenue to be brought up in wrestling and WWE (20:42)
On Ricochet’s potential (22:14)
On Jon Moxley’s criticism about WWE’s creative process and scripted promos vs. unscripted promos (22:51)
On if there’s anything he wanted to do with the Hurricane character that he didn’t get a chance to do (26:56)
On the possibility of another run as the Hurricane (28:11)
On his surprise 2018 Royal Rumble appearance (29:25)
Where to find him on social media (30:50)

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