5 Potential Opponents For Shawn Michaels At WrestleMania 35

If the rumors are true, it's only a short matter of time before WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, who retired back in 2010 after a loss to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 26, returns to the ring for WWE's upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia.

As of this writing, there are two rumored matches for Michaels on the show, with the first idea being a match against The Undertaker, and the second being a tag team match where he'd team with Triple H to take on The Brothers of Destruction (Undertaker and Kane).

Of course, Michaels is probably getting paid a ton of money to come out of retirement, which is why he's willing to come back, despite the fact that he's emphatically stated that he's never going to wrestle again.

One would think that if he's willing to come back for what's probably going to be yet another glorified house show in Saudi Arabia, then he should be willing to do one more big match at next year's WrestleMania.

And if he does come back, here are a few big names that he could end up in the ring with.

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5 - Brock Lesnar

Shawn Michaels was a big part of the Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H feud back in 2012, as he was on the receiving end of a few F-5s, and on top of that, Lesnar, in storyline of course, broke HBK's arm with the Kimura lock.

It is a bit of a stretch to think that WWE would actually try to do some long-term storytelling if this match were to happen, simply because Vince McMahon doesn't seem to remember anything these days. But nevertheless, a match between the two would be pretty spectacular if both men are motivated to put on a top-notch performance.

The only thing that could get in the way of this potential dream match is if Brock Lesnar has success when he returns to the UFC. But if he loses his fight against Daniel Cormier, which will probably happen at the beginning of next year, he'll likely find his way back to WWE by the time WrestleMania 35 rolls around.

4 - AJ Styles

A dream match?

This match was rumored to happen at the 2017 Royal Rumble event, which took place in Shawn Michaels' hometown of San Antonio, Texas. But the match obviously didn't end up happening, even though Styles tried to get HBK to come out of retirement.

In this case, this is one of those matches where the expectations might be too high, to the point where Styles and Michaels won't be able to live up to the hype. I'm not saying that they won't have a great match, but people will probably expect it to be the best match they've ever seen, which is a lot of pressure for both men.

Of course, both Styles and Michaels have had great matches in high-pressure situations, but it's been nearly a decade since Michaels last wrestled, and on top of that, he's in his 50s, so it's pretty fair to assume that he might not be as great as he once was. Or, perhaps it will end up being the best match anyone's ever seen.

3 - Samoa Joe

This looks pretty cool!

During an interview with ESPN back in 2017, Shawn Michaels named Samoa Joe as a guy he'd like to face if he did come back, and obviously Joe was up for the match.

Like a potential match with Brock Lesnar, this would be the flamboyant showman vs. the monster fighter who's twice the size of the babyface. It would give Michaels an opportunity to sell a lot, which was what he did best.

It'd also be the opposite of a potential match with AJ Styles, as it'd probably be more of a grounded affair, whereas a match with Styles would likely be a lot faster-paced. So, because of that, I think if Michaels does come back, he'd be more willing to wrestle Joe if he had his choice between the two.

2 - Daniel Bryan

Aside from Daniel Bryan winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, this was the match that we were all hoping would happen back at WrestleMania 30. But unfortunately, Michaels, who trained Bryan to be a wrestler, was fully committed to staying retired back then.

But now, if he is actually willing to wrestle a few more matches, one of them should be against Daniel Bryan, and it should happen at an event like WrestleMania.

Bryan has said in the past that he'd be willing to wrestle Michaels if he came back, as he was even hoping to get a match with the WWE Hall of Famer back in the spring of 2014. However, during an appearance on Chris Jericho's podcast, Michaels seemed lukewarm on the idea of wrestling Bryan, saying that he didn't like the "teacher vs. student" idea.

1 - The Rock

A match that never happened!

Over the years, we've heard stories of why Shawn Michaels vs. The Rock never ended up happening at any point, with most of the stories centered around backstage heat between the two while The Rock was an up and coming superstar in the world of WWE.

But, during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony back in 2008, The Rock named Shawn Michaels as someone he'd like to face, so unless he was just saying something to get a positive reaction from the fans, that statement proved that there was no longer heat between the two.

But still, ten years later and the match hasn't happened. Of course, that's mostly due to timing, as HBK retired one year before The Rock returned to WWE in 2011. Also, when Michaels came back in the summer of 2002, that was right when "The People's Champion" was making his transition into Hollywood.

It's been reported that The Rock wants to have a match at WrestleMania 35, and if both men are willing to do it, WWE would be fools to not book a Shawn Michaels vs. The Rock match next spring.