Shawn Michaels Addresses AJ Styles Dream Match Rumors

It's been eight years since Shawn Michaels last exited a wrestling ring as a competitor. Yet the rumors and dream match scenarios for the Heartbreak Kid continue to live on.

Just last year, there was all kinds of talk about a possible match between Michaels and AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble in San Antonio (Shawn's hometown). After all, it was the 20th anniversary of the 1997 edition of the Rumble which saw Michaels win the WWE championship from Sycho Sid in the very same venue (the Alamodome).

Even so, Michaels had to say thanks but no thanks. During an interview with the Daily Mirror, Michaels noted that Styles is one wrestler (among many) that he would have loved to have worked against, but his time in the spotlight is over and he's content with that.

Michaels also acknowledged that the talked about match between he and Styles was also once discussed for 2017's WrestleMania.

"There was talk about it possibly happening at WrestleMania. I think he's (Styles) an an unbelievably talented young man. I wish I was 10 to 15 years younger because there are so many great guys. But it's very important to me, I wouldn't have retired unless I was ready to walk away. I'm flattered that every year when WrestleMania comes up people talk about me coming back, but I enjoy my time with my family, I enjoy watching WrestleMania and I also enjoy watching WWE move into the future.

It's very important that continues to happen and the only way for it to do so is for some of us in a dignified way to walk away. Much as it would be interesting to be in there with some of those young men, it's their time now and I think it's important that we focus on them and the future of the WWE."

There's no doubt that WWE currently has probably the deepest roster in the company's entire history. During Michaels' heyday, he was a man ahead of his time, working a fast-paced, athletic style that wasn't so common in the 1990s. Today, WWE has dozens of wrestlers under contract that could work full throttle with HBK to produce a masterpiece between the ropes.

When asked about who on the current roster he wishes he could go back and work against, his answer acknowledges that there are many.

"Honestly, my answer is always 'gosh, most of them'. Because there are so many. Being there for so long, I had a match with just about everybody. Now I go and it's nothing but new and fresh faces. And different styles. You can't help but think 'I could do that with this guy and this with that guy'. For me, it's most everybody because it's 100% variety. In the eyes of a WWE fan this would be fresh and new because it's absolutely nothing they have seen before," Michaels said.

He continued, "That was very hard to come by when you were there for a long time. You have to step away for a long time and have that whole deck reshuffled. It's been almost 10 years since I retired. I'm not trying to dodge the question ha ha. There is just a litany of guys. I can go from Braun Strowman to Finn Balor and then you think about all the different guys between."

Michaels is currently working as a coach for WWE NXT at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.