Shawn Michaels Reveals Why He Cut off His Ponytail

Shawn Michaels shocked the wrestling world when he chopped off his signature long-hair look ahead of WrestleMania 34.

After the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony on Friday night, Michaels spoke with WWE.com about the massive style change and revealed why exactly he made the cut.

“‘Cause I’m a grown man. I’m 52,” Michaels said. “I’ve lived in the sticks for the last 10 years, and I just didn’t want Bubba from the barber shop cutting by hair. I honestly didn’t know what to do. I don’t know about styles. I don’t know about anything, hair care, anything else. It was just something I wanted done.”

The reveal of the massive cut was made by Evan Dell, a Florida barber. Dell shared before-and-after shots to Facebook, and they quickly went viral.

“Today I had the honor of meeting a childhood hero of mine Shawn Michaels, and getting him ready for WrestleMania this weekend,” Dell wrote on Facebook. “Shawn has had the ponytail for over 20 years, and today he had me cut it off and give him a new look. Such a genuine and down to earth guy it was such a privilege being trusted with the famous locks.”

However, Michaels was not planning to make the reveal in such a manner. He was apparently not too pleased with Dell.

“I thought he was taking a before-and-after picture because he wanted it professionally, and the dude went and tweeted it out,” Michaels said. “I was home eating dinner and just decided to get on Twitter, and it was blowing up. I was like ‘Oh snap, the dude went ahead and … oh.’ I felt so violated, you know what I mean?”

HBK then let Dell know he may have lost a customer in the long-term due to the social media post.

“Dude, for five minutes of fame, you cost yourself … I gave him a 30 percent tip that day, and I’ve done that every other month for a gazillion years,” he said lightheartedly. “Short-term gain, you gotta go with the long-game, brother. That’s the key: Always go with the long game.”

As for what the WWE Hall of Famer thinks of the the look, he is not as blown away as the WWE Universe. He thinks it really is not too far off from what he typically looks like in a ponytail.

“To me, it’s just the same as when I pulled my hair back,” he said. “And that’s all I asked him. ‘Can you make it just look like this?,’ ’cause I wear my back in a ponytail all the time anyway.”

Apparently the biggest struggle he’s had with his new ‘do is remembering that it is not there any more. He even consulted with his old D-Generation X partner, Triple H, about his own experience chopping off his locks.

“I still [have] muscle memory. I still go back there to pull my hair-tie out before I jump in the shower or washing my hair I’m ready to go out like this,” Michaels said. “Hunter told me, after he got got his hair cut, for like a month he was still grabbing for the hair-tie. So there’s a lot of muscle memory things I’ll have to take care of.”

WrestleMania 34 will air Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on the WWE Network.