What happened when Shawn lost his smile?

What the reason for this storyline? How long was he out for etc.


I saw a clip of the speech the other day and it was before I started watching WWE so I don't know why it happened. Was it to cover up an injury? What was the backstage reaction?

Somebody might be able to correct me, but I think it was because he didn't want to lose to somebody, possibly Bret Hart, so they came up with this storyline so that he could vacate the title.

I assumed it was a way to cover his injury, after he broke his back against Taker at the Rumble.

Samo wrote:I assumed it was a way to cover his injury, after he broke his back against Taker at the Rumble.

He lost his smile way before the Rumble match in 98' against Taker, he claimed backstage he had an injury and in storyline they/he made out he had lost his smile but as Crimey said in reality its because he didnt want to lose the belt, I believe this happened in Feb-March 97', It all stemmed from HBK winning at WM 12 ~(1996) and in turn he knew the rematch vs Bret Hart was gonna most likely be Hart winning.

Pretty much bob on Bret....

Hart was touted to win at rematch at Mania 13 to Michaels. The back stage heat between the two was at an all time high... Michaels refused by in Bret's opinion 'claiming' to have a career threatening knee injury. The injury was explained in the storyline by Shawn 'losing his smile'....

Michaels' knee injury miraculously cleared up a few weeks later & he was back in action just after Summerslam