WWE HBK Appreciation Night on Monday, Aug. 6 in San Antonio
 
By Scott Fishman   Miami Herald Writer

When Shawn Michaels was 12, he wanted to become WWE champion.

The boyhood dream came true and how, emerging as one of the most decorated superstars in history.

Now his son Cameron has approached that same age.

“Briefly, when I was doing it regularly, he had an interest,” Michaels said. “Then, naturally, he moved on from it. He has certainly expressed at this point that he does not have the desire to do it. He is a 12-year-old little boy, so those things can change. I think he has other gifts that I’m thankful he has. He is probably going to use his brain far more than his father did, which I think is a wonderful thing.

“People have always asked if he wanted to, would I support him, and of course I would. I’m going to support him in whatever it is he wants to do. At this point, though, it was a phase that came and went. He has other dreams, and we do our best as a family to continue to support him in those and nurture them as they come along.”

After retiring from the ring more than two years ago, Michaels has also been pursuing other interests. Among them is the “MacMillan River Adventures”, a hunting show he co-hosts with Keith Mark 11:30 p.m. [EST] Tuesdays, on the Outdoor Channel. The shooting schedule for the program, now in its second season, is much more relaxed compared to the usual grind of a full-time WWE superstar.

“We get to make our own schedule, and the prime-time of the season is September through December, so it’s really seasonal,” said Michaels, a WWE Hall of Famer.

WWE goes year round, and a superstar could work 300+ days a year.

 “There is big downtime [with the hunting show],” he continued. “Even in the heat of our biggest traveling, we give ourselves five days to a week off in between hunts. So there is more recovery time, and we go to one place to camp.

“Even though you are on the road for seven days, it’s seven days in the same place and not seven different cities with the travel in between. There are a number of different aspects that make it very different. I loved my career in WWE, but it’s a tough gig for sure. This one is much easier. Obviously, the physical demand is not even close.

“The only thing that was tough was during an elk hunt this year in the Colorado Mountains when I tore my knees up and had to get a scope job done. Other than that, it’s not nearly as demanding.”

The ultimate goal each episode is the same as it’s always been for the consummate performer.

“It’s to put on good television,” Michaels said. “It’s to put on a good show and to teach people the point of hunting. It is a natural thing. It is something that is important. It is good for the environment. It is good for conservation and the animals. There are a ton of misconceptions out there, and that is one of the things we try to do without being preachy or beating anybody over the head or being any real bias spin on it. We do like to right some of the wrongs, as some things are black and white, when it comes to conservation.”

The show has taken Michaels and Mark from destinations in the United States to the African plain.

“We were helping to feed the local villagers,” Michaels said. “We have a number of different shows this year. One we are obviously proud of and looking forward to is the episode with Ted Nugent and the one with Steve Austin. We went to Stone Cold’s Broken Skull Ranch in South Texas. It was just an awesome thing for Steve and I to do something we both enjoy.

“We had the opportunity to laugh and chuckle about the old days, laugh and chuckle about where we are now and how different we are from the old days when we were both competitive with each other. Watching him hit it off with Keith is a cool thing. It was an all-around good time with Steve. It was amazing that we got a hunt in at all, but we did. That’s one we are very excited about.”

Michaels took to Twitter, promoting the show and interacting with fans.

WWE has increased focus in the social media realm. For the veteran grappler, the social networking tool is entertainment.

“It’s all a marketing machine of the Internet,” Michaels said. “It’s all geared to enhance something and someone and to take it that way, to take it with a grain of salt. A guy can be genuine one day and be honest, and you have to do your best to figure out if that is how he is being. Then the next day he can be tweeting about a storyline, and you have to understand it as that.

“You are just never going to know. That is just how the business is, and that is how the Internet is now. It’s way too gray of an area to try to pin it down to black and white. It can’t be done because the minute somebody says it was black, someone will say it’s white. It’s just typing words.

The WWE legend believes you can’t really get someone’s emotion or feeling behind the words. It’s because of this that things can be taken out of context.

“I don’t want to make it sound like it’s totally geared to selling something, but it’s all motivated to do something,” Michaels said. “Whether it’s something for you to watch the storyline or tweet to let him know he is a decent guy or a bad guy. There is intent behind everything. It’s impossible for you the viewer, for you the tweeter or you the receiving of the tweet or the reader to know which one he is doing on a particular day. I would take it all with a grain of salt and wouldn’t put too much stock in it. However, it is a vehicle, but to take it as the stone cold truth or a stone cold lie, you might want to be careful of that.”

Despite his retirement from WWE, the Texan still appears on TV here and there, when the moment is right. His last appearance was on the Raw 1,000th episode where he reunited with D-Generation X. While we won’t see Mr. WrestleMania in another official match, it remains to be seen how far Michaels’ physical involvement will go.

“I don’t have a stance or an outline of what I do or don’t do,” Michaels said. “Obviously, I want to do things that will help. You don’t want to bring me back for no other reason. It would depend on what it was. I am not as young as I once was. Do I think about that stuff? Yeah. It’s one of those things that I know that I can do it. At the same time I can also drink a six pack and be able to drive home, but do I want to give that a whirl? No.

“Yeah, I can fall off this or go through this, but then I end up getting hurt and can’t do my other show. I have other responsibilities. I can’t take piano lessons with my daughter because I’m up with my knee in a brace and pushed my knees too far. I do have to give more thought to that kind of stuff. I can’t just go in with reckless abandonment. At least at this point nobody has even asked about that stuff, so I haven’t really given it that much thought.”

• “WWE Raw” emanates from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, the hometown of Michaels, at 8 p.m. [EST] on Monday, Aug. 6. The event is locally advertised as “Shawn Michaels Appreciation Night.”

Catch HBK and fellow host Keith Mark on “MacMillan River Adventures” at 11:30 p.m. [EST] Tuesdays on the Outdoor Channel. For additional airings or MRA merchandise, visit http://www.mrahunting.com/.

• Check out the Shawn Michaels Deuce Brand signature series watches at http://www.deucebrand.com/products/501/signature.

• Follow HBK on Twitter @ShawnMichaels.

• Follow me on Twitter @smFISHMAN, http://twitter.com/#!/smFISHMAN, where I post links and information. Opinions expressed reflect no other entity. I can also be found tweeting incessantly during wrestling shows weekly.