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In a recent interview with Live Audio Wrestling, UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre was asked to choose between Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart as his favorite pro wrestler. So what did the French-Canadian do?
He chose Shawn Michaels.
"I like Shawn Michaels. He was my favorite guy, because he was a villain. I'm a very nice person in general, and sometimes people do stuff to me and I force myself to still behave nice. I'm very intrigued by the villain, I like villains. I like Shawn Michaels because he was very entertaining. Everybody used to hate him, he was cheating all the time. He was like a perfect villain. He was winning, not because he was better, because he was cheating. For me, he was making people so mad, and because he was so much of a villain, I used to like him a lot for that."
While Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels have made nice and are no longer in their long running feud over the Montreal Screwjob, this still has to be considered some form of blasphemy for Canadians pro wrestling fans.
St. Pierre is obviously referring to the "Heartbreak Kid" from the Attitude Era, as Michaels hasn't played a heel -- at least not one as good as "GSP" is describing -- since the late 90s.
As the saying goes, excellence is drawn to excellence so I suppose this shouldn't be much of a surprise.