By Richard Gardner, Torch specialist

The sun set on Shawn Michaels's career in Phoenix on Sunday night. There's going out on top, and then there is what Shawn Michaels did on Sunday night. Losing a Match of the Year candidate is a fitting way for the career of one of the most naturally gifted wrestlers of our time to come to an end.

In the same way that the weakest songs in the back catalogue of seminal artists are better than the entire output of most bands, Shawn Michaels had the ability to regularly produce the sort of performance on Raw or at house shows that the average wrestler could only dream of replicating even once in their career. Yet it was on Pay-Per-View where Michaels's star truly shone.

The Showstopper is an apt name for a wrestler who often had the best match on the card despite struggling to get past the opener. Workrate has rarely been the yardstick used to measure who is pushed in WWE, but Michaels went above and beyond the call of duty to perform on WWE's biggest shows. Going back as far as Royal Rumble 1991, Michaels was having the best match on the show. The Rockers, along with Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase, and Curt Hennig, were supremely gifted wrestlers on a roster of immobile, hulking, muscle-enhanced wrestlers.

I became a wrestling fan in 1992, which turned out to be a pivotal year for Shawn Michaels. Throwing Marty Jannetty, his long time partner, through a glass window remains one of the most iconic images of Shawn Michaels's career, establishing him as untrustworthy and the catalyst for his run as an obnoxious heel. Although his Pay-Per-View matches against Tito Santana and Rick Martel were disappointing given the personnel involved, his match against Bret Hart at the Survivor Series signaled his arrival as a main event performer. The match was also vindication for the smaller wrestlers who had seen their path to the main event blocked for so many years.

As much as the bad publicity surrounding the WWF steroid scandals open the door for Michaels to be featured more prominently, his consistently excellent performances hastened his rise to the top of the card. His ladder match against Razor Ramon at WrestleMania 10 merely confirmed what had been apparent for some time; Shawn Michaels's only equal on the WWF roster was Bret Hart, and the Heartbreak Kid was destined to become WWF champion sooner rather than later.

That moment came two years later at WrestleMania 12. Shawn Michaels's victory over Bret Hart in a classic Iron Man match to capture the WWF title was the realization of a lifelong dream, but in hindsight his reign was not the success that it could have been. Much like Vince McMahon had tried to do with Kevin Nash the year before, Shawn Michaels's character lost many of the elements that had made him popular in the first place.

It's difficult to describe exactly why Shawn Michaels's character resonates with wrestling fans, but a lot of it has to do with shared experience. Michaels's career has often reflected what has been going on in his real life. The disbandment of The Rockers was precipitated by a real life fight between Michaels and Jannetty. His present day character of a virtuous babyface was born from his acceptance of the Christian faith. Having rejected his babyface persona in 1997, his portrayal of a selfish, tortured prima donna mirrored his behavior backstage.

The year 1997 may have been the year that addictions, injuries, and personal problems finally caught up with Shawn Michaels, but in the ring he further enhanced his reputation of providing value for money for wrestling fans who bought PPVs on which he featured. The original Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker remains the greatest of its kind, signaling that Michaels had many years of quality matches ahead of him. Yet five months later, Michaels was lying in the ring at WrestleMania contemplating retirement at the age of 32. The business to which he had given so generously had consumed him. Shawn Michaels's back injury not only robbed the fans of matches from what should have been his athletic peak, it also robbed Michaels of payouts during the most lucrative period in WWE history.

The Attitude era was over by the time Shawn Michaels next laced up his boots. His return match at Summerslam 2002 was a remarkable feat in that he had one of the best Matches of the Year despite four years on the sidelines. This was the start of the renaissance of Shawn Michaels career - a period in which he improbably became the most consistent performer in professional wrestling. Matches with Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and Ric Flair added to an already impressive body of work and helped him earn his "Mr WrestleMania" nickname, but it was his matches with The Undertaker that would define his second tenure with WWE.

The Undertaker was the perfect foil for Shawn Michaels. A big man blessed with remarkable agility. A wrestler who, despite being synonymous with WWE over the last 20 years, had rarely faced Michaels. The matches they had were two of the best in WrestleMania's rich history, and illustrated to a generation of wrestlers that you can lose and still end up looking the better man.

It won't be the same without Shawn Michaels. It's not just the end of a storied career, but the end of an era for wrestling fans, such as myself, who grew up with the character of Heartbreak Kid on their television screens. WWE will miss his ability to and reputation for delivering on the big stage. Right now, there isn't anyone on the roster who is capable of filling his shoes.

I think Jerry Lawler put it best when Shawn Michaels was exiting the WrestleMania for the final time last Sunday:

"Shawn, it's over. Good-bye. We will miss you."

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