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Shane Helms publicly criticized Shawn Michaels in December 2010, calling him his least favorite wrestler and saying Michaels had let him down as a person. The contemporaneous coverage records that criticism and the anger Helms attached to it. It does not document how the two patched things up. The public record reviewed for this article contains no Helms-specific apology, conversation, or reconciliation, so the second half of the title can only be answered with that gap stated plainly.
What Helms said about Michaels in 2010
WrestlingInc published a report on December 6, 2010, summarizing an episode of Highway 2 Helms. Co-host Marty Gardner asked Helms to name his least favorite wrestler. Helms chose Michaels, whom he said he had idolized while growing up. The report quotes him saying, “he really let me down as a person.” Attribute that line to WrestlingInc’s account of Helms’s remarks, since it is a secondary report of what he said on the show rather than a transcript.
Helms drew a line between the man and the performer. According to the same report, he criticized Michaels as a person while still praising him as a wrestler. That distinction matters for reading the criticism: it was aimed at conduct, not at ring work.
The trigger Helms described
The report ties Helms’s anger to a show from the previous year. Helms said that Michaels was arguing with Chris Jericho at catering, and that he disagreed with the way Michaels was speaking to Jericho. The event itself is documented only through Helms’s own description. The report does not include an account from Jericho or Michaels, so treat the catering incident as Helms’s allegation rather than an established fact.
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What Michaels has said since
His 2007 reflections on his past
In a November 30, 2007 WWE interview about his past and the documentary Heartbreak & Triumph, Michaels reflected on his earlier behavior and described himself as having been a “huge pain.” He went on to say, “I wasn’t just this huge pain.” The interview is general background on how he discussed his conduct, and it does not address Helms or the 2010 criticism.
His 2026 account of making amends
In an April 13, 2026 TV Insider interview with Scott Fishman, Michaels said, “I was incredibly not a good person so many years ago.” He described returning to WWE, asking former colleagues for forgiveness, and rebuilding many relationships. Michaels did not name Helms in the passage that was reported. His comments describe a general effort to make amends with colleagues. They are not a Helms-specific apology.
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Whether they patched things up
The reviewed coverage supports the following, and no more:
- Documented: Helms publicly criticized Michaels in 2010, and the criticism was reported by WrestlingInc.
- Documented, but Helms’s account only: the catering argument with Jericho and Helms’s anger over it.
- Documented, but not about Helms: Michaels’s general statements about apologizing to former colleagues and rebuilding relationships.
- Not documented: any direct conversation, apology, or turning point between Helms and Michaels, and any statement from either man that the dispute ended.
The most common mix-up in this topic is with Bret Hart. In a November 13, 2022 POST Wrestling report, Hart said that his 2010 in-ring handshake with Michaels was real and that the two had been friends since. That is a separate reconciliation, between different men, and it cannot be used to answer the Helms question.
Rank #3
- Brand: WWE
- Batteries required: False
- Style: Modern
How to cite this story accurately
- Attribute Helms’s remarks and the catering account to his own description, as reported by WrestlingInc on December 6, 2010.
- Do not describe the allegations as established fact, since no independent account of the catering exchange appears in the coverage.
- Do not say that Helms and Michaels reconciled, and do not describe any method or turning point for making up.
- If you quote Michaels’s 2026 remarks, make clear that they concern former colleagues in general.
Where to look for more
Michaels’s autobiography, Wrestling for My Life: The Legend, the Reality, and the Faith of a WWE Superstar, was identified in a February 4, 2015 Sports Illustrated interview with Justin Barrasso. It is a broad personal-history companion. The coverage reviewed does not show that it covers Helms or this dispute, so read it as background rather than as a source for this story.
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