Shawn Michaels Is a Penguins Fan Now, Thanks to the ‘HBK Line’
The city of Pittsburgh has successfully turned Shawn Michaels into a Penguins fan.
The WWE Hall of Famer – forever known as “The Heartbreak Kid” (or “HBK” if you’re nasty) – grew up in Texas, but he’s found a new appreciation for hockey thanks to the emergence of Pittsburgh’s so-called “HBK Line” of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel. The trio has been runni – er, skating circles around the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which prompted avid Penguins fans to tweet incessantly at Michaels to get his attention.
And it didn’t take long until he was hooked.
Y’all got me watching the game!!! #PITvsTBL #HBKLine pic.twitter.com/KQLRTqTAWX
— Shawn Michaels (@ShawnMichaels) May 17, 2016
If the Penguins beat the Lightning tonight in Tampa, they’ll take a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Final, and can punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final at home on Sunday. So naturally, the team invited Michaels out (Former Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel promised to save him a seat, too,) and he took to Facebook to break the news to Penguins fans: he’s coming to Pittsburgh, Mother Nature willing.
“Look, I’m OK with being irrelevant,” Michaels said. “That’s why I retired. But you guys made HBK – the HBK line – so relevant right now. It’s been a blast interacting with everybody over Twitter the last couple of days, so I want you to know that I’ve got my flight booked to Pittsburgh. Sunday I’m on my way. Barring something catastrophic from Mother Nature, I’m gonna be there at Game 5.”
Michaels will also chow down on a free “HBK Sandwich” from Primanti Bros. while he’s out there, so good luck trying to have a better weekend than him.