BacklashPreview: Live Sunday April 27 8E/5P - Shawn Michaels vs Batista with guest referee Chris Jericho

After two confrontations, one on SmackDown and then again on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel, it’s official: Shawn Michaels and Batista will go one-on-one at Backlash with Y2J acting as special guest referee.

Michaels and Batista have argued back-and-forth on whether or not HBK made the right decision by ending Ric Flair’s career at WrestleMania XXIV. The Animal blames Michaels for ruining his mentor’s livelihood, going so far as to tell HBK that he should have laid down for Flair on The Grandest Stage of Them All. The Interpromotional Challenge was inked by Raw GM William Regal and SmackDown GM Vickie Guerrero moments after the Highlight Reel confrontation on Raw.

Never one to back (or lay) down, Michaels has fired back that he gave Flair “exactly what he had asked for at WrestleMania,” adding that, he did “what anyone would have done.”

The idea to have Jericho officiate came about when Raw traveled to England. It was there, in his homeland, that Regal made the decision to put Y2J in stripes after watching a frustrated Michaels silence an antagonistic Jericho with Sweet Chin Music.

What will happen when Michaels and Batista, two top-caliber athletes, and former champions, collide at Backlash? Will Batista unleash his anger over Flair’s retirement on the man responsible? Or will HBK give The Animal exactly what he gave Flair at WrestleMania – the fight of his life?

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