Shawn Michaels: biography and achievements

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Michael Sean Hickenbottom is a former American professional wrestler, actor and television host. He is better known as Shawn Michaels. He is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Playing sports from the age of six, he decided to become a professional wrestler when he was 12. He later dropped out of college and joined the National Wrestling Alliance, where he began training with Mexican professional wrestler José Lothario. Over the next few years, he honed his craft. He has performed under several aliases, including The Heartbreak Kid, The Boy Toy, and The Showstopper. Michaels announced his final retirement in 2010 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame a year later. He has since served as a Wrestling Promotion Ambassador from 2012 to 2015 and has been a coach at the WWE Center since 2016.

Childhood and youth

Michael Sean Hickenbottom was born July 22, 1965 in Chandler, Arizona, the youngest child of Richard and Carol Hickenbottom. He has twoolder brothers, Randy and Scott, and sister Sheri.

Richard was a US Air Force officer, so Hickenbottom and his siblings grew up moving from base to base. In the early years of his life, the family stayed in Reading, Berkshire, England, and then moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he spent his childhood.

As a child, he didn't particularly like his name, Michael, and preferred to be called simply Sean. His athletic talents began to show when he became a member of his school's football team at the age of six. At the age of 12, he realized that he wanted to become a professional wrestler. In high school, he often had to perform wrestling drills at talent shows.

He then enrolled at Texas Southwest State University in San Marcos, Texas. However, he realized that college life was not for him and dropped out to wrestle.

Career

Being trained by Jose Lothario, Hickenbottom took the ring name Shawn Michaels and made his professional wrestling debut in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) on October 16, 1984. He also competed for Texas All Star Wrestling (TASW) (1985-1986) and the American Wrestling Association (AWA) (1986-1987).

In 1987, he joined World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a member of The Rockers (along with Marty Jannetti), but was fired two weeks later. Because of this, he and Jannetti had to return to the AWA.

A year later, WWE hired them and The Rockers entered the WWF ring on July 7, 1988. The group soon became extremely popular with women and children. The team eventually disbanded on December 2, 1991, when Michaels first punched Jannetty and then threw him through a glass window.

Then WWE management teamed him up with Sensational Sherry. In his first match at WrestleMania VIII, he was included in the match against Tito Santana.

In June 1993, he formed a coalition with Diesel, who is also his friend. Michaels was suspended for two months after testing positive for steroids in September of that year. His match with Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X was top ranked by Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer newsletter.

By early 1995, Michaels had become the most popular wrestler signed to the WWE. At the time, professional wrestling was a highly competitive industry. Two companies, WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), have risen to heights never seen before.

Michaels had a good relationship with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, which allowed him and his friends, Diesel, Ramon and newcomer Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H), known collectively as The Kliq, to become dominant figures in wrestling.

Last years in wrestling

In May 1996, Diesel and Ramon left WWE for WCW.

There have only been a handful of major in-ring feuds in Shawn's career that have been as significant as the one between Michaels and Bret Hitman Hart. All this culminated in the incident known as the Montrealscrewdriver.”

Hart should have lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Michaels, but he didn't want to do it in the 1997 Survivor Series in his hometown of Montreal. Despite this, McMahon decided that the title would have a new holder, but did not tell Hart about it. After the match, a surprised and furious Hart spat on McMahon and left WWE.

In a fight with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels suffered serious back injuries at the 1998 Royal Rumble. These injuries ultimately forced him to retire for the first time on the night after WrestleMania XVI. From November 1998 to June 2000 he served as WWF Commissioner.

He returned to WWE in June 2002. For the next eight years, he performed alongside Kurt Angle, Triple H, Chris Jericho, John Cena and The Edge. The final match of his career, The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, took place at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010.

Activities outside the ring

In the following years, in addition to being a WWE Ambassador and trainer at the WWE Center, he also participated in television shows. In 2017, his films were released: Shawn Michaels appeared on the screen in the films Gavin Stone Resurrection and Pure Country, Pure Heart.

He also published his memoir Fighting for My Life: The Legend, Reality and Belief of a WWE Superstar on February 10, 2015 through Zondervan, an international Christian media publishing company. The book was co-written with David Thomas.

He did not bypass his attention and music: Shawn Michaels released two albums (State of the Union and Perfecto Vegas).

Awards and achievements

Shawn Michaels won the WWF Championship three times (March 31, 1996, January 19, 1997 and November 9, 1997) and the World Heavyweight Championship once (November 17, 2002).

He is a two-time Royal Rumble winner (1995, 1996).

Shawn Michaels has won 15 Slammy awards throughout his career, including five Match of the Year awards (1994, 1996, 1997, 2008 and 2009).

In 2011, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame along with Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Sunny and Abdullah the Butcher.

Private life

Shawn Michaels married Teresa Lynn Wood in 1988. In 1994 they divorced. He then met Rebecca Curci, a member of WCW The Nitro Girls in the 1990s, through a mutual friend named Rich Minzer. They married on March 31, 1999 at Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple have two children: son Cameron Cade (born January 15, 2000) and daughter Cheyenne (August 19, 2004).

In the 1990s, he took drugs and alcohol to cope with his anger and depression. His marriage to Curci and the subsequent birth of their son finally convinced him to get his life in order. After Michaels retired from wrestling in 2010, he and his wife sold their San Antonio house and moved to their ranch in Texas.