Not many wrestlers get a second chance to make a first impression.
4. SHAWN MICHAELS
Real Name – Michael Hickenbottom
Hometown – San Antonio, TX
Debuted – October 16, 1984
Titles Held – AWA World Tag Team (2x, with Marty Jannetty); NWA Central States Tag Team (with Marty Jannetty); AWA Southern Tag Team (2x, with Marty Jannetty); TASW Texas Tag Team(2x, with Paul Diamond); TWA Heavyweight; WWF Championship (3x); WWF European; WWF Intercontinental (3x); WWF/WWE World Tag Team (4x, 2 with Diesel, 1 with Stone Cold Steve Austin, 1 with John Cena); WWE World Heavyweight
Other Accomplishments – First WWE Grand Slam champion; Winner of PWI Match of the Year awards for 1993 (vs. Marty Jannetty), 1994 (vs. Razor Ramon), 1995 (vs. Diesel), 1996 (vs. Bret Hart), 2004 (vs. Triple H and Chris Benoit), 2005 (vs. Kurt Angle), 2006 (vs. Vince McMahon), and 2007 (vs. John Cena); Winner of PWI Most Popular Wrestler of the Year award in 1995 and 1996; Ranked #1 on the PWI 500 list in 1996; Fourth WWF Triple Crown champion; Winner of WWF Royal Rumble in 1995 and 1996; Winner of Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Best Babyface award in 1996; Winner of Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Match of the Year award in 1994 (vs. Razor Ramon); Winner of Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Most Charismatic Wrestler award in 1995 and 1996, Winner of Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Tag Team of the Year award in 1989 (with Marty Jannetty); Winner of Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Worst Feud of the Year award in 2006 (with Triple H vs. Vince and Shane McMahon); Winner of Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Feud of the Year award in 2004 (vs. Triple H and Chris Benoit)
When Shawn Michaels retired from wrestling as an active competitor in 1998 after WrestleMania XIV due to a serious back injury, a lot of people in the industry said “good riddance.†He had become a chore to deal with backstage and had the attitude problems of a fifteen-year-old girl. Plus he had a prescription drug problem that was getting out of control.
In 2002 when Shawn Michaels returned to active competition he was a completely new man. In his four years away he had become a born-again Christian and immersed himself in religion. His back was in top shape once again while his attitude and drug problems had disappeared.
To say that Michaels got a new lease on his wrestling life would be an understatement.
It’s hard to believe that is been almost twenty-five years already since Michaels first laced up a pair of wrestling boots. The former backstage prima donna has now become one of the “sport’s†most respected elder statesmen, and still to this day can put on the best match of the card if he were so inclined to do so.
It all started for Michaels back in 1984. He was trained by Texas wrestling star Jose Lothario and initially worked for a variety of southern regional promotions include Mid-South Wrestling, Texas All-Star Wrestling, Central States Wrestling and World Class Championship Wrestling. He gained a lot of experience while paying his dues in the southern territories of the United States, and picked up a couple of regional Championships along the way.
The Midnight Rockers
In 1986 he was all of twenty years old when he joined the big leagues of the AWA as the tag team partner of Marty Jannetty. They were dubbed The Midnight Rockers, and became instant fan favorites in the Minnesota-based group. In 1987 they won the company’s tag belts in a wild feud against Doug Somers & Buddy Rose. Soon Vince McMahon came calling, and they pair were hired by the WWF. Unfortunately for them they came into the company with a reputation of being hard partiers and didn’t get off on the right foot.
Two weeks later, the WWF released them in a now infamous conversation where Vince McMahon commented on Michaels’ cowboy boots and noted that they were made for walking.
They pair returned to the AWA and picked up where they left off, winning the Tag belts a couple more times while having feuds with The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and arguably their greatest rivals – Badd Company (Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond.)
The Rockers
Halfway through 1988 the WWF came calling again and the pair headed back up north. This time they were billed simply as “The Rockers†and managed to last more than a couple of weeks. Their first pay per view appearance was in the big 10-team elimination match at Survivor Series ’88. The pair became solid fixtures in the company’s midcard, and feuded with all the top heel teams of the day including The Rougeaus, The Twin Towers, The Powers of Pain, and they had an absolutely amazing run against Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard that can only be compared to the Harts-Bulldogs series from two years earlier in terms of sheer match quality.
In 1990 they feuded with the Orient Express (Akio Sato and Pat Tanaka), old rivals from the AWA, before transitioning into a rivalry against the newly-formed Power & Glory team of Hercules and Paul Roma. It was during this run where Michaels & Jannetty wrestled The Hart Foundation in a 2-out-3 falls match for the WWF Tag Team Championships. The match, which was taped in October 1990, saw The Rockers win the belts two falls to one, but shortly into the second fall the top ring rope broke putting the match into disarray. The story goes that The Rockers were going to win the belts as Jim “The Anvil†Neidhart was on his way out of the company. But by the time the match was ready to come up on TV, Neidhart had renegotiated his contract and was going to stay in the company. That title match was then deemed null and void, never aired on television, and The Rockers were never credited with a Championship victory. Legend goes that The Rockers would have then transitioned the tag belts to Power & Glory, but it was not to be.
By 1991 they were back to feuding with the Orient Express, only this time it was Tanaka teaming with his old Badd Company teammate Paul Diamond, who was now competing under a mask as Kato. The two teams tore the house down in the opening match of Royal Rumble ’91, displaying the chemistry the men had built up with each other after years of competing with and against each other. The Rockers meandered through 1991 until backstage friction between Jannetty and Michaels caused the team to be broken up on screen. In January 1992, the famous Barber Shop segment aired where Michaels turned on his partner, giving him a superkick and then tossing him through a plate glass window.
To this day The Rockers’ tag team split and subsequent follow-up is still considered the measuring stick of tag team break-ups. After a successful tag team splits up in this day and age the question is always asked, “which one will be Shawn, and which one will become Marty?†This is in reference of course to the meteoric rise that Michaels’ career took after the break-up in relation to the spotty record that Jannetty maintained afterwards.
The Heartbreak Kid
Michaels instantly became a hated heel, and took off on his run up the singles ladder. Meanwhile Jannetty had left the company, leaving them without the inevitable feud that follows a tag team break-up. He picked up Sensational Sherri as his new manager to give him some much needed credibility. Mr. Perfect, who was working commentary at the time, gave Michaels the idea for the nickname “The Heartbreak Kid.†Michaels adopted a vain, pretty boy gimmick, complete with a mirror and a mandated announcement every time he left the building. He beat Tito Santana (the first step up on the good guy ladder) at WrestleMania VII, and then began his challenge of Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Championship. At this point Michaels and Hart were as evenly matched as can be. They had both started out as tag team jobbers and worked up through the tag ranks, and had now graduated into the mid-card of the singles division. Their Intercontinental Title feud during the summer of ’92 is something I look back fondly upon in regards to the glory days of that belt.
Then during the build to SummerSlam in London, England it was announced that Hart would defend the Intercontinental belt against his brother-in-law (and fellow good guy) Davey Boy Smith. Michaels was then inserted into mini-feud with Rick “The Model†Martel based on their prima donna attitudes and admiration for Sherri. Both men were heels during the angle, which was something that was very unheard during this time period.
After SummerSlam, Michaels reignited his rivalry with Hart, but in the three short months between SummerSlam and Survivor Series a lot of things changed. Hart, who had dropped the I-C belt to Davey Boy, ended up winning the WWF World Championship from Ric Flair on a whim at a Canadian house show. Michaels then beat Davey Boy for the Intercontinental Title on an edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event as Davey was leaving the company. Their singles match that set for Survivor Series was originally promoted as a mid-card grudge match, but it was now elevated to the main event and Hart’s WWF Championship was on the line. It was the first time either man had main evented a PPV, let alone battled over the company’s biggest prize, but it wouldn’t be the last in their storied history.
Michaels then became a fixture of the Intercontinental Title division. At Royal Rumble ’93 he beat Marty Jannetty to blow off their break-up after Jannetty’s year-long absence. Marty disappeared again after the match only to resurface on a live edition of Monday Night RAW in May ’93. To the shock of everyone (especially this nine-year-old mark) Jannetty defeated Michaels in an impromptu match to win the Championship. They had a series of match of the year-caliber rematches through the early summer, and thanks to Michaels’ new bodyguard Kevin “Diesel†Nash he won the belt back within weeks of the switch.
In the fall of ’93 Michaels was controversially suspended for violating a drug test. To this day Michaels denies having anything in his system while the company claimed they found traces of steroids. He was suspended while still Intercontinental Champion and the belt was vacated. (The first time Michaels would lose a belt without being pinned for it.) Razor Ramon ended up winning the vacant Championship, and when Michaels returned a ready-made feud was in place. The rivalry culminated at WrestleMania X where Ramon’s legit Championship belt and Michaels’ version of the physical belt were hung above the ring, and the winner would be decided in a ladder match. The pair revolutionized the ladder match on the national stage (despite Bret Hart introducing the concept to Vince McMahon and the WWF), and both men became bigger stars because of it.
Michaels then faded into the background during the spring and summer of ’94 and acted as a manager for Diesel, who had now become a viable mid-card threat in the company. Michaels & Diesel won the World Tag Championship together the night before SummerSlam ’94 and carried them into Survivor Series ’94, as dissension grew between the two men. Their bad blood came to a boil at the pay per view, and the two men came to blows. They effectively ended their partnership and vacated the Tag belts. Diesel went on to win the WWF Championpship, while Michaels won the abysmal 1995 Royal Rumble match that featured sixty second intervals and Michaels starting at number one and lasting the entire match in order to earn the victory. He earned his first WrestleMania main event, as he challenged Diesel in a losing effort in a WWF Championship match.
During the build up to WrestleMania Michaels picked up Sid as his new bodyguard, but shortly after WrestleMania Sid turned on him. He subsequently turned face and reunited with Diesel. He became Diesel’s “little buddy†through the rest of ’95 while Diesel reigned as WWF Champion. Michaels picked up another Intercontinental Championship along the way, and the pair, now called “Two Dudes with Attitude,†won another Tag Championship.
In October 1995 he was legitimately attacked and injured outside a bar in Syracuse, New York. He needed some time off, and needed to get rid of the Intercontinental Title. Instead of dropping it to his scheduled opponent “Dean†Shane Douglas, he instead forfeited the Title to him, only to have Michaels’ real-life buddy Razor Ramon win the belt from Douglas minutes later. Michaels’ injury was then turned into one of the company’s first worked-shoots as he collapsed in a December match with Owen Hart. He was even checked into a hospital to sell the angle, and the fans were treated to the terribly cheesy “Tell Me a Lie†music video for Michaels that played constantly on WWE television. He returned in time to enter Royal Rumble ’96, and played the underdog card en route to winning his second Rumble match in a row.
Iron Man
The stage was now set for what was at the time the company’s biggest match – Bret Hart versus Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship. Both men had grown and improved immensely since their time as lightweight tag team wrestlers. They were now the company’s two biggest babyfaces, and it was decided that their main event bout at WrestleMania XII would be contested under unprecedented 60-minute Iron Man rules. The build-up to the match was a lot more realistic than most of the company’s antics at the time, as they showed the two men training Rocky-montage style. They even brought in Michaels’ legitimate trainer Jose Lothario to act as his on-screen manager and trainer. To an eleven-year-old mark like me I thought both guys’ training videos looked cool and made them seem like evenly matched competitors, despite Hart’s later claims that he felt his clips made him look weak and inferior to Michaels.
Michaels entered the arena that day in Anaheim on a ripcord that sailed right into the ring (which probably gave the ending away to anyone over the age of twelve.) The two men battled for sixty minutes without a fall being decided. It was decreed that the match would go to sudden death overtime, and Michaels won the WWF Championship for the first time after two superkicks shortly into the overtime period. As Vince McMahon on commentary screamed “the boyhood dream has come true†a new star was born to lead the World Wrestling Federation.
The Kliq
With Michaels now as Champion the pressure was all on his shoulders. His attitude problems got worse, and he became increasingly more difficult to work with behind the scenes, despite the fact he was saving the monthly pay per views by putting on the best match of the card in the main event. Meanwhile through ’94 and ’95 a group of guys including Michaels, Diesel, Scott “Razor Ramon†Hall and “1-2-3 Kid†Sean Waltman formed a backstage clique that ran together and rode together. They became increasingly powerful backstage, as they have been accused of holding down other wrestlers’ pushes while making sure they maintained their top card spots. Along the way they picked up a young wrestler named “Hunter Hearst-Helmsley†Paul Levesque as their young understudy. Their backstage antics came to a head in a very public way on Hall and Nash’s final day in the company, which was a house show at Madison Square Garden. At the conclusion of the Michaels-Nash main event cage match, Hall and Helmsley (who had wrestled each other earlier in the evening) also came to the ring and the four men embraced, breaking one of the last vestiges of kayfabe in the process. Management was rightly furious, but Hall, Nash and Waltman were all on their ways out of the company while Michaels was World Champion and thus untouchable. Helmsley took the brunt of the punishment and Michaels continued to carry the company through the spring, summer and fall of ’96, battling every monster and bad guy they could throw at him, including Davey Boy Smith, Vader, Goldust, Mankind and Sid.
He dropped the Championship to Sid at Survivor Series ’96, only as a way to get the Championship back in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, at Royal Rumble ’97. Less than a month later he surrendered the World Title on a special Thursday night edition of RAW because of a “career-threatening†knee injury and a “lost smile.†It was the fourth time he lost a championship without being defeated for it in the ring.
DeGeneration X
Michaels’ debilitating knee injury turned out to be less bad than thought as he was back in the ring by May ’97 battling Bret Hart’s Hart Foundation stable. He and Stone Cold Steve Austin beat The Foundation’s Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith for the WWF Tag Championships, and he was set to battle Bret in a singles match at King of the Ring. Unfortunately the pair got in a legit fistfight backstage, causing Michaels to take his ball and go home. The tag titles were stripped, and he lost another Title with losing. He was back with the company by August to serve as the guest referee between the Undertaker-Bret Hart WWF Championship match at SummerSlam ’97. During that match an errant chair shot from Michaels caused Hart to pin Undertaker and win the belt.
The stage was now set for a first-time ever program between Undertaker and Michaels. During the rivalry’s build-up a seemingly random tag team match on RAW with Undertaker & Mankind against Michaels & Hunter Hearst-Helmsley started something much bigger. Rather than being a random one-time pairing, Michaels and the now renamed “Triple H†(along with HHH’s manager Chyna) began appearing on TV together every week. The duo began filling their TV time with childish, humor-filled pranks as commentator Jim Ross constantly called them “degenerates†on TV. The trio, along with new cohort Rick Rude, began officially calling themselves “DeGeneration X,†and the forefathers of the “Attitude†era were born.
Despite Bret Hart being the WWF Champion, Michaels and his new act remained at the top of the card. He and Undertaker headlined the September “Ground Zero†PPV and in the same month he defeated Davey Boy Smith for the European Championship in the main event of the UK-only PPV “One Night Only.†This move was seen by many as a slap in the face to the Harts and proof of Michaels’ backstage power, as the European Championship was a third-tier belt that was used mainly as a trophy piece for the England-born Davey Boy Smith. To have Davey, the WWF’s European hero, drop the belt to uber-heel Shawn Michaels in his own backyard in the final part of a PPV seemed like a bad business move for the foreign market and just another way to put Michaels over the Hart contingent. He and Undertaker then headlined the October PPV “Bad Blood†as well, this time in the brand-new “Hell in a Cell†cage concept. The match is a forgotten classic and set the bar high for all the Hell in a Cell matches that followed after.
The Montreal Screwjob
The stage was now set for the long-awaited rematch between Hart & Michaels. It was all lined up for Survivor Series ’97 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for Hart’s WWF Championship. By this point it was common knowledge among insiders and smart fans that Bret Hart would be leaving the WWF shortly after this PPV and head to World Championship Wrestling for a big-money contract. It had been five years to the event since the two men headlined their first pay per view together, and they had come a long way since then. It was obvious to anyone who was in the know about things that this would be the last time anyone would see these two all-time greats in the ring together ever again. It’s been said that Hart, who by now had lost all respect for Michaels he once had, did not want to drop the Championship to him that night in his home country of Canada. Management finally agreed and the main event was booked for a schmozz ending with both men’s factions running in for the show closing brawl. Unbeknownst to Bret (and everyone else in the world), Michaels, Helmsley, Vince McMahon and Gerry Brisco had planned a screwjob in order to get the belt off of Hart that night. And as Michaels put Bret in his own Sharpshooter during one of the match’s planned spots, McMahon (who was at ringside) ordered referee Earl Hebner to “ring the damn bell.†Hart was screwed out of the belt and blindsided by the company, while Michaels walked out as Champion. He swore up and down for years that he had no part of the deal and that it was all McMahon’s doing. It was that way until 2002 when Michaels came clean and admitted that he was in on it the whole time.
The WWF was now off and running with a whole new direction, led by Michaels’ DX and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The plan was to build to a Michaels-Austin WWF Championship showdown at WrestleMania XIV. Unfortunately along the way Michaels severely wrecked his back during a casket match with Undertaker at Royal Rumble ’98. He ended up with two herniated discs in his spine and crushed a third one completely. The injury was severe enough to keep him out of in-ring action up until the night of WrestleMania, where he entered the ring in severe pain, but still went out and put Austin over clean as a sheet in order to pass the torch.
Michaels left WrestleMania that night thinking he would never wrestle again.
The Retirement
Once he stepped away from the ring, Michaels also stepped away from the spotlight. He wasn’t seen on WWF TV again until November ’98 when he became the on-air Commissioner. This run was largely un-memorable, and he was on again/off again through most of 1999. He refereed the main event of the inaugural SmackDown! broadcast, a WWF Championship match between The Rock and Triple H in which he turned on The Rock and was set to rejoin Triple H, but disappeared from TV immediately thereafter.
During his time off his prescription drug habit had worsened despite finding love with a former Nitro Girl and having a child. It wasn’t until he became a born-again Christian in the early part of the new millennium that he straightened his life back out.
This time off also allowed him to open up the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy in his hometown San Antonio. His time running the Academy was short-lived as he soon handed the keys to the place over to his co-trainer Rudy Boy Gonzalez, who renamed it the Texas Wrestling Academy. Despite the school only being open for a short period of time it produced an incredible wealth of talented and now-famous wrestling superstars, including “American Dragon†Bryan Danielson, “Spanky†Brian Kendrick, Lance Cade, Paul London and Matt Bentley.
The Return
He made his return to WWE TV in the summer of 2002. The brand expansion was in its fledgling state and the new reboot of the new World order was already on its last dying legs so Michaels was brought in as a manager for the group, which was led by his old buddy Kevin Nash. The nWo was soon disbanded and Michaels turned his attention to reuniting with his other old pal Triple H. Triple H quickly turned on him, which set up a “non-sanctioned†street fight between the two at SummerSlam 2002. No one was expecting a full-time return for Michaels, and just assumed this would be the big blowoff to a match in the making since 1998. Michaels won the match, and then Triple H laid him out with a sledgehammer, seemingly sending Michaels back into retirement.
Fortunately for everyone who is a wrestling fan, Michaels’ back was feeling much better and he contemplated a full-time return to the ring. He was in a much better place personally, as he had found religion, was drug-free and had lost the attitude that caused such nightmares for everyone he worked with backstage all those years ago.
Michaels competed in the inaugural Elimination Chamber at Survivor Series 2002, and won the World Heavyweight Championship in the process, beating Triple H. The pair had a “three stages of hell†2-out-of-3 falls match the next month at Armageddon where Triple H won the belt back. Michaels then transitioned into a long-running feud with Chris Jericho that had kind of an “old Shawn Michaels versus new Shawn Michaels†vibe running through it. The pair tore down the house at WrestleMania XIX to blow off their feud, and it looked as if Michaels was back full-time, and back at full speed as well.
He spent the rest of 2003 feuding with Triple H’s Evolution stable and had high-profile PPV matches with all the principal members, including Ric Flair, Randy Orton and Batista. As he 2004 dawned he reignited his long-standing feud with Triple H after the two men put on outstanding wrestling clinic on the last RAW of 2003, which was live from San Antonio. They battled all through the first half of 2004, highlighted by a pair of triple threat World Championship matches with Chris Benoit at WrestleMania XX and Backlash ’04. They seemingly put their feud to bed at Bad Blood in June after Michaels lost to Triple H in Hell in a Cell. Michaels then took the summer off and returned in time to challenge Triple H for the World Championship one more time, this time at the fan voted Taboo Tuesday event in October. Michaels once again took time off after that match to heal a torn meniscus.
He returned in early 2005 in order to blow off a mini-feud with Edge at the Royal Rumble, and then transition into a run against Kurt Angle. The logic behind the Angle-Michaels feud was to simply showcase the two best all-around wrestling performers the company had at the time. Angle won their WrestleMania 21 epic by submission, but Michaels received a standing ovation for his troubles. Michaels would get his win back in June of that year in a sequel that just doesn’t quite live up to the original.
After that he had a feud against Muhammad Hassan and Daivari served as a backdrop to get Hulk Hogan back on TV as Michaels’ partner. The pair teamed a handful of times during the spring and early summer before Michaels turned on him on the July 4 RAW, moments after they won a tag match. Michaels worked heel for the first time since his return and built the SummerSlam “dream match†between the two icons from different eras. Hogan won the match (of course) but Michaels made the match with his over-dramatic selling and gratuitous blade job. The night after SummerSlam, Michaels came out on RAW, buried Hogan and turned face again as if the whole thing never happened.
The Return of DX
At the end of 2005 Mr. McMahon came out on RAW to applaud Shawn Michaels’ efforts in orchestrating the Montreal Screwjob from eight years earlier. In reality it was a ploy by WWE to promote the new Bret Hart career retrospective DVD without Bret actually having to appear on WWE TV to do so, but it also served as the launching pad for the almost year-long angle between Michaels and McMahon.
As McMahon was out heralding his efforts for screwing Hart, Michaels came out and told him to let it go. Everyone else has already let it go; now it was time for Mr. McMahon to as well. That was all the ammunition needed for McMahon to start making Michaels’ life a living hell. He put him through handicap matches, screwjobs and even tried to get him to retire in an effort to break him. Michaels got some brief help from old partner Marty Jannetty but it only lasted a couple of weeks before Jannetty was gone again.
It all led to a big street fight at WrestleMania XXII between Michaels and McMahon. They put on the usual McMahon spotfest-crazy WrestleMania match that saw interference from Shane McMahon and five-man The Spirit Squad before Shawn ultimately won with an elbow drop off the top of a extra high ladder onto McMahon, who was covered by a garbage can and lying on a table. Boy that sounds a bit over-the-top when you actually write it out.
What seemed like a logical blow off to the months-long feud was actually only the first chapter. The next month at Backlash, McMahon booked himself and son Shane in a “tag†match against Michaels and God. The build-up to the match saw Vince and Shane put themselves in “humorous†situations involving religion as play on Michaels’ much-publicized Christianity. The payoff ultimately ended up being Shawn wrestling the McMahons in a handicap match while a bright light shone in his corner, representing his tag team partner.
Meanwhile another of Michaels’ old partners, Triple H, was also having problems with The McMahons in his route back to the WWE Championship. This led to an on-screen reunion for Michaels & Triple H under their old DeGeneration X banner. Instead of being hip, edgy and cool like they were eight years earlier, they were now over-the-top and a little cheesy. But they did move a lot of merchandise, and helped prolong each man’s career by working in tags night in and night out as opposed to working singles. The new DX continually buried The McMahons and The Spirit Squad through the summer of 2006, beating The Spirit Squad in 5-on-2 situations at both Vengeance and that summer’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. They beat The McMahons at SummerSlam and finally blew off the feud in September at Unforgiven when they beat Vince, Shane and The Big Show in a 3-on-2 handicap Hell in a Cell match.
The pair finally gained some legitimate competition when Randy Orton and Edge stepped up to the challenge. DX battled “Rated RKO†at Cyber Sunday, co-captained teams against each at the 2006 Survivor Series and met once again in a tag match New Year’s Revolution in January 2007. Unfortunately, Triple H tore his quad during the match and Michaels used his professionalism and years of experience to save the match from completely falling apart.
Triple H went out with surgery and Michaels was back on his own, but was also now in the WWE Title hunt.
Mr. WrestleMania
As WrestleMania XXIII approached, Michaels beat Orton and Edge in a triple threat match to become the number contender for John Cena’s WWE Championship. En route to WrestleMania Michaels and Cena beat Orton and Edge for the World Tag Team Championship, creating another twist in their babyface versus babyface rivalry. They teamed with each other against Undertaker & Batista (also opponents at WrestleMania) at No Way Out a month before WrestleMania. Once the big day came, Michaels and Cena got the show-closing main event spot and they didn’t disappoint in the least. The pair put on a WrestleMania new classic and easily earned their final match billing. The next night on RAW they lost the tag belts after competing in two tag team battle royals to The Hardy Boyz. The next week on a RAW taped from England, HBK and Cena once again stole the show when wrestled for 56 minutes before Michaels finally got the non-title victory. This was designed to show the fans that had turned on Cena that he could actually “go†in the ring, but also was a testament of Michaels’ ability to still carry the show if so needed.
Michaels, Cena, Orton and Edge all met in a WWE Championship match at Backlash (which Cena won) which transitioned into a one-on-one match between Michaels and Orton the next month at Judgment Day. During the build-up to the match, Michaels worked a concussion angle to put Orton over as a legit threat and set up an excuse to give Michaels some time off after the match was over.
He returned on the October 8 RAW to challenge Orton, who was now WWE Champion. The pair had Title matches at Cyber Sunday and Survivor Series, but Michaels couldn’t win the belt back. He then worked a feud with Mr. Kennedy leading into the Royal Rumble, but the rivalry ended up not going very far, as Michaels was just treading water until the company was ready to kick off something much bigger.
Meanwhile Ric Flair was on a Mr. McMahon mandated retirement tour that stated that Ric Flair would have to retire after the next singles match he lost. All eyes pointed to WrestleMania where it seemed obvious Flair would wrestle his final bout. Fans whipped themselves into a frenzy thinking who Flair’s last opponent should be. Older viewers hoped and wished for a long-time rival like Sting, Steamboat, Rhodes or Funk to help Flair end his journey. Others wanted a hot new heel like Mr. Kennedy or MVP to get the rub that comes from retiring Flair. But it was Shawn Michaels who was given the nod, much to many fans’ confusion and dismay.
The build-up on TV was constructed through Flair repeatedly asking Michaels to wrestle him and give him that one final great match he knew he had left in him. Meanwhile the pair worked as a tag team on TV so as not to turn either man heel. Michaels finally accepted and the pair had the epic “Old Yeller†promo that everyone knew they had in them in order to really sell the match.
As WrestleMania approached it became obvious that Flair-Michaels was the true main event of the show, despite what all the promotional flyers hyped. They put on probably the best match that Ric Flair could realistically have at this stage in his career. It was probably only a three-star wrestling match but five-stars on pure emotion and entertainment for the fans. And with five simple words, “I’m sorry. I love you.†Michaels kicked Flair’s head off with “Sweet Chin Music†and put an end to the greatest wrestling career or all time.
What spawned from Flair’s retirement was the greatest “shades of grey†angle the company had orchestrated in years. Michaels, conflicted over doing what was asked of him by Flair, now felt the wrath of Flair’s old protégé Batista. Batista felt Michaels was wrong in retiring Flair and should have laid down for him. It was a great story told between two characters whom both felt right in their actions and were still considered fan-favorites. The story got even more entangled when Chris Jericho, also a face, interjected himself between the two men and further stirred the pot. This three-way rivalry, which essentially branched out of Flair’s retirement, led to a Michaels-Batista match at Backlash with Jericho officiating, a Michaels-Jericho singles match the following month at Judgment Day and a Batista-Michaels stretcher match at One Night Stand. By this point Jericho had officially turned heel and laid out Michaels in a vicious attack, which transitioned the rivalry into more of a blood feud between Jericho and Michaels. HBK began working an eye injury to add heat to the feud, which included another Jericho-Michaels match at The Great American Bash in July 2008.
As I sit here writing this, Michaels and Jericho are still embroiled in their angle as all eyes lead to a probable blow off at Unforgiven inside a steel cage.
The man
Shawn Michaels the wrestler has nothing left to prove. He has worked his way up through the territories, through the tag team division and up through the singles ranks to become one of the most prolific wrestlers in history. He carried the WWF on his back during the lean year of 1996, but became an arrogant, drug-fueled prick in the process. By pretty much all accounts he whined, cried, threw tantrums and kept his friends close and his enemies even closer.
He was the focal point behind the biggest screwjob in professional wrestling history, and became the catalyst for the swearing, lewd behavior and T & A that populated the WWF’s most profitable era.
Then he broke his back and went away for a while. When he finally made his grand, unexpected return he was a changed man, for the better. The drugs were gone. The bad attitude was gone. The bad back was gone. The constant pressure to be the absolute best and carry the company was gone. In their place was a new, reborn Shawn Michaels who didn’t take things quite as seriously and allowed others to help him carry the company’s workload. In their place was a man who, at the drop of a hat, could still put on the best match of the card any given night with virtually any given opponent.
He has earned his reputation as one of the most gifted men to ever put on a pair of wrestling boots. He can wrestle, he can brawl, he can take to the air and he can wrestle on the mat, catch-as-catch-can and submission style. When you look at the contemporaries from Shawn’s era, he and Bret Hart stand above the rest in terms of wrestling ability and God-given talent to carry a match to fantastic levels. What sets him just above his most storied opponent is his promo ability. In the Vince McMahon-run world of professional wrestling, you are only as good to him as your last interview.
Forget Lex Luger, Michaels was and is the total package. When it comes to a complete combination of wrestling skill, brawling and cheating, crowd psychology, the ability to cut effective and entertaining promos, and just plain overall talent, Michaels is just below one man, who you will all read about in a few days. Just like the man he retired, Michaels was a company leader, a faction centerpiece and the guy you could love to hate one minute, and then just love the next. When Michaels pinned Flair back in April it truly was a passing of the torch of who was really The Man. The question is, who will Michaels pass that torch to when that inevitable day comes in the not-too-distant future? For the time being, I don’t see anyone on the horizon that will be able to carry that burden.
The entire Top 100 Wrestlers feature can be found here.
