Shawn Michaels

Background

Shawn Micheals is one of the most dynamic wrestlers of his time, having won the championship four times in the course of his impressive career. The wrestler was born Micheal Shawn Hickenbottom on July 22, 1965, in Chandler, Arizona. His zodiac sign is Leo, while his heritage is American. His parents are Carol and Richard Hickenbottom. Micheals has three older siblings.

Micheals was 19 years old when he began training under Jose Lothario, a Mexican professional wrestler. He soon made his debut with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1984, fighting in the Mid-South Wrestling territory. Micheals’s performance created a good impression on many professional wrestlers such as Terry Taylor. In 1985, he participated in the World Class Championship Wrestlers, an N.W.A. territory, and later qualified for another of the Alliance’s categories: Central States Wrestling. He moved to Kansas City for the latter. In his first Tag Team Championship, he partnered with Marty Jannetty and beat the Batten Twins. He returned to Texas later that same year and began wrestling for Texas All-Star Wrestling. From 1986, he wrestled for the American Wrestling Association. He teamed with Jannetty once more, forming The Midnight Rockers. The team won the A.W.A. World Tag Team Championship and a year later got signed to the World Wrestling Entertainment. Micheals made his W.W.E. debut as part of The Midnight Rockers, participating in a live event. Micheals’s team was renamed The Rockers soon after. They went on to win several tag team championships before splitting in 1991. Micheals came to be known as The Boy Toy.

He began participating in pay-per-view single matches for W.W.E’s WrestleMania, starting with the event’s eighth edition. He defeated Tio Santana in his first solo match. Micheals had a short streak of losses but managed to win the Intercontinental Championship from the British Bulldog in 1992. He became rivals with Razor Ramon, and a 1994 match between the two was voted Match of the Year by fans. In 1995, Micheals became the leader of a background team called The Kliq. A year later, he won the W.W.E. Championship for the first time, defeating Bert Hart for the title. He went on to win it two more times. He also formed a team with three other wrestlers called D-Generation X in 1997. A year later, Micheals injured his back during a match, which forced him to retire to recover. He returned in 2002, after spending his retirement training wrestlers. He won many tag team championships for the next eight years before retiring for good in 2010. Six years later, he was appointed trainer and began helping potential wrestlers with their careers. In 2017, Micheals made his film debut with “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone,” a comedy-drama movie.

The former wrestler was married to Theresa Wood from 1988 to 1994. He later married Rebecca Curci. They have two children.