Shawn Michaels

The Rockers

Shawn Michaels grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and trained under Jose Lothario. In the late 1980s he and Marty Jannetty formed The Rockers, a fast, acrobatic tag team. When Michaels threw Jannetty through a barbershop window set on a 1992 talk segment, he began his singles career as the cocky Heartbreak Kid.

The Iron Man match and the top of the card

Michaels' ladder match against Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X in 1994 showed what the gimmick match could be on a big stage. At WrestleMania XII in 1996 he beat Bret Hart in a 60-minute Iron Man match that went to sudden-death overtime, winning the WWF Championship. He was also on the other side of the Montreal Screwjob against Hart in 1997, the most argued-about finish in wrestling history.

Injury and a comeback

A serious back injury suffered in a 1998 casket match with The Undertaker forced him to stop after WrestleMania XIV. Four years later he returned at SummerSlam 2002 in an unsanctioned street fight with Triple H, and the second half of his career was arguably even better than the first.

His matches with Kurt Angle, Ric Flair, John Cena and The Undertaker earned him the nickname Mr. WrestleMania. He retired after losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010, a match in which his career was on the line.

Shaping NXT

Michaels went into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011. He opened a wrestling school in San Antonio in the late 1990s, and in later years he became a trainer and producer at the WWE Performance Center. Since 2022 he has led the creative side of NXT, the brand where many of WWE's future stars learn to work on television. Wrestlers often say his notes on pacing and storytelling are some of the most useful they get.

Michaels' career is also a lesson in how wrestling rewards reinvention. The flashy young star of the 1990s and the more mature performer of the 2000s were quite different, yet both were among the best in the world. His willingness to take big bumps, to sell for opponents and to build drama slowly made almost every partner look better. Many current WWE and NXT stars name him as the coach who taught them how to tell a story in the ring.

← The UndertakerBret Hart →