Shawn Michaels

Biography

Shawn Michaels had a strong desire to become a wrestler, so when he was 18 years old he started training under the guidance of Jose Lothario. Two weeks after Shawn's nineteenth birthday, Shawn was ready for his first match in the Mid-South Wrestling organisation. The match came underway, and even though Shawn lost to Art Cruz, he showed what he is capable of. Shawn wrestled to a time limit draw in his next match, before he won his third match.
After six months in Mid-South Shawn moved on to Kansas City, which was run by Bob Geigel, here Shawn met Marty Jannetty. Three months later Shawn started to work in the Texas All-Star Wrestling, where he started teaming with Paul Diamond, together they were known as the American Force. They won the Texas All-Star Tag Team Title twice and had a wild feud with the Masked Hoods.

In 1986 Shawn started teaming with Marty Jannetty and together they were known as the Midnight Rockers. The team was an instant success, winning the NWA Central States Tag Team Title, but they were only able to hold on to it for a week, winning and loosing it to Bart and Brad Batten.

In the end of 1986 the Midnight Rockers joined the American Wrestling Association, where they won the AWA World Tag Team Title. In the AWA they got a lot of TV time, which made the WWF interested in them, they were at asked to come to a TV taping, but they had too much fun at nightclub, which got them fired the next day.

The Midnight Rockers continued their success in the AWA, where they won the Southern Tag Team Title twice, they feuded with the RPMs for the title. When Shawn and Marty won the AWA World Tag Team Title for a second time the WWF got interested again, and this time the Midnight Rockers behaved for a while.

Together with Marty Jannetty, Shawn Michaels entered the WWF now as the Rockers in 1988, a duo which quickly became a success with the fans, because of their high flying abilities. But at that time the WWF concentrated its tag team division on the heavyweights, with the Hart Foundation and Demolition as its cornerstones.

But that didn't stop the Rockers from trying, they took on all comers and even though they lost many of their feuds to the established heavyweight teams, they still captured the hearts of the fans. On of their best feuds in the first year in the WWF was with the Rougeau Brothers, which showed two of the best technical teams going at it.

In 1990 the Rockers started feuding with Power & Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma), at Summer Slam Hercules used his chain to take out Shawn's knee. In 1990 the Rockers also had a match with the Hart Foundation for the WWF Tag Team Title, the Rockers won the match, but since the top rope broke during the match the title change wasn't acknowledged by the WWF, even though they have talked about it on TV in 1997.

The Rockers and the Orient Express then started feuding, which ended at Royal Rumble 1991 with a victory to the Rockers. After the loss at Survivor Series, Shawn wasn't happy he blamed it on Marty, and said that he carried the team.

The two then agreed to meet at the Barber Shop in early 1992, an interview segment hosted by Brutus Beefcake, at first it looked like the two would settle their differences and start teaming again, but instead Shawn attacked Marty and threw him through a window, which ended the Rockers relationship.

Shawn took Sensational Sherri as his valet, and stated that he was "The Sexiest Man Alive" and he was "God's Gift To Women". Shawn's new attitude quickly sent him into the title picture, he had some great matches the during spring and summer with Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Title, but failed to come out on top.

Before Summer Slam 1992 Shawn and "The Model" Rick Martel had a feud about who should have Sherri as a valet, the feud ended at Summer Slam, where they fought to a double count-out and Sherri got soaked. At Summer Slam the British Bulldog won the Intercontinental Title from Bret Hart, and Shawn set his sight on a title shot more.

The match took place on the last instalment of Saturday Night's Main Event on October 27, 1992. In one of the best matches in 1992 Shawn came out on top and was the new Intercontinental Champion. With the gold around his waist, Shawn became greedy and challenged World Champion Bret Hart for his title, Shawn didn't win the match, but the match set the standard for the feud with Bret Hart during 1995 to 1997.

But Shawn still had the Intercontinental belt this lured Marty Jannetty back to the WWF for revenge. Marty wanted to crush a mirror on Shawn's head, but Shawn heaved Sherri in front of him, and she took the whole blow, Shawn wisely ran out of the ring, and thereby dropped Sherri as his valet. The incident meant that Sherri wanted revenge on Shawn, but Shawn still came out on top of the confrontation with Marty at the Royal Rumble, who had Sherri in his corner.

The next contender for the IC Title was Tatanka, who could pin Shawn in non-title and tag team matches, but when it was for the gold, Shawn wisely enough stayed out of the ring, so Tatanka couldn't win the gold. The feud with Tatanka and Sherri ended when Shawn brought out Luna Vachon as his valet for WrestleMania IX, she took out Sherri.

On May 17, 1993, during Monday Night Raw, Shawn was being interviewed. In the interview, he said he could beat anyone anyplace, anytime. Just when he said that, Marty Jannetty came into the ring and challenged Shawn. Shawn of course had to accept the challenge. Later on that night, the match took place and Marty defeated Shawn to become the Intercontinental Champion.

Shawn had an ace up his sleeve though, on June 6 he demanded a rematch and got it, this time he brought out a bodyguard, a seven foot, 300 lbs monster, and he made sure that Shawn defeated Marty to regain the WWF Intercontinental Title for the second time. Shawn's bodyguard got a name at King of the Ring 1993, and it was Diesel (Kevin Nash), who also became a good friend of Shawn.

Mr. Perfect was the next contender for the IC title, but again with the help of Diesel, Shawn still had the belt. In the start of September, Shawn was stripped of the Intercontinental Title, because he didn't defend it within the 30 day limit. The real reason of the stripping was because of contractual problems with the WWF.