♪ Sexy boy ♪
♪ I'm not your boy toy ♪
♪ Boy toy ♪
["Sexy Boy (Shawn Michaels)" by Shawn Michaels playing]
- ♪ I think I'm cute ♪
♪ I know I'm sexy ♪
- When I was around seven, eight years old,
I saw WWE and I saw a guy
by the name of Shawn Michaels
and something about his charisma,
something about the way he carried himself,
something about the way he dressed,
which, you think, I'm seven, eight years old.
I'd never seen something like that before.
[chuckles]
And the way he flew around the ring.
- From high above!
- I knew the minute I saw Shawn Michaels,
that I have to do that.
I have to do that.
Shawn's outfits were not like
anything I'd ever seen before.
[upbeat rock music]
That's freakin' cool right there.
♪ ♪
I loved it.
And he was just so colorful
and so flamboyant and so different.
He stood out. And I think that was
the main thing that drew me in
was the energy.
Just the way he presented himself.
That pitbull-like mentality,
that little bulldog-like mentality of that
never backing down, never giving up.
The constant underdog.
♪ ♪
I know many times I danced around my house to "Sexy Boy."
So many times.
My parents are probably sick of the song "Sexy Boy" by now.
["Sexy Boy (Shawn Michaels)" by Shawn Michaels playing]
♪ ♪
I owe a lot of my dancing moves today
to "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels.
I think that's the only dance move I got
is, like, the little, like,
the little "Sexy Boy" dance.
I think that's all I have now.
That's because of Shawn
so I'll have to thank him for that later.
'Cause I'm "The Showstopper."
The main event, the icon of the kids.
♪ ♪
My mom actually full on painted
Shawn Michaels on my wall
of my room when I was growing up.
So every day, I'd wake up
and I'd see Shawn Michaels' face.
And she did a fantastic job.
She killed it.
She would make these outfits and paint them up
to where I'd be walking around SummerSlam 1996
and different people would take pictures.
Like, "Can we take a picture of your son?"
'Cause I was full on Shawn Michaels.
♪ ♪
I was Shawn Michaels for many Halloweens.
If you're not a wrestling fan,
and you see a little eight-year-old boy
walking around dressed like that,
you definitely think, "Wow.
"These parents let this little eight-year-old boy
walk around like a male stripper."
[laughs]
- The boyhood dream
has come true for Shawn Michaels.
♪ ♪
- WrestleMania XII,
when Shawn Michaels
beat Bret Hart in the Iron Man match,
for me, being a chubby little eight-year-old kid,
seeing that guy
go out there and defy those odds,
it was inspiring.
That is the defining moment of my childhood.
And luckily enough for me,
I got to kind of replicate that
at TakeOver: New York
where I finally won the NXT Championship.
- The dream of a boy becomes a reality for the man.
- I had a little homage to Shawn on my gear.
The little Easter egg here
is this was actually
similar to the fabric
Shawn Michaels used at WrestleMania XII.
With the gold and the silver,
so little shout-out to Shawn in that one.
I believe there's a picture afterwards
where it's me and my whole family,
with me with the title and Shawn.
It's such an interesting picture
because it's basically my whole family
and just Shawn like a proud little--
[chuckles] proud guy.
[heartfelt music]
- Let's take a look at TakeOver.
You'll watch it and I'll skull ya.
- Okay. [chuckles]
A skull session is when you sit down
and watch film and kinda dissect it.
- Maybe should've spaced it out a little more.
- It's very, very intimidating 'cause here's this guy
you look up to your entire life
and now he's gonna watch your work.
And he's gonna dissect it.
He's gonna tell you what you did right
and what you did wrong.
- Very good adjustment on him.
The ladder is not landing in the best of spots.
- As someone who doesn't like watching his own matches,
now to watch them with your childhood hero.
It's a nightmare.
But Shawn's great and
he only made a lot of us better.
[indistinct conversation]
He used to be my childhood hero
and now he's kinda just my friend.
So did you have any say in this?
Like, did you put input in on your gear?
- I wanted to do chaps.
I wanted to do some kind of hat.
- That's the crazy thing about life is how it worked out.
And where we're at now.
It's just, it's wild. A dream come true.
- That was freakin' good. - Cool.
I can safely say
if it wasn't for Shawn Michaels
I probably wouldn't be where I am at today.
Who knows, if I didn't see Shawn Michaels
on the screen that day,
there may not be a Johnny Gargano.
Like, it's as simple as that.
You just don't know.
♪ ♪