American retired professional wrestler and actor Shawn Michaels was born Michael Shawn Hickenbottom
on July 22, 1965, in Chandler, Arizona. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in
history, he is known by the nicknames "Heartbreak Kid", "The Showstopper", and "Mr. WrestleMania".
Shawn Michaels wrestled in the WWE for nearly 30 years before retiring in 2010. He has won
numerous titles, including a record eleven Slammy Awards, and he was four time world champion.
Michaels was raised in a military family of Richard and Carol Hickenbottom and spent a
brief part of his early years in Reading, Berkshire, England. As a child, he disliked
the name Michael, so his family and friends just called him Shawn. Ever since, he has been referred
to as Shawn. He is the youngest of four children, Randy, Scott, and Shari are his older siblings.
Additionally, Hickenbottom moved around frequently since his father was in the military.
From the age of twelve, Michaels knew he wanted to become a professional wrestler.
His athleticism began at the age of six when he started attended
college at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas,
but decided college wasn't for him and he pursued his dream of becoming a professional wrestler.
Shawn Michaels was first married to Theresa Wood. They married way back
in 1988 but soon ended their relationship in 1994 in an amicably settled divorce.
He then married Rebecca Curci, a former WCW Nitro Girl known as Whisper, in March 1999.
Their son, Cameron Kade, was born in 2000, and a daughter, Cheyenne, born in 2004 followed.
Hickenbottom trained under a Mexican professional wrestler named Jose Lothario and made his debut as
a professional wrestler with the National Wrestling Alliance in 1984. After that,
he had short stints with Texas All-Star Wrestling before making his national debut
in the American Wrestling Association at the age of 20 as Shawn Michaels.
In 1987, he was signed by World Wrestling Federation
along with his partner Marty Jannetty, formed a group called The Midnight Rockers,
but was fired after only two weeks due to misunderstanding.
One year later, he was rehired by the company and the Rockers made their debut at a live
event in 1988. The tag team split in 1991 when Michales turned heel by super-kicking
his partner. Michaels went on to become a prominent villain of the early to mid-1990s.
During his stint wrestling within the WWF/WWE, Michaels headlined major pay-per-view events
between 1989 and 2010, including five main events for WrestleMania. At the suggestion
of 'Mr. Perfect' Curt Henning, Michaels adopted the nickname 'The Heartbreak Kid' and with the
new name came a vain, cocky persona. Over the span of his wrestling career, Michaels perfected
twelve signature moves: Arm trap crossface, Figure-four leglock, Skin the cat, to name a few.
Michaels was the co-founder and original leader of the successful stable, D-Generation X.
After winning the AWA World Tag Team Championship twice as The Rockers, Michaels twice challenged
for the WWF Championship and won his first Intercontinental Championship, heralding his
arrival as one of the industry's premier singles stars. Michaels is a four-time world champion,
having held the WWF Championship three times and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship once.
He is also a two-time Royal Rumble winner, the first WWF Grand Slam Champion
and the fourth WWF Triple Crown Champion, as well as a two time WWE Hall of Fame inductee.
Michaels won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Match of the Year" reader vote a record eleven times,
and his match against John Cena on April 23, 2007,
was ranked by WWE as the best match ever aired on the company's flagship Raw program.
Michaels wrestled consistently for WWE until a back injury forced his first retirement in 1998.
He performed in non-wrestling roles for the next two years and returned
to the ring for a match in his own Texas Wrestling Academy (TWA) in 2000.
Michaels resumed his wrestling career with WWE in 2002 and retired ceremoniously in 2010,
before being assigned as a trainer in 2016. He returned for a final match in 2018.
As of 2021, Shawn Michaels has an estimated net worth of $18 Million. He has earned the
majority of his wealth from his nearly 30 years career as a professional wrestler.
He is ambidextrous, and had trouble differentiating between right and left.
Hickenbottom became a born-again Christian on April 24, 2002. He was raised a Catholic,
but became a non-denominational Christian because of his wife.
He is real life best friends with the CEO of WWE and his former partner in DX Triple H.
In 1987, Hickenbottom developed a pattern of "heavy" substance abuse, which eventually
alienated some of his closest friends. He contemplated suicide in the late 1980s,
and suggested that psychological intervention was "probably sorely needed" by the late 1990s.
His wife Rebecca observed: "There was something in him that he despised,
and he was self-destructing." Hickenbottom's fear that he was going to negatively influence
his young son, prompted him to abandon his previous lifestyle.