Michael Shawn Hickenbottom was born in Chandler, Arizona, on July 22, 1965. He is better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American retired professional wrestler. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is known by the nicknames "The Heartbreak Kid" (often abbreviated as HBK), "The Showstopper", "The Boy Toy" and "Mr. WrestleMania". In WWF/WWE, Michaels headlined the company's flagship annual event, WrestleMania, five times. He was the co-founder and original leader of the successful stable, D-Generation X.

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 (and the first man to win the match as the first entrant), 5 time WWF/WWE Tag Team Champion, 3 time WWF Intercontinental Champion as well as a two-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee (2011 as a singles wrestler and 2019 as part of D-Generation X). Michaels has been a participant in several first installments of a number of WWE's signature gimmick matches--namely the first Hell in a Cell at the Badd Blood: In Your House, the first Ladder match during a taping of WWF Wrestling Challenge, Elimination Chamber at the 2002 Survivor Series, and both the inaugural (as part of The Rockers tag team) and first televised (at WrestleMania XII) Iron Man matches.

Hickenbottom began to train under Mexican professional wrestler Jose Lothario. During his training, Hickenbottom adopted the ring name, "Shawn Michaels". After his training with Lothario, he debuted as Shawn Michaels with the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Mid-South Wrestling territory on October 16, 1984. Hickenbottom is ambidextrous, using his left hand for writing and his right hand for drawing. As a wrestler, he typically kicked with his right leg when performing his finishing move, but used either arm for his signature elbow drop. He had trouble differentiating between right and left.

Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels first met and struck up a friendship when they both competed for the National Wrestling Alliance's Central States Wrestling territory in Kansas City in 1985. Initially they would only travel together since Jannetty was either teaming with Tommy Rogers as the Uptown Boys, or he was teaming with Central States booker ”Bulldog” Bob Brown. After the team of Jannetty and Brown broke up Michaels and Jannetty started teaming up, although they were not given a team name.

In early 1986, both Jannetty and Michaels were signed by the American Wrestling Association (AWA). The two were paired up by the AWA bookers. The two of them came up with the name The Midnight Rockers inspired by Judas Priest’s ”Living after Midnight”. AWA owner Verne Gagne did not seem to understand the idea, but let the team go ahead and use the name. The two started wearing identical outfits and develop the ”Fun loving pretty boy” gimmick they would be known for throughout their time together.

The team made their first WWF appearance in 1987 only five days after dropping the AWA Tag Team titles. The team was soon fired from the WWF because of excessive partying and not enough focusing on their in ring work.

In 1988 Jannetty and Michaels were contacted by WWF owner Vince McMahon informing them that he was willing to bring them back if they were able to be more professional this time around. By the end of May the team was working for the WWF under the shortened name The Rockers. They officially made their television debut on the June 18, 1988 edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling. During this run, the team was often called "tag team specialists" by commentator Gorilla Monsoon.

The Rockers were a top team in the WWF's golden era going up against top teams. However by current WWE records, The Rockers never officially held the WWF Tag Team Championship. On October 30, 1990, Jannetty and Michaels did actually defeat the reigning champions The Hart Foundation in a two out of three falls match in Fort Wayne, Indiana to seemingly win the titles. The WWE (WWF) has never officially recognized The Rockers' champion status. During the match, the top rope broke by accident making the match a disjointed affair that would require serious clean up before it could be shown on TV. The Rockers defended the WWF Tag Team title against Power and Glory (Paul Roma and Hercules) on November 3, 1990. Shortly after November 3, it was decided to not air the title change and that the title would revert to the Hart Foundation. In his book, Michaels claims that the Hart Foundation had politicked to keep the title. Michaels claim is contradicted by other claims that the WWF had actually fired Jim Neidhart forcing the title change, but after the match, the two sides came to an agreement, and Neidhart was brought back. The Rockers were never officially credited with a title win, but footage from the match was shown prior to Jannetty's WWF return in 1995.

After teaming together since 1985, The Rockers split up in December 1991 after backstage disputes. The exact nature of the dispute has not been confirmed by the WWF other than it was a monetary issue that led to Jannetty quitting the WWF on behalf of both Rockers. According to Michaels's book, Jannetty had claimed that World Championship Wrestling were willing to give them a very high guaranteed contract but when Michaels inquired about it, it turned out to be an exaggeration. Jannetty disputes this saying that Michaels was the driving force suggesting to quit the WWF, but had Jannetty do the phone call to ask for a release from their contract. When Vince McMahon actually agreed to let them go Michaels appeared shocked according to him, and later went to McMahon unbeknownst to him to explain this was Jannetty's idea only and that he had no intention of leaving the WWF himself. After cooler heads prevailed it was decided that The Rockers should split with Michaels turning heel to feud with Jannetty. Jannetty was not happy about the team splitting, while Michaels could not wait to work as a singles wrestler.

On screen there was no mention of what went on backstage, instead Michaels and Jannetty started to show signs of dissension. During a singles match between Michaels and Ric Flair, Jannetty rolled Shawn into the ring to get pinned. Michaels took this as Jannetty costing him the match instead of helping out. At the 1991 Survivor Series Jannetty caused Michaels to be eliminated by accidentally slamming one of the Nasty Boys into him after which The Rockers argued.

After the buildup, The Rockers wrestled one last match on television, a title shot at The Legion of Doom. The Rockers were unsuccessful following another miscommunication. Michaels launched Jannetty into Animal for a double-team move where Michaels would dropkick Jannetty's back, knocking him on top of Animal. Instead, Animal turned at the last second and Michaels dropkicked him. Animal fell on top of Jannetty and got the 3-count. Following the match, Michaels was irate at Jannetty for getting pinned while Jannetty tried to calm him down. After pushing away an attempted hug by Jannetty, Michaels slapped Jannetty in the face. Jannetty refused to fight back. Michaels slapped Jannetty again, causing Jannetty to lunge at Michaels but stopped short of attacking him and stormed out the ring. Michaels took his wristbands off and stared at the booing crowd.

They got into a legit fight in May 1991 that was instigated by Roddy Piper. The incident according to Michaels happened as the boys were intoxicated, Piper, also drunk, started talking about how Michaels would be an even greater competitor in the business, that he would even be the future of the business. Piper stated, that "Michaels had had a great future in the business and that Michaels had all this talent". Jannetty, believing that to be an insult to him challenged Michaels to a fight to which Michaels declined. Jannetty, however, would not take no for an answer and attacked Michaels which started the fight. Piper pulled the two apart, and Michaels passed out right after, and wouldn't come to until the next day. The story, told by Jannetty, reveals that police were called to the scene and arrested Jannetty. As they were arresting him though, Randy Savage stepped in and prevented him from going to jail by telling the police that it was all part of a storyline even though in reality he did not know the cause of the fight in the first place. Michaels almost quit the WWF over the incident, and Jannetty believes that this incident was one of the factors in the WWF's decision to break up The Rockers.

The final split came on Brutus Beefcake’s "Barbershop" (taped on December 2, 1991, and aired on January 11, 1992) where Beefcake interviewed The Rockers about their recent problems. After seemingly working out their problems, Michaels suddenly superkicked Jannetty, before sending him through the glass window of the barbershop set. Michaels also proceeded to rip a full page picture of the group in half, signifying the separation. The turn had the desired effect of making Michaels a hated heel especially since the WWF agreed to let Jannetty "blade" (make himself bleed) after being thrown through the window, something which was not very prevalent in 1991. It also prevented Jannetty from entering the Royal Rumble in 1992.

Michaels and Jannetty were supposed to feud following the breakup, but Jannetty was suspended by the WWF, due to an incident outside a Tampa night club that occurred on January 25, 1992. Jannetty was arrested in Tampa, Florida, after an altercation with police. His female companion, a 19-year-old named Angela Ialacci, was arrested for trying to use a fake ID. Jannetty assaulted the officer performing the arrest, which led to his arrest. They were found to be in possession of less than a gram of cocaine. Jannetty was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and resisting arrest with force. He was indefinitely suspended by the WWF following the incident and his singles matches that were taped in January did not air. In March 1992, he was sentenced to 6 months of house arrest and was released by the WWF shortly after. Michaels ended up facing El Matador in the opening match of WrestleMania VIII.

While Jannetty was away, Michaels began developing his “Heartbreak Kid” heel persona. At the suggestion of Curt Hennig, Michaels adopted the nickname "The Heartbreak Kid". Along with his new name came a new gimmick as a vain, cocky villain. He was put together with mirror-carrying manager, Sensational Sherri, who according to the storyline had become infatuated with him. Sherri even sang the first version of his new theme music, "Sexy Boy". Michaels also won the WWF Intercontinental Championship from The British Bulldog. Shortly after his house arrest concluded, Jannetty re-signed with the WWF. On the October 31, 1992 (taped October 12, 1992 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) edition of WWF Superstars, Michaels was in the ring posing before a match, admiring himself in a mirror that Sherri brought to the ring. To everyone's surprise, Jannetty came down through the crowd and entered the ring. Jannetty attacked Michaels, grabbed the mirror and tried to hit Michaels with it. But Michaels pulled Sherri in front of himself so that she got hit with the mirror instead. This led to Sherri being hospitalized from the glass shards when Sherri returned from her “recovery” she turned on Michaels and actually backed Jannetty in his unsuccessful attempt to take the Intercontinental title away from Michaels at the 1993 Royal Rumble. During the match, Michaels rolled outside the ring looking to Sherri for comfort. Sherri slapped Michaels, turning babyface and aligning with Jannetty. Jannetty lost after interference by Sherri backfired. After the match, Sherri was being interviewed backstage when Michaels confronted her. Jannetty attacked Michaels during the confrontation. They had to be separated by referees and officials, indicating that their feud would continue and perhaps lead to a rematch at WrestleMania IX. But Jannetty was released again after rumors circulated stating that he had been under the influence of alcohol or other drugs during the match, leading to its comparably low quality. After the loss, Jannetty was fired by the WWF. However, Mr. Perfect went to Vince & said Shawn deserved some of the blame for the match, and Jannetty was brought back. Jannetty to this day denies having been intoxicated at the event, but explains having been rather tired because of lack of sleep, and that the rumor had been started by Shawn Michaels to escape blame for the match being disappointing.

Jannetty returned once again on May 17, 1993, challenging Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship after appearing out of the crowd on Monday Night RAW when Michaels was being interviewed by Vince McMahon and telling the audience that he would defend his title against anyone at any time. Though Michaels initially tried to back out of fighting Jannetty, he eventually put his title on the line against his former partner. Jannetty won the title that night, thanks to Mr. Perfect preventing Michaels from heading to the locker room where he would be counted out but keep his title. Jannetty had only one title defense on TV, defeating Bam Bam Bigelow by countout on the May 31, 1993 edition of Monday Night RAW. He lost the title back to Michaels on June 6, 1993 in a non-televised match in Albany, New York due to interference from Michaels' debuting bodyguard Diesel. After losing the title the Michaels/Jannetty feud petered out with Michaels focusing on other title challengers while Jannetty wrestled on the mid-card until leaving the WWF in the Spring of 1994.

On August 28, Michaels and Diesel won the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu). In September 1993, Michaels was suspended for testing positive for steroids.

Michaels returned to the ring as a fan favorite in May 1995 and defeated Jeff Jarrett to win his third Intercontinental Championship on July 23 at In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks. In October 1995, Michaels was the victim of a legit assault outside a bar in Syracuse, New York. Due to not being able to compete, Michaels was forced to forfeit the Intercontinental Championship to his original opponent Dean Douglas on October 22 at In Your House: Great White North.

Around this time, Michaels became the leader of a backstage group known as The Kliq (composed of Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H). Critics perceive the group to have sufficient clout with WWF owner Vince McMahon, becoming dominant wrestling figures in the WWF for several years in the mid-1990s, causing friction with other wrestlers. Michaels disputes the perception, saying that McMahon pushed only deserving wrestlers.

After teasing retirement, Michaels returned to the WWF at the Royal Rumble match on January 21, 1996, winning for the second year in a row to receive a WWF Championship match in the main event at WrestleMania XII. Around this time, Jose Lothario became Michaels's on-screen manager. At WrestleMania XII on March 31, Michaels defeated WWF Champion Bret Hart in the overtime of their sixty-minute Iron Man match, which had ended in a scoreless tie.

In 1996, Hickenbottom posed for a non-nude layout in Playgirl magazine. Only after he posed did he discover Playgirl has a mostly homosexual readership, for which some of his fellow wrestlers teased him.

On May 19, Michaels and his fellow Kliq members were involved in the incident known as "Curtain Call". Diesel and Razor Ramon were about to leave WWF to company rival WCW. After Michaels won a match against Diesel, Ramon and Hunter Hearst Helmsley came to the ring and joined Michaels and Diesel in a group-hug. As Diesel and Helmsley were seen as villains at the time, in contrast to Michaels and Ramon, this constituted a breach of "kayfabe", as acting out of character, which was rare and controversial at the time. As WCW gained momentum due to the signings of Hall and Nash, Michaels held the championship for most of the year. At Survivor Series on November 17, Michaels lost the WWF Championship to Sycho Sid but recaptured the title on January 19, 1997, at Royal Rumble.

On a special episode of Raw dubbed Thursday Raw Thursday, Michaels vacated the WWF Championship. He explained to fans that he was informed by doctors that he had suffered a knee injury. Michaels contemplated thoughts of retirement and stated that he "had to find his smile again", which he had "lost" somewhere down the line. After consulting with Dr. James Andrews, who concluded that he did not need surgery, Michaels underwent four weeks of physical therapy and returned to in-ring action a few months later, briefly teaming with Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the WWF Tag Team Championship.

By the spring of 1997, the real-life backstage conflict between Michaels and Hart was reaching its height. Both men were going out on television and frequently making personal, true to heart remarks about one another. Michaels briefly left the WWF in June of that year after a real backstage fight with Hart, just hours before a Raw Is War show, which allegedly resulted from Michaels making an on-air remark, known as the "Sunny Days" comment, implying that Hart (who was married at the time) was having an affair with Tammy Sytch, a manager and valet who was signed to the WWF as Sunny. Michaels and Austin were still WWF Tag Team Champions at the time during an ongoing feud with the Hart Foundation and a tournament was made to decide new tag team champions.

At In Your House: Badd Blood on October 5, Michaels defeated Undertaker in the first Hell in a Cell match, during which Michaels fell off the side of the 5-metre (15 ft) high structure through a table.

In the fall, Michaels joined forces with real-life friend Hunter Hearst Helmsley (later known as Triple H), Helmsley's then real-life girlfriend Chyna, and Rick Rude to form the stable D-Generation X (DX). Michaels continued his rivalry with Bret Hart and his reformed Hart Foundation, which was now a pro-Canada stable. Michaels taunted the group and Canada by engaging in acts such as blowing his nose with and humping the Canadian Flag. Michaels's feud with the Hart Foundation culminated in a championship match at Survivor Series on November 9 against Hart. Michaels came out of this match, dubbed by fans the "Montreal Screwjob", as the WWF Champion.

On January 18, 1998, at the Royal Rumble, in a casket match against The Undertaker, Michaels took a back body drop to the outside of the ring and hit his lower back on the casket, causing him to herniate two discs and crush one completely. Michaels went on to win the match but the injury rendered him unable to compete on the following month's No Way Out of Texas: In Your House as advertised, and forced him into retirement a night after losing the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin on March 29 at WrestleMania XIV.

Coming out of retirement in 2002, Michaels was involved in a fued with Triple H. At Survivor Series on November 17, Michaels won the World Heavyweight Championship from Triple H in the first Elimination Chamber match. On December 15 at Armageddon, he lost the championship to Triple H in a Three Stages of Hell match, a series of three matches in which wrestlers attempt to win the majority of matches.

On the SmackDown! shown on March 10, 2005 (taped two days earlier) Kurt Angle announced that as part of his preparation for his WrestleMania 21 match against Michaels' he would face Michaels old partner Jannetty on the following SmackDown. The following Monday, March 14, 2005, Jannetty made a surprise appearance on WWE Raw and, for one night, The Rockers reunited to take on La Résistance (Sylvain Grenier and Rob Conway). Jannetty got the win with the "Rocker Dropper" after Michaels hit ”Sweet Chin Music” on Grenier. Three days later on SmackDown Angle had promised to make Jannetty ”tap out”, just like he was going to make Michaels tap out at WrestleMania 21. Angle made good on his promise and forced Jannetty to submit to his ankle lock submission hold, but only after a nearly twenty-minute match and an impressive showing for Jannetty which saw him nearly pin the Olympic champion. To send a message to Michaels, Angle also humiliated his former manager, Sensational Sherri, when he applied the ankle lock hold on her. At WrestleMania on April 3, Angle defeated Michaels by submission, again with an ankle lock. After two good showings on Raw and SmackDown to convince WWE that he was still a very talented performer, they signed Jannetty to a contract. However, due to a domestic incident, Jannetty was arrested and thus unable to meet the commitments of his WWE contract. This led to his released on July 6, 2005.

On the February 20, 2006 episode of Raw, Shawn Michaels was pitted against four of the five members of the Spirit Squad in their in-ring debut. After he had used Sweet Chin Music, Michaels was attacked by all five members until an unknown man came storming into the ring to defend Michaels. During the melee, it was revealed that it was Marty Jannetty coming to defend his former tag team partner. Later on Raw, Vince McMahon came out to mention that he would offer Jannetty a full-time contract. McMahon then added a stipulation that Jannetty had to join Mr. McMahon's "Kiss My Ass Club" the following week on Raw.

Jannetty refused, and McMahon instead offered Jannetty the possibility of breaking Chris Masters' signature submission hold, the Master Lock. Jannetty appeared to almost break the hold, but Mr. McMahon (who was officiating) hit Jannetty with a low blow. Unable to break it, he was only released from the hold when Michaels ran in to save him. Shortly after Michaels had saved Jannetty, Shane McMahon ran in the ring with a steel chair and knocked out Michaels. The former Rockers were supposed to continue a program with the McMahons, but Jannetty was absent from the next episode of Raw and instead Triple H and Shawn Michaels reunited as D-Generation X. On March 3, WWE announced that it had severed all professional ties with Jannetty without further explanation.

On the April 11 episode of Raw, Michaels approached General Manager Eric Bischoff, in which he demanded a handicap match with Hassan and Daivari who had recently attacked him. Bischoff refused to schedule such a match and instead told Michaels to find a partner. Michaels then made a plea for Hulk Hogan to come back and team with him. On the April 18 episode of Raw, Hassan again led an attack on Michaels until Hogan appeared to save Michaels and accept his offer. At Backlash on May 1, Hogan and Michaels defeated Hassan and Daivari. Later, in a WrestleMania rematch, Michaels defeated Kurt Angle on June 26 at Vengeance. On the July 4 episode of Raw, after defeating Carlito and Kurt Angle, Michaels hit Hogan with his Sweet Chin Music, knocking Hogan to the ground and turning heel for the first time since 1998. The following week on Raw, Michaels appeared on Piper's Pit where he superkicked Roddy Piper and then challenged Hogan to a match at SummerSlam, which Hogan accepted the following week. Hogan defeated Michaels at SummerSlam on August 21, and after the match Michaels extended his hand to him, saying "I needed to know, and I found out" and he and Hogan shook hands.

On the June 12 episode of Raw, DX officially reunited. At Unforgiven on September 17, DX defeated the McMahons and ECW World Champion The Big Show in a Hell in a Cell match, ending the feud that started with Michaels & had continued after the DX reunion.

On the January 29 episode of Raw, Michaels captured the World Tag Team Championship with WWE Champion John Cena (replacing injured Triple H) after defeating Rated-RKO. At WrestleMania 23 on April 1, Cena retained the WWE Championship against Michaels after making him submit to the STFU. The next night on Raw, Michaels and Cena competed in two back-to-back ten team battle royals, winning the first and losing the World Tag Team Championship in the second to The Hardys (Matt and Jeff) when Michaels threw Cena over the top rope.

At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs on December 13, DX defeated Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and Big Show) to win the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match (TLC). DX lost the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship in a triple threat match to the team of The Miz and Big Show on the February 8 episode of Raw; the match also included The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk and Luke Gallows).

At WrestleMania XXVI on March 28, Michaels lost to The Undertaker and, as a result, he was forced to retire due to the match stipulation. The following night, on the March 29 episode of Raw, Michaels gave an emotional farewell speech, departing with the familiar sentence, "Shawn Michaels has left the building."

On November 2, 2018 at Crown Jewel, D-Generation X defeated The Brothers of Destruction. The match was poorly received by fans and critics alike.

This skin was made for me by Yondee.