Shawn Michaels

Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (born July 22, 1965), better known by his ring name, Shawn Michaels, is an American professional wrestling personality, television presenter, retired professional wrestler, and occasional referee. He has been signed to WWE, as an ambassador and occasional appears in non-wrestling roles, since December 2010. He wrestled for WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), from 1988 until his first retirement in 1998. He held non-wrestling roles from 1998 to 2000 and resumed wrestling in 2002 until retiring ceremoniously in 2010.

In the WWF/WWE, Michaels headlined major pay-per-view events from 1989 to 2010, main-eventing the company's premier annual event, WrestleMania, five times. He was a key player in the successful stable, D-Generation X. He also wrestled in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), where he founded The Midnight Rockers with Marty Jannetty in 1985. After winning the AWA Tag Team Championship twice, the team continued to the WWF as The Rockers, and had a high-profile breakup in January 1992.

Michaels was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011. In naming him the greatest professional wrestler of all time, IGN wrote: "Michaels was the most athletic, inspired and daring storyteller in the business; raising the bar for the entire industry with each match." Michaels is a four-time world champion: a three-time WWF Champion and a former World Heavyweight Champion. He won the 1995 and 1996 Royal Rumbles and is the WWF's first Grand Slam Champion. He has won the PWI Match of the Year Award a record eleven times.

The section "Biography" of this page contains content from the copyrighted Wikipedia article "Shawn Michaels"; that content is used under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.