Shawn Michaels passed away. Posted on April 1, 2010 at 8:08 a.m. in Entertainment, Games, Sports | Leave a comment Michaels died, Shawn Michaels died, Shawn Michaels's career, Shawn Michaels died. Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is a former professional wrestler from the United States. He was born on January 20th, 1964 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he will be 58 years old next week. The most famous thing about him is probably his handle "Mr. WrestleMania". He has been involved in wrestling since 1984 and after winning the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VI, he turned down an offer to join Vince McMahon's WWF Empire because he wanted to build himself a legacy. Since then, he has gone on to become one of the biggest stars in wrestling history. His death was confirmed by Vince McMahon who said that everyone at WWE was "devastated by this news".
He was married three times and had two children with his first wife, Jennifer Gable. They divorced in 1995 after only being married for a few months. In 1996, he married Linda McMahon; she is Vince McMahon's wife and a fellow professional wrestler. Their marriage only lasted a year and they divorced in 1997. In 1998, he married Nicole Bass; they also only stayed together for a year before divorcing in 1999. All of his marriages ended in divorce or annulments.
Jose Lothario, a Texas wrestling icon best remembered for serving as Shawn Michaels' manager, trainer, and mentor in the World Wrestling Federation in 1996, has passed away. He was 49.
Lothario began his career in 1984 as an assistant to the booker for International Championship Wrestling in Corpus Christi, Texas. He later worked with Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling as a ring announcer before being hired by Jim Ross to work as his assistant.
Under Ross, Lothario became involved in backstage activities including management and agenting. When Ross left WCW in 2001, Lothario followed him to WWF where he served as Michaels' manager from February 2002 until November 2003.
After leaving WWF, Lothario worked as a match booker and producer before suffering a heart attack and stroke in 2005 and 2006 respectively. He returned to work in 2007 but was forced to leave the company again in 2008 after being diagnosed with lymphoma. Lothario died on January 9th, 2009 at the age of 42.
He is survived by his wife, Linda, and two children.
Shawn Michaels retired for what reason? Shawn Michaels enters the ring for his farewell WWE bout on March 28, 2010, in front of 72,000 spectators at WrestleMania XXVI, where The Undertaker finished his career in one of the finest and most dramatic main events in the business's history.
Shawn has not wrestled in five years due to an injury sustained at the Royal Rumble. Shawn Michaels wins the World Heavyweight Championship in the Survivor Series-Elimination Chamber on 11/17, defeating champion Triple H, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, and Kane.
Michaels is a four-time world champion, having won the World Wrestling Federation Championship three times and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship once.
| Shawn Michaels | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Shawn Hickenbottom |
| Born | July 22, 1965 Chandler, Arizona, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | Theresa Wood ( m. 1988; div. 1994) Rebecca Curci ( m. 1999) |
| Children | 2 |
Shawn began wrestling at the age of 19 and remained active until his early retirement in 1998 due to a bad back injury. Doctors claimed it was the end of his wrestling career.
On July 22, 1965, at Williams Air Force Base in Chandler, Arizona, Michael Shawn Hickenbottom was born. As a child of a military family, he moved about a lot before settling in San Antonio, Texas. Jose Lothario was his trainer, and he made his professional debut in 1984.
There, he and tag team partner Marty Jannetty defeated The Batten Twins for the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship, which he subsequently reclaimed from the Battens. He returned to Texas after leaving Kansas City to wrestle for Texas All-Star Wrestling (TASW).
He is also a two-time Royal Rumble winner (and the first man to do it as the number one entry), the first WWF Grand Slam Champion, the fourth WWF Triple Crown Champion, and a two-time WWE Hall of Famer (2011 as a single wrestler and 2019 as part of D-Generation X).
Shawn Michaels had a back injury during his Royal Rumble encounter against The Undertaker in 1998. While landing outside the ring, he collided with a casket, badly injuring his back. Shawn Michaels retired from professional wrestling after losing the belts to SCSA at WrestleMania 14. He returned for one more match at Survivor Series in 1999 where he lost again to The Undertaker.
After his return, Michaels tried to convince Vince McMahon to let him continue wrestling, but was rejected. In 2000, Michaels attempted to start his own wrestling promotion, but it failed miserably. In 2001, he returned to WWE as a jobber (someone who works as a hired hand) and was given small matches throughout the year to keep him active while also being paid. These were known as "Bump Stays". In 2002, Michaels won his first championship when he defeated Chris Jericho to become the new World Heavyweight Champion.
In 2003, Michaels dropped the title to Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 21. After this loss, he went on a hiatus from wrestling again. In 2004, Michaels came out of retirement once more and participated in the main event of WrestleMania 22 where he faced The Rock for the WWF Championship. However, he lost the match and ended up getting pinned by The Rock. After this defeat, Michaels decided to retire for good this time.
Shawn Michaels retired from wrestling in 2010 following a memorable WrestleMania match against The Undertaker. HBK retired in 1998, however he was compelled to do so owing to a lower back issue. We questioned the Heart Break Kid if such names ever grabbed his curiosity when we chatted to him this week. He said no, explaining that he didn't bother to look up these former stars because there were more important things going on in his life at the time.
He added: "I never really got into wrestling past 1985. I was too busy being a teenager then."
It seems like Shawn Michaels has always been one step ahead of everyone else. He is a true pioneer of the industry and helped it reach its peak during the 1990s. However, he could not have predicted that he would be remembered for something so tragic as well. Perhaps someday we will learn what really caused him to retire.
Shawn Michaels (nickname: Michael Shawn Hickenbottom) was born on July 22, 1965 in Chandler, Arizona, USA. He is a retired professional wrestler who has been performing under his real name for most of his career since breaking into the industry at the age of 21. He has been wrestling throughout the world, but has primarily worked for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for over two decades.
As far as we know, Shawn Michaels is American and is of Irish and English descent. His parents' names are Charles and Audrey (Neidhart) Michaels. His father was a truck driver and his mother was a homemaker. They had three other children before Shawn came along; Emily, Emma, and Adam.
Shawn Michaels graduated from high school in 1983 and then went on to study marketing and sales management at Arizona State University. However, he never completed his degree because he started working on his wrestling career full-time.
He made his in-ring debut on January 11, 1991 at 23 years old and has not stopped fighting ever since. He currently holds or has held records for various titles such as the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship, the Undisputed WWF Championship, and the European Championship.
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