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It's the calm before the storm.
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You know, rehearsals, everything's done.
Dotted all the Is, crossed all the Ts.
And now you just sit back and like--
That's why I eat so many Dum-Dums.
I just start slamming down sugar to kill time.
That ain't good.
Got all of our camera shots up here.
And this is just sort of the--
I don't know-- that they say the epicenter.
And it's the best seat in the house.
Welcome to NXT.
This is NXT.
This is all about feedback, coaching, development.
You just got to get more energy, more fire.
We want to get these talent prepared for the main roster
as quickly and as efficiently as we can.
Good stuff. Way to go, man. Awesome job.
If you look at this generation of young talent,
so many of them will say,
who was your biggest influence?
Shawn Michaels.
Approaching the ring, from San Antonio, Texas,
weighing 227 pounds,
The Heartbreak Kid,
Shawn Michaels.
There's only one HBK.
Nobody is more flamboyant.
Michaels loves the spotlight,
loves the main event.
I will give you a show like you
have never ever seen before.
Why? Because I can.
Unbelievable!
Ah, yes, yes, yes.
He wanted to be the best.
Shawn Michaels is the heavyweight champion
of the world!
I don't think there's any difference
between him and Jordan.
I'm Shawn Michaels. I can do whatever I want.
He was an asshole, a first-rate asshole.
I'll be the worst guy that the WWE has ever seen.
I'm not going to sugarcoat anything.
I wouldn't have pissed on Shawn Michaels
if he was on fire.
There's functioning drug addicts.
And that's exactly what I was.
Backdrop on that little wooden casket.
Shawn's back injury really sent him
into a downward spiral.
I felt like my life and career were over.
You've got to get to a very raw place with yourselves
to step out of being that guy.
It's the first time I ever wanted to be better.
And it gave me another opportunity.
Fans all over the world have been waiting to see HBK.
Shawn was super into the behind the scenes
of the business, like I was.
Where boom, boom.
Once Shawn did this to Owen, he's jumping all in.
Oh, my goodness.
Shawn can speak to you from experience
because he's done it all.
Shawn Michaels, he gave me a chance.
And I feel like I earned his respect.
One of the greatest ever to get in the ring.
Who else would you want teaching the next generations
of sports entertainers?
W Performance Center, it's evolved so much.
But it has always been a developmental system
for talent.
NXT is the brand that gets talent
TV-ready for the main roster.
Well, it is a big fight feel in the Performance
Center tonight.
Welcome to NXT.
The thought was to create a system
to train people in a better way,
to entice athletes from around the globe
to want to be a part of it.
At the Performance Center, it's everybody's job
to make talent good,
to have them learn how to do this,
to have them learn how to be great and professional
behind the scenes and in front of the camera,
like, all the aspects that go into doing this job.
I knew the name Shawn Michaels.
I knew that he was friends with Hunter.
But that's all I knew.
I didn't even let him in the building the first time
I saw him.
I was working at the front desk.
I was relatively new here.
One day, a man comes to the front door,
cutoff sleeves, shorts.
I believe he was wearing sandals and a hat.
And he did one of these.
Yeah, she came running, asking me who this was.
And I came up, and I peeked through there.
And there's Shawn Michaels looking
into the Performance Center, not getting allowed in.
So I was like, we can let him in.
Good morning, everybody.
Everybody's got their way of doing things
and their personality, but the fundamentals
are the things that lead you to long-term success.
He's able to understand the athleticism--
Once you get him up here,
you can kinda walk where you need him.
Zip, boom.
to understand the psychology.
The way we think eventually becomes our actions.
As long as you let them know that there's
been doubt in there, that's the difference
between arrogance and belief.
Then he also understands the difficulty,
different psychology of people along the way.
Sorry I'm so neurotic.
No, that's all right.
Don't worry about it.
I was neurotic too.
So it's quite all right.
He's similar to me.
I understand that.
So in many ways, he's the best candidate
for doing what he's doing, because he can understand them
on almost every level.
Maybe if you just take a little do si do there.
Oh, like a do si do right here?
- Yeah. - Oh, yeah, yeah.
I can do that.
Shawn has a great ability to connect on a nuts and bolts
from an in-ring standpoint, from a character standpoint,
from a promo standpoint, but also talk on a human level.
One of the things I've been most impressed with is the fact
that you're still the guy that's humble enough to say,
I need to work on my craft and get better in the ring
and stuff like that.
What's great about Shawn is that he has time for everybody.
He's accessible.
You can ask him questions.
You can collaborate.
And as a talent, it's sometimes hard to remember that,
because he's the greatest of all time.
I'd like to think, in many people's eyes,
he's probably the best to ever do it.
So when you say I'll do anything to become the best,
you're saying it to a guy that was the best
and did a lot to become the best.
So you better hold yourself accountable to that statement
because he's gonna hold you accountable to it.
Oh, my goodness.
I was 12 years old.
"Southwest Championship Wrestling" comes on.
And it was just something that captivated me
from the very beginning.
I was a very shy kid when I was growing up.
I was a military kid.
But there was that mystique of the other side
and that wild life and something that I was obviously
always very curious about.
I played football, baseball.
I was a young athlete.
The only thing I could ever remember wanting to be
other than a professional wrestler,
when I thought about my life, was being a stuntman.
And then years later to understand that, you know,
they're kind of synonymous.
It was kind of the athleticism and the theatrics.
And those two worlds coming together
is what professional wrestling was to me.
And that's why it appealed to me.
In the blue corner, San Antonio, Texas,
Shawn Michaels.
Shawn Michaels is going right after Buddy Landel.
A really impressive rookie.
A lot of times when you see young people
that are green, inexperienced,
you can tell they're inexperienced.
They're hesitant.
He didn't have that.
He had an instinct.
Shawn had a way of being in the right place
at the right time and looking completely comfortable
and relaxed like he'd been doing it a long time.
Young Shawn Michaels has really got a--
found a soft spot in the heart of the fans
of Mid-South Wrestling.
I was a singles wrestler but was wanting
to continue to grow in the wrestling business.
The AWA was the one that put me with Marty.
Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty,
The Midnight Rockers.
That was sort of never the plan starting out.
But you go with the opportunities
that were given to you.
Marty and I clicked immediately.
And then it becomes something that you begin
to think about and go, like, hey, this is
something that could be successful
and get me to that next level.
These are gutsy guys, so I am told.
And the Rockers, I believe, are gonna
set some new standards in the World Wrestling Entertainment.
I was excited.
I can remember thinking, this is exactly what we need.
We need a new, fresh team for the Hart Foundation.
Double-team.
Neckbreaker.
The Rockers were--
they were the answer to a youth segment of the audience,
somebody that the younger audience could identify with,
because they were young, and they were exciting.
They weren't the big, lumbering giants that
seemed to dominate the WWE.
They were the quintessential white meat, babyface
tag team extraordinaire.
The Rockers were just two young, hungry, hardworking
guys just trying to get a win.
The good old-fashioned American way, man.
When it's all said and done, when the smoke clears
and the dust settles, the Rockers
are gonna be standing tall
on top of the World Wrestling Entertainment.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
I worked with him when he was one of the Rockers.
I thought he was great.
Just the way he carried himself in the ring.
Ric's going the hard way.
Suplex over the top rope.
He was full of himself, and he knew it.
He knew he was good.
You know, as great a team as the Rockers were,
Shawn had his mind set on his own individual career.
Shawn Michaels is almost a tag team of his own in there.
Ooh, what a maneuver.
I could do this all night.
I don't know that anybody gets into this line of work
wanting to be in a tag team.
Shawn Michaels has great wrestling skills.
It just makes him mad that he has to have a partner
that can't hold his end up.
I'd gotten a call from Vince.
He had mentioned, I feel like there's an opportunity
for you to have a singles run.
And the minute he dropped that line, I was like, oh, really?
You now have a storyline.
You have characters on a television show
that don't like working with each other anymore.
So you put them on the Barbershop for Brutus
to say, come on, guys, you've been a tag team all this time.
Settle your difference.
Come back together.
There are absolutely no problems
with the Rockers whatsoever.
There was an opportunity to have a singles career.
So I did what I needed to do from a business standpoint.
Oh!
Oh, I knew he was gonna do that.
I just knew he was gonna do that.
What a despicable act that was.
You think I'm the wrong man?
No!
Oh, my God!
Right through the glass window of the Barbershop.
Shawn lets everyone know, no, screw you, Marty, it's me.
That's the beauty of it all.
No doubt about it, it's the greatest
tag team breakup of all time.
It was intense and violent.
If you were watching WWE at that time,
you hadn't seen anything like that.
It just jumped off the screen.
Is there a problem with the Rockers?
Shock value, at that time, was very important.
The biggest shock value one could get
is turning on his friend.
It was something that turned out
to be a fantastic storyline.
That thrust me into the spotlight, which is exactly
what I was looking for.
The Rockers, they're dead.
And now the whole world is gonna find out
what Shawn Michaels is really like.
So I will need verbal confirmation
from everyone in here that we can use your name
and likeness for all of this.
Ahh.
My name is Andrea Concepcion.
I am a writer and producer for NXT.
She kind of needs her villain origin story.
Correct.
I grew up, like, a huge wrestling fan.
So my first day, I sat down.
I'm, like, all nervous. And Shawn walks in.
And he's like, oh, my gosh. Nice to meet you.
My name's Shawn.
Like, I know who you are.
Shawn is the GOAT for a reason.
Like, there are sometimes creative things that he
can see that, like, we're like, what?
Another thing I wanted to check on,
Vic, are people coming to you and giving you
the story of their matches and stuff like that?
For the most part we usually have to go to them.
That is something-- talent should--like I said,
I just don't think they think about their wrestling
matches in that way.
We tell stories.
It's not--you know?
It's more about the stories than it is the physical aspect
of the matches, so just trying to help them
getting to understand that.
They're like that big around, aren't they?
He'd been waiting for that chance to be his own star
and to break out on his own.
You step into this spur of the moment singles career.
From a character standpoint,
I'd actually got taught from Roddy Piper,
don't ever stop being who you are.
If you're Shawn Michaels, you need to stay Shawn Michaels.
Shawn Michaels is in the building.
So I kind of just asked them to allow me to just find out
who it was I was going to be.
You're out there on a promo, talking.
Shawn Michaels has been walking around
breaking hearts all over town for a long, long time.
I guess you could say I've always been
the Heartbreak Kid.
All of a sudden, the words
Heartbreak Kid came out of my mouth.
And after that, it kind of just took on a life of its own.
The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels.
Put that camera on him.
He went from being a guy who kids were
supposed to root for to a guy that women
were supposed to desire.
The Heartbreak Kid, that was sexy time.
Has this guy got it all or what?
When he first turned into The Heartbreak Kid,
he was clearly a great performer.
Whoa!
He didn't need anyone's advice on how to be a star.
I like it.
Zebra-striped.
He had earrings.
And he had the long hair.
How this works is beyond me.
The Kentucky Waterfall mullet, probably one
of the greatest mullets of all time.
But he pulled it off.
Shawn Michaels really became a superstar.
Everybody knew he had it.
Plus, we wrote the theme song, "Sexy Boy."
♪ I send chills ♪
♪ Up and down their spines ♪
♪ I'm just a sexy boy ♪
♪ Sexy boy ♪
♪ I'm not your boy toy ♪
♪ Boy toy ♪
♪ I'm just a sexy boy ♪
Up to date, right now, it has 24,700,000 hits on Spotify.
And it fits his character.
Every once in a great while, an athlete
comes along that sets himself apart from all the rest.
I was out there trying to prove myself each and every
night and hoping that would get back to the powers that be
and it would make a difference.
And it did.
From the top.
On his back.
Wait a minute.
We got a new Intercontinental Champion!
You could tell how driven he was.
He was gonna take no prisoners for what
he was willing to do to ascend that ladder
and show the world how good he was.
To me, it's just about applying yourself
in every aspect of this business.
Understanding it from a television perspective,
a creative standpoint, and being able to understand
and see the vision that, at that time,
Vince had for this place, making it
a much bigger extravaganza, making it a much bigger show.
Because I'm gonna prove to everybody that I am
the man that I say I am, the sexiest Intercontinental
Champion of all time.
This is what I've worked my entire life to do.
So I just felt like I had to go out
and be different and entertaining
on a whole nother level.
Somewhere around the Intercontinental title,
Shawn was in the middle of the card.
Then he begins to change that slightly.
He brings in Kevin Nash with him.
Shawn wanted to know if I would be interested in becoming
his bodyguard.
We kind of were pretty much inseparable for years
after that.
And from behind, what a clothesline
by this huge Diesel.
Is it my imagination, Diesel,
or have the chicks been calling me all night?
- Wow. - Unbelievable.
Shortly after I got there, it was Shawn and Scott Hall.
Razor Ramon, gold on his neck.
The three of us traveled together.
Sean Waltman, the 1-2-3 Kid, joined us.
Hunter joins us later.
Once we started riding together,
we immediately just kind of hit it off.
All those guys behind the scenes
became known as The Kliq,
because they were real life best friends who traveled
together, hung together, and were incredibly
passionate about the business.
As long as we score a goal,
I don't care who gets the praise.
I just want that ring.
We're all gonna succeed together.
And that's what The Kliq was about.
- Top of the world! - Yeah!
Top of the world, bro!
For years, I would wrestle Shawn.
Then we'd be riding down the road
together going, remember when we were right here?
We did that hammerlock.
We spun into that.
Did you hear the people?
He goes, yeah, yeah.
How about we do this?
And we go, oh, yeah, let's do that tomorrow.
When it came to The Kliq, we were a band of brothers that
encouraged and embraced and helped one another, but also,
in a lot of ways, maybe fed each other's demons,
maybe in a negative way.
We would all order, like,
six Coors Lights, first round, each.
And the guy would leave and come back
and it'd be like, give me four more beers.
I had lived a very conservative
life when I was growing up.
And then I had the ability to be out on my own
and be around other people that would encourage me to live
a less healthy lifestyle.
And that's the road I ended up going down.
They were always out together.
They lived that life.
They lived that rock and roll life as best they could.
But every one of those guys in The Kliq
would steal the show with whoever they were
in the ring with.
If you're with us, you better step up.
You better get your work right.
- Oh! - Oh!
Unbelievable.
The business was changing--
faster, younger, more exciting.
He was it.
He's going on top of the 7-foot Diesel.
He wanted to be the best.
I don't think there's any difference
between him and Jordan.
He's just a perfectionist.
You will not ever, in your lives,
see a man more charismatic,
more flamboyant, or more talented
than The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels.
This is my opportunity.
What do I have to do to make more of it?
Shawn was ascending.
And I think that Vince saw Shawn as a heel
that would always be that antagonist, that there was
nothing to like there until WrestleMania 11,
and he wrestled Diesel.
Michaels, high-risk maneuver.
Shawn Michaels is done!
And they booed Diesel out of the building
and cheered Shawn.
And I was like, oh, wow.
What I enjoyed most about WrestleMania
was seeing Shawn Michaels.
He should have won.
Shawn Michaels number one.
Shawn Michaels is number one.
- Shawn Michaels is number one. - He is the best, the best--
- Shawn Michaels, number one. - the best, the best.
You can feel that momentum and that shift going on.
That's what it's all about here at the World
Wrestling Entertainment.
Look at this.
As it continued to work, I just did more of it.
The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels,
is going to be the man of '96.
I guarantee it.
He paid his dues.
He did all the work.
He had earned that chance.
And then it was just a question of,
you have to live up to that opportunity.
Bret "The Hitman" Hart against The Heartbreak Kid,
Shawn Michaels.
Being in the main event at WrestleMania
is obviously the dream of every aspiring superstar.
It's one of the highest honors you could possibly have.
But with that honor comes gigantic responsibility.
You're looking for the guy that's
gonna draw the most money.
It's not a team sport.
As we headed into WrestleMania 12,
we were looking for Shawn to be the man.
We were looking for Shawn to be the face of the company.
Now you've got everything riding on you.
All right, I'm done.
Business up top.
Party downstairs. - There you go.
Nothing gives me more joy than busting HBK's balls
and getting him going.
It's a bit late for that, my man.
Don't worry about the "ones."
I just need to be able to scroll.
And 3, 2, 1.
The Motor City Machine Guns will be in action as well.
Columbus, Detroit, Cleveland, get ready.
One, one, one, one, one, one, one.
Ron Burgundy.
Ron Burgundy reads the whole prompter, right?
Ron Burgundy, if it's on the teleprompter--
Get ready, because NXT is coming your way.
- Bing. - Good.
Cut.
In 3, 2.
It's my state.
It's my town.
And it's my dream.
WrestleMania and the World Wrestling
Entertainment championship.
♪ I think I'm cute ♪
♪ I know I'm sexy ♪
♪ I've got the--♪
From the second the match starts
with the iconic image we'll have forever of Shawn
going down that zip line--
There's only one Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels!
Vince McMahon on commentary just losing
his mind for the moment.
Unbelievable!
What a ride!
It's clearly meant to tell you, this is the guy.
A great reception for Shawn Michaels.
Shawn was in incredible condition.
Shawn Michaels now, what's he going to do
to The Hitman, Bret Hart?
The match, in my opinion, a classic.
I still say Shawn was the greatest athlete I ever saw
in the ring.
Look at that.
It was the perfect storm to put Shawn over the top
and bring him to the next level.
He got it.
He got all of it.
Michaels got all of it.
Michaels got him covered.
5, 4--
Oh!
Ladies and gentleman, the winner
of this fight and the new World Wrestling
Entertainment champion, The Heartbreak Kid,
Shawn Michaels.
The boyhood dream has come true
for Shawn Michaels.
I can remember being told, like, I want you to enjoy this.
But I didn't have the ability to do that.
You know, Earl not being able to get the belt on,
and that bothering me.
I just remember, like, just stop it.
I did not have the ability to enjoy
that moment, because it didn't go exactly
the way that I wanted it to.
It wasn't a good attitude to have.
I was a gloomy Gus.
I mean, if nothing else.
That's putting it lightly.
I waited a long time to get this precious piece of metal,
and I plan on holding on to it for as long as I possibly can.
There's a lot of responsibilities
that come with being the world champion.
The amount of media--
You can't have a main event without me, for God's sakes.
There you go.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
The signings and the personal appearances.
So to be in those shoes, it was pressure-filled.
I'm concerned a lot of times when I come and do
this kind of work, if I do a good job,
if I'm any good at it.
Huh, a little smile in there?
Huh?
A little smile there, buddy?
I still don't know if I am or not,
but it's real nice to think that just your presence
makes people happy.
So if that's all it takes is me showing up,
then that's-- that's the easy part for me.
I always go back to the, be careful what you wish for.
On one hand, there is that boyhood dream aspect of it,
but there's a lot of responsibility
that goes with that.
- And good luck to you. - Thank you.
- Say hello to your mama. - I will.
Thank you so much.
I felt a lot of pressure in that respect.
And I didn't handle it well.
I'm just nervous about working with people on this level.
This is a league that I'm not accustomed to being in.
And action.
You were always bragging about your daughter,
the lifeguard.
Those are all things that I did want.
And I just didn't have the maturity
to allow myself to enjoy those moments, to embrace them,
to get the most out of them.
Is that a camera?
A camera's on.
Ah, paparazzi.
Except that I love the camera.
Camera's my friend.
Shawn likes the camera.
There's no doubt I could have handled things
a hell of a lot better.
Shawn had said to me that he was looking forward to being
champion, and that he thought he could work with Kevin Nash,
thought he could work with Scott Hall.
And he basically was like, I could work with all my buddies.
And I just kind of dismissed it.
As we got into 1996, WCW,
our competitors had a television
show, "Monday Nitro."
It ran opposite to "Monday Night Raw."
And they'd been making a lot of changes
and aggressively coming after our talent
and trying to get people to sign and to go there.
This is where the power lies, brother.
At that time, it was the Monday Night Wars,
and people were changing channels.
I'm talking to WCW.
Man, I got to go.
Like, it's not working here.
I feel like I've hit this glass ceiling.
Like, Razor's never gonna go any higher.
And I ended up giving my notice.
And then like about a week later,
Kevin Nash gave his notice.
He was really mad at Scott and I.
And through his eyes, I would be too.
And just like now, here I am, the world champion.
And two of the best opponents I'm gonna have are leaving.
And we're best of friends.
You're talking about a guy who I spent three years with,
who was my best friend.
And to know that he's found greener pastures elsewhere
and has made it very clear that I'm not a part of it,
it's very hard to deal with that.
He was bitter.
He wanted them to stay.
I wanted them to stay.
More than anything else, it's your support system.
I don't need nothing but a belt and my good-time buddies.
Your comfortable, you know, is getting thrown into chaos.
And that's just never fun.
And when you're already in a place mentally
and emotionally that isn't overly stable
in the first place, it was a scary time.
That time, business is-- it's OK, but it's not great.
There's a lot of banter about Shawn's not
working as champion.
He's not drawing.
Shawn first took the title.
Ratings dropped.
"WCW's Nitro" started beating "Raw."
Shawn felt a little insecure about it.
It wasn't as rosy as maybe what he wanted,
he expected it to be.
As the champion, everybody's looking at you.
Well, it's your fault. You're the top guy.
So it's your fault.
So that's a heavy burden to bear.
That's the pill you have to swallow.
You're the champion, and things aren't going well.
And it sucks to hear that.
And it's hard not to start to believe those things
and to keep belief in yourself
and to keep positivity.
So yeah, I got resentful.
I got angry, because you took all of it personally.
Here's the challenging part of this job.
It's not supposed to be personal.
But there are a lot of young men and women
that walk through these doors.
There are a lot of things that go on in this job
that are tough to deal with.
It's mentally--you know?
Yeah, yeah.
It messes with you.
I understand this job getting to you,
letting them know that I don't see weakness in that.
Thanks, Coach.
The most surreal thing to me is the person
that I respect the most is the one that relates
to me the most, believes in me the most,
wants to help me the most.
That's why I like him so much.
He's a lot like me. He just cares so much.
Yeah.
I know that I can call him and be like, yo, like,
I'm going through something. Can I just talk to you?
He'll listen to me. You know?
- It's OK now? - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
I will always be an outlet if it's something
that they need, because I care.
♪ I send chills ♪
♪ Up and down their spine ♪
The World Wrestling Entertainment championship
brings out either the very best in all of us,
or it brings out the very worst.
It feels as if the weight of the entire company
is on your shoulders.
Everybody says I've got sort of a bad attitude.
Sometimes you like me.
Sometimes you don't.
I run hot.
I run cold.
I wake up in good moods.
I wake up in bad moods.
It takes its toll, because there is no day off.
I need a day off.
Just one day.
Even an hour would be nice.
I can see the slide.
I can see him falling apart.
He's collapsing under the pressure.
That's a bright light.
Shawn felt the pressure of the world on him.
And instead of just taking it, I think Shawn just lashed out.
You know who I am?
I'm Shawn Michaels.
I can do whatever I want.
Shawn was not a pleasant person to be around.
And he could be extremely difficult.
He could be abrasive.
I don't care what's going on in your life.
It does not give you a right to mistreat people--
You wanted goddamn Sue here?
You idiot. - Calm down, Shawn.
and to demean people.
I'm not going to sugarcoat anything.
On a personal level, I wouldn't have pissed on Shawn Michaels
if he was on fire.
He was an asshole, a first-rate asshole.
He said stuff to you.
You know, he disrespected you.
Like, the things that he would
say to you in the dressing room,
confront you about stuff, it was like,
where did that come from?
You're the most arrogant, pompous guy I've ever seen.
I would have to think it was his drug problems,
which were just starting to become
a problem at that time.
So mostly it was pills, blow, and marijuana.
It kind of starts out as what you believe is fun.
Certainly, then it begins to delve into something
way more serious.
This Elvis lifestyle, this Jim Morrison,
this rebel Without a clue idea, very endearing.
It sounded very cool and rugged.
And there was a time in my life,
I didn't really care if I lived past 35.
I didn't even know what living until 35
or 45 would even look like.
I didn't think about tomorrow.
Being liked is way better than being hated.
I knew everybody hated me.
And that's what starts a lot of the downhill spiral stuff.
It was all about running and escaping,
and honestly, running and escaping from the dude
I'd become.
There's very realistic, functioning drug addicts.
And that's exactly what I was.
You can go and look at stuff now
and see me doing stuff on TV.
And people are like, oh, my goodness,
he must have been out of his gourd.
Like, I was never not well on TV.
You know what I mean? I was not well afterwards.
Because it doesn't matter how I feel right now.
When it comes to crunch time, Shawn Michaels will be ready.
His moment of existence was the 20 minutes
in the ring every night.
He'd go in there, and he'd kill it.
Here comes Michaels.
Unbelievable!
And then the second he was done--
Right?
I knew the stuff that I was doing was wrong,
but I didn't care.
When you're in the middle of the storm,
you don't really notice it.
You're just so used to it.
And you don't really see it spiraling out of control
like it did.
I tore my first ACL.
And at that time, ACLs were a year out.
I've never had a doctor look me in the face and say
that I may never be able to wrestle again.
And I was-- I was told that the other day.
The emotion is genuinely palpable,
because you got the champion of the company,
and ultimately he's giving it up.
Here's your belt.
I know that over the last several months,
I've lost a lot of things.
And one of them has been my smile.
It was illuminating something that was
going on else in my life, because I was miserable.
And the champion and stuff like that--
and I was having a conversation with my mother,
and her thinking the same thing,
like, my God, why can't you just enjoy this?
And she goes, jeez.
You know, she goes, I don't ever see you smile anymore.
She's like, it's like you've lost your smile,
and it should be the best time of your life.
I have to go back and fix myself.
And I'm gonna go home now.
Goodbye, Shawn.
Godspeed.
You can feel the energy
in Lowell, Massachusetts, tonight.
So we're in Lowell, Mass, in the same exact building
that they were shooting "Raw" at, to almost replicate,
to a T, the same segment that Shawn
did when he lost his smile.
I don't know if I love this anymore.
And to be honest with everybody,
I've just lost my smile.
And then Shawn offered the spin of,
I'm going to replicate this, but only to trick you.
I should not be worried about losing my smile.
I should worry about taking yours.
Oh.
On that day, one of the craziest things
in my wrestling career ever happened.
So he tells Ethan, all right, you're gonna put
Je'Von's face in the chair.
And you're gonna kick it.
And it's gonna break his jaw.
I was afraid of doing it and hurting
another talent on the show.
Do you want me to stick my head in there?
Here, let me--
And Shawn's like, do it to me.
And he's like, what?
Jump.
Jump?
With the chair on his face.
And he's like, yeah, go ahead.
Do it as hard as you can.
Like for real?
Yes.
I think that's the least you can do
if you're the guy asking--
I would never ask somebody to do something
I wasn't willing to do.
If they could do that with me, they'll do it with each other.
- Ready, Shawn? - Yeah.
OK.
It's my jaw.
So much respect to him, because to have the balls
to be like, well, if I want you to do it,
I'll do it first--wherever you want to go, boss man,
I'm gonna go with you.
Like, I just--utmost respect.
Oh, my God!
I seem to be moving around pretty well.
Nobody told me you didn't need an ACL, technically,
if you'll throw a brace on it.
That's how we got into Dr. James Andrews.
That's why everybody goes to Birmingham now.
A few weeks later, I go down and see Dr. Andrews.
And it's like, yeah, no, it's not good.
Yeah, it's a year out, but you can rehab it a little bit
and put a brace on it.
And so that's exactly what I did.
Here he comes, back in action!
Shawn decides to come back.
This was a moment where things needed to change.
Business was bad.
WCW was starting to kill us.
The NWO is the reason for the success of "Monday Nitro."
I don't give a damn
what anybody thinks of me!
I became one of the most controversial guys
in this line of work.
All of that was by design.
I'm a very polarizing WWE superstar.
Everybody's got a hook.
And so I just poked the bear at every opportunity
I could ever get, because I felt like it would help.
I'm not the most popular guy
in the World Wrestling Entertainment.
But then again, I'm not looking to win any popularity contest.
Becoming more of a jerk and having an edge to him,
that's who he was.
So that's more comfortable to portray on air.
And at that point in time, DX is born.
- We are D-Generation X. - D-Generation.
You make the rules, and we will break 'em.
Yeah.
DX first began as Hunter, myself, and China.
Felt like we had a really good idea of where the wrestling
business was going and where it felt like it needed to go.
Just wanted to push the envelope a little bit more.
Shawn Michaels and D-Generation X
want you to suck it.
Every week we're going on TV, and we're crossing a line.
We're gonna sit down here, and we're going
to play a little strip poker.
Oh!
D-Generation X was this really brash,
exciting, and, respectfully, obnoxious group of people.
DX is on its way to State College.
And in Pennsylvania tonight, it looks like
it's gonna be a full moon.
It was fun, and it was cool.
There's a shift going on with our product.
And then our ratings are getting better.
Shawn and Paul were such good friends.
They were always talking and thinking about the business.
What we were doing was resonating.
While we're having fun doing it,
we're making ourselves laugh.
We know we're pissing people off,
and we're trying to be dicks.
We're just trying to make the other one go like, oh, my God.
I can't believe you just said that on TV.
Shawn and I both got jumbo weenies.
That was just crazy, wild stuff.
All the stars aligned, and the planets come together,
and life is good in that respect.
Shawn Michaels, D-Generation X coming your way.
both: Right.
Can't say I liked it.
You're a disgrace to professional wrestling.
And there was real tensions between us.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels loathe one another,
whether it be out here or back there.
There's an absolute hatred between those two
in that moment in time.
I was fine with stirring stuff with everybody,
because I felt like it fed my career.
I've seen you on the road.
And bro, you ain't no role model.
He crossed a line that nobody should ever cross.
Those are the kind of things that could topple my marriage.
This was all about principle and respect.
Welcome, everyone, to the 11th annual Survivor Series.
Heading into Survivor Series '97 in Montreal,
Bret's time in WWE is actually about to come to an end.
Bret was negotiating on the other side,
seeing if the grass was greener down south at WCW.
WCW then started to approach.
Bret was able to get a deal with WCW.
Bret was our champion.
We had to crown a new champion.
His final date was going to be in Montreal,
the Survivor Series.
Shawn takes the championship.
Bret goes to WCW.
Everybody's happy.
Bret didn't feel that way.
I told you guys.
I'm not doing anything like that,
not until Shawn shows me that he has enough respect for me.
To be honest, we didn't give a shit.
Bret couldn't be allowed to go to WCW with the championship.
He had to drop that title.
I went there determined
to not lose to Shawn no matter what they tried
to do in the ring.
Shawn's loyalty was to the company.
Him and Vince McMahon and Triple H
were all aware of what the plan was at Survivor Series.
Bret Hart was not a part of those plans.
Look at this.
Oh, you're kidding me.
Michaels-- are you kidding me?
He's gonna try to beat Bret Hart with a Sharpshooter?
Yes, he is.
This is just supposed to be a moment that would
happen early on in the match.
Bret gets out of it.
I could hear Vince yelling at the timekeeper.
I could hear him yelling at him to ring the bell.
Ring the bell.
This is the perfect moment to have Brett tap
or say that Brett taps.
Brett Hart gave up on the Sharpshooter.
And Shawn could be champion as Brett moves on to WCW.
This is high-level espionage, man.
Like, this is as heavy as it gets in the business.
This was not an easy thing.
But the understanding on our side, on all ends,
was that there is no other option than this.
You could tell that I had been set up.
Shawn probably gets a bad Academy Award
for pretending that he wasn't in on it,
'cause he was like, oh, my.
He was acting like he didn't know what was going on.
It wasn't fun to do.
For all of our animosity, for all of the rivalry
that he and I had, I was the bad guy.
And then on that night, I was gonna
frickin' make it even worse.
In this business, stuff begins to take on
this life of its own.
When everything is said and done, the best thing you can do
is swallow whatever that is and figure out how you're gonna
pick yourself back up, dust yourself off,
and get back in the game.
And The Heartbreak Kid
is now the new World Wrestling
Entertainment champion.
In a storyline with The Undertaker,
we end up getting to this casket match.
I'm gonna take a backdrop out of the ring
but over the casket.
He went over the top rope, and he caught the edge of it.
I take the shot to my back.
I didn't think much of it.
A dynamic elbow drop right off the top.
Kept it together.
We finished the match.
And then, obviously, he found out
that he had a much more significant injury
than what he had thought.
Apparently, I had burst the disc.
And that, obviously, alters sort of everything in my career
from that point on.
This back injury was a career-ender.
But, you know, look, he wanted to be in that main event
at WrestleMania.
You don't get one of these, pal, which you've never had,
I might add, by getting knocked down too much.
March 29, it's mine.
Spend the next month doing everything
that I can to get myself in shape for WrestleMania,
knowing that I'll never wrestle again
on the other side.
The reality of what's going to happen to me
is kind of sinking in.
I really go off the rails.
Clearly taking way too many prescription pills.
I could stay sober for the two hours on TV,
but the rest of the day, you know what I mean,
I was rolling pretty good.
Trying to escape, trying to drown it out,
trying to not think about it, not sit in the car,
and stew, and think about everything going on.
And when every single thing in your life
is wrapped up around that moment of success
and everything around it is falling apart, what do you do?
Everybody handles that differently.
He won't think about it.
It's funny, because when you talk about it in that manner,
then it sounds like, well, God damn, why would you
hang out with this misery 24/7?
No, it's not.
We're like this.
Right?
It's, again, like your brother.
Fact of the matter is, it should have killed me.
The reality is, it didn't.
And a lot of that is because of Hunter taking care of me,
watching after me, making sure that I could
still function and maintain and be responsible.
This is it.
This is the WWE title match.
I was kind of checked out at that time.
My performance was always the most important
thing in the world to me.
But that was the day I just-- I don't know.
I didn't care.
It was just about getting through it.
Michaels turned upside down and inside out.
And Shawn's got that bad back anyway.
I think he's hurt bad.
I can look back on it and go, now you're
a pretty tough son of a gun.
And the elbow.
Yes!
But for all intents and purposes,
my life and career were over.
Hello, there.
How you doing?
Goodness gracious, dude.
Doing good? - Doing well.
Look at you.
God, Ilja, you look fantastic.
Well, thank you. I try, you know?
Yeah.
How long has the entire rehab been?
Gonna be a while.
It's more than a year.
Coming back from injury sometimes is hard.
You know what I mean?
And sometimes it messes with your mind.
But that's what's always so positive about you.
Your mind is the strongest part of your body, man.
Having this facility here gives him
the opportunity to come back and be
ready to go at whatever point.
You know, obviously, keep training.
He's just an animal all the time anyway.
So I feel sorry for the guys when he's ready
to get back and get going.
You look like a million bucks.
That's fantastic.
I look forward to it.
Hey, always great to see you.
Yeah, nice seeing you too. Thank you.
Yeah.
I crushed my disc, L4, L5.
So you have to get fusion.
They pull the disc out.
They just fuse that with bone out of your hip.
All they knew at the time was,
stuff like that you don't recover from.
People don't get back in the ring and wrestle again.
I was trying to find out what life looked like
not being a wrestler.
Clearly, there was the wrestling school,
because I felt like that's something--
I don't know, from a "monetary standpoint,"
I'd built this kind of brand or this name.
There's certainly something there that I'm interested in.
But the sports thing came up because it actually
felt and sounded like something that might
have some real security in it.
Have you ever noticed that the smallest guy in the band
is always the guy carrying that big tuba?
It was with Kens 5 in San Antonio.
We started out with a little thing
where I was at high school football
games on Friday nights.
I'd do a little fun segment.
Where's all the spit come out?
It leaks out.
So I don't have to empty it at all.
Oh, well, it leaks out.
Well, that's convenient now, isn't it?
And of course, you look at that.
And you're like, OK, well, without wrestling,
I don't know, I guess a local sportscaster maybe
makes, I don't know, 75, 100, 150 grand a year.
That's a good living.
This reporter will never, ever look at the band
quite ever the same again.
But you do enough drugs, you screw enough of that stuff up--
I don't know, you don't really go about it the right way
or apply yourself.
The love and the passion and all of that
wasn't there for that like it was for wrestling.
And that obviously was what caused
so much of the downward spiral at that time in my life.
I had never had anything that I could grasp
that was bigger than the wrestling business.
That's just not enough to base a life on.
You look at the Nitro Girls.
My goodness.
But it's time for Whisper.
I'm into the Monday Night Wars with everybody, too.
I'm watching both shows.
And the introduction of this new Nitro Girl.
And she's just doing this dance.
And she's absolutely the most beautiful thing
I've ever seen, and called her up.
Probably talked for three hours
on the phone each night for two weeks.
Think I met her in January and we got married March 31.
With Rebecca,
it started out so joyful and fun.
And it appealed to that romanticized, crazy kind of
lifestyle atmosphere that she could not do any drugs,
but she could still have fun with me,
but then at the same time, recognize
that, OK, he's not healthy.
And he doesn't just do that to have fun.
He's like that all the time.
And before long, it's too late.
Now she's married to me.
Eight weeks after we're married,
she finds out she's pregnant.
Cameron Kade Hickenbottom is born the next year.
Oh, my God.
Now the poor girl's locked in.
And she realized, like, man, this dude's, like,
on stuff all the time.
You ready to go? Get ready.
I was actually, like, real-life in love.
I was real-life enamored with being a dad.
I really wanted to be good for all of them,
because I was filled with love and joy.
The only thing that isn't wonderful in this picture
is you.
He had kids. He had a wife.
Like, come on.
I told him to get his act together.
I didn't want him to die.
My son, at two years old, recognized--you know,
just saying, Daddy's tired.
And me knowing that's when the drugs are kicking in
and I'm not in the best shape.
But he notices it.
That was kind of the--
the dam that broke.
It's the first time I ever wanted to be better.
I've never recklessly abused anything ever again.
Rebecca, you know, is helping me find who I am.
She said, what is it about you that makes you
dislike yourself so much?
You've got to get to a very raw place with yourselves
to step out of being that guy.
I don't know.
I go on this, whatever, reflective journey that I'm--
I'm looking for something.
Shawn became a born-again Christian.
And Shawn got saved probably a month before I did.
He and I kind of had this parallel journey.
So we really connect now, because we're
strong in the faith.
The world doesn't get to us anymore,
because we have that strong faith.
When your Bible's falling apart, your life isn't.
You know what I mean?
I remember somebody who said, hey,
I heard Shawn found religion.
Yeah. They laughed.
And I said, well, I don't know anybody
that died OD'ing on religion.
If it works for him, good for him.
If he's off drugs, I don't care how he did it.
From my faith standpoint, it's Jesus seeing me
the way I am, loving me in spite of all of my screw-ups.
And my life is different.
I've been saved.
Book of Joshua says to be strong and courageous,
for I am with you.
You know what I mean?
I can do all things.
And those things just--
so anyway, it's early on in your salvation.
So I'm like, ah-ah.
I can do--I can walk on water, you know?
So I don't know.
I just felt, like, invincible.
We're kind of having conversations,
I believe, a little bit at the time.
And then he said--
he was like, I want my son to see me do this one time.
He said, I don't know that I can do it.
I don't know, physically, if I can or not.
And he said, if I'm going to, I only trust one person.
It's you.
But if you'd consider it, I would love to do it.
Shawn saying, I might have another one in me--
him being away, it leaves a hole.
Shawn filled a lot of-- a lot of space, man.
And having Shawn back is a blessing.
So of course you're gonna be happy to have him back.
He is a showstopper.
His last match March 29, 1998 at WrestleMania.
We are witnessing something that we, quite frankly,
thought we'd never see!
So I remember we just loosely talk
about some things we'll do.
And I'll call it in the ring.
This crowd's chanting for HBK.
They're trying to carry him through.
Got in the ring, did a couple of things.
Shawn Michaels, leapfrog.
What an athlete. - Look at this!
And Triple H--
Michaels sidestepped The Game.
Triple H has made a big mistake
if he underestimates Shawn Michaels.
We did the spot.
And when we came up, I said, you are fine.
You haven't missed a step.
Let's just go.
Shawn Michaels.
Vintage Shawn Michaels.
Skinning a cat.
He goes, oh, my God, you're back.
He's like, he didn't miss a beat.
He was right back.
His timing, everything was just spot-on.
It was magic.
He looks to be in great shape.
He looks great.
You gotta give him credit.
How is this possible that he is this good
after all that time,
the injury, and everything else?
Oh!
Fans, for the love of God, the elbow
right to the heart of The Game.
I almost feel like I'm trying to catch up to him.
Oh.
Michaels rolled him.
Will it be?
Can it be?
Yes!
HBK!
My God, HBK!
It gives me chills.
I mean, it's there.
You know, it's there.
It's not gone.
Any performer will tell you, your confidence is what makes
or breaks you half the time.
And so to get that back was life-altering for me.
It gave me another opportunity.
A lot of things he took for granted the first time around.
And when he came back around again,
he's like, I don't know how many chances I get at this.
I'm gonna enjoy this, because I thought it was gone.
And I got the second chance.
So I'm gonna ride this for as long as it's right.
- Sweet Chin Music! - Oh, he got him.
Sweet Chin Music!
The cover! The cover!
He's got--yeah!
What?
Shawn Michaels is the world's champion!
Seeing Shawn win the World Heavyweight Championship
at the Elimination Chamber, it was such a feel-good
moment as a fan to see that.
When wrestling is done right, there's nothing like it.
The purest form of entertainment,
because you can just lose yourself in it.
And I think that Shawn's matches, more than anybody,
achieved that.
Oh!
The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, Mr. WrestleMania.
He's Mr. WrestleMania for a reason.
And he really proved it in those late stages
of his career.
Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle.
- Look out! - Oh my God, Michaels!
John Cena.
One future legend after another,
Shawn is a part of making those guys.
And it's kind of a crazy foreshadowing of where
his career and legacy would go
with what he's doing now in NXT.
For him, it was an opportunity to come back
and I think maybe right his wrongs.
Here you are, my man. Take care.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
There was an easiness about him.
I've been waiting for my cookies.
Two months with no chocolate chip cookies, man.
Can't take it anymore.
He was just being Shawn, the new Shawn.
You could tell, genuinely,
that he was a changed human being.
Those are the kind of people that I like to be around.
And I had a different outlook on life
and understanding the things that were important.
I was willing to give it my all but at least
still have enough time at home.
I didn't work a full-time schedule.
I wanted to balance it as best I could.
I wanted to be a part of their lives, my wife and both
of our children.
Cut me some slack.
Just can't help being able to see your face.
Ladies and gentlemen, for the 23rd time,
we welcome you to WrestleMania.
And now, combining these two worlds that I've never
had together.
If you can have peace and joy
in the midst of doing your job,
and your family, and all of that
is in communion with one another,
it's as good as it gets.
It's heaven on Earth.
As you know, there are--
I--yeah.
I was gonna say, there's cameras--
You're mic'd.
Shawn Michaels is my dad.
He got treated like everybody else's dad, I feel like.
You made fun of him.
You joked with him.
We argued.
We did whatever.
He wasn't necessarily this guy on a pedestal
that came home and was like, yeah, I'm pretty cool.
I'm Shawn Michaels.
So that's--just in case you guys didn't know.
He was just my dad.
And he's always been like that.
All my dad has ever cared about is his wife, his kids,
providing for those people.
To this day, all my dad wants to do is put on a good show
and go home to his wife and watch
TV together and spend time together,
or hang out with his kids.
It's this week, double taping, and then "Evolve."
But you're gonna be gone for that.
Next week is-- yeah, next week, double taping.
I started working here when I was 19.
And it's actually a funny story.
I was on the way to my high school graduation.
Hunter was on a phone call with him.
He told him where we were going.
And he started asking about what I wanted to do,
what I was interested in.
And my dad told him.
I enjoyed hair and makeup.
That was just a passion of mine, what I really enjoyed.
So Hunter got me in touch with the head of the hair
and makeup department.
And then it turned into, be here on Tuesday.
And if you make it, you make it.
And if you don't, you don't.
And I've worked here ever since.
Oh, my goodness.
What are you doing here?
Holy shit.
I knew he was going to do that, too.
Oh, my goodness.
- Hey. - What an awesome surprise.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Did they ask you to come down? - Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. That's so awesome.
I'm here to help out.
Oh, that's wonderful.
Looking right into camera.
Nice.
My brother's always been a great artist.
And he is a part of the creative department at WWE.
Aw.
It's a huge opportunity, a huge responsibility.
On one hand, people go like, oh, they're your kids.
It's easy.
And in some respects, I guess it is.
But then another aspect, you get held
to a different standard as well.
They have a work ethic like nobody's business.
And I couldn't be more proud of both of them
for who they are more importantly than what they do.
I'm so giddy.
Thank you guys so much. - I don't know--
It's wonderful.
You get to hang out with all your kids.
- I know. This is so cool. - Yeah.
You looked at me for, like, a solid two seconds.
You see me four times a week--
- You--you're all the time. - all the time.
- So it's not as cool. - Yeah.
- Damn. Damn. - Get that on camera.
Neglected.
And my baby boy is even better.
I'm the favorite.
I gotta stretch probably 15 minutes
before I can even start moving.
Everything really changes after I had my back fused.
That's when I started doing yoga and obviously
stretched a lot more, and understanding
my body a bit better.
For me, it was more about mobility.
And the older I got, the mobility helped a lot more.
This is the player watch, WrestleMania 24.
I got one for both myself and Ric
when I had his retirement match at WrestleMania.
It's something that means a lot to me.
So I've just been trying to wear it a little more.
I've sort of submitted to the fact
that I am not going to be able to emotionally
detach myself from the situation,
although I have tried.
The guy I idolized growing up, my hero, made a request of me.
And that is to let me know that the best way that I can honor
him is to go out there and give him my best,
go out there and be the showstopper,
be Mr. WrestleMania.
The time has come for the Nature Boy Ric Flair
to put his career on the line against Shawn Michaels.
Whoo!
Shawn just said to me that, I'm leading this,
and that's the way it's gonna be.
It took a load off my shoulders,
to know that he felt that good about it.
He gave everything that anybody could ever give
to a match that night, and more.
Michaels' body is--oh.
Oh, no. Out of nowhere.
Shawn Michaels obviously grew up idolizing Ric Flair.
And now he is tasked with the unenviable mission
of ending Ric Flair's career.
I'm sorry.
I love you.
Oh!
It's a great moment in wrestling.
1, 2, 3.
Every time I get the opportunity
to talk about that match, I continue to reminisce.
And it kind of just always restores my love
and joy for doing this job.
And being in there with Ric always
takes me back to the idea that, can you believe it?
You're actually in there with the Naytch
and gonna have his last match.
And I got to do my version of Naytching,
which is spending a lot of money on stuff you don't need.
This was important to me
and clearly meant a lot to him.
About 10 past 24, if you feel what I'm--
Watch with a black face with the 24.
You've seen it, right?
He had it all engraved and everything.
I'd love to tell you the time, but the glare off
our watches is way too bright.
The glare off of all those diamonds is blinding me.
I had the moment at 24 with Ric.
And then the opportunity that I had with Taker.
When 25 comes along,
he is a changed human being.
And we are on a level now where
our friendship is just as important now
as the business side of it.
It is game day for Mr. WrestleMania.
To me, it's about the grandeur of it.
It's about the story
and I think just like the visuals
of seeing Shawn Michaels and Undertaker just being
portrayed as visual opposites.
Big, small.
Dark and imposing.
Bright and obnoxious.
Opposite in every way.
And to me, that's freaking awesome.
All he had to do was be Shawn Michaels.
And all I had to do was be The Undertaker.
Both of us in the twilight of our careers, we're going out,
and we're gonna steal the show.
We are seeing two bona fide Hall of Famers.
A sudden Sweet Chin Music.
To me, WrestleMania 25, Shawn-Taker, is one of the
best WrestleMania matches ever.
- Oh! - Tombstone!
Tombstone!
My God, Michaels got caught!
Tombstone!
The count.
2, 3.
And a kick out!
I am not believing this!
All the stars aligned.
Everything's going right.
Everything clicks. It all works.
Here he comes. Incoming!
Catching Michaels.
One of the greatest matches of all time,
and that was magic.
Tombstone piledriver.
1, 2, 3.
He did it!
It is the best match that I think
that I have ever been in,
and it took the least amount of effort.
I had that match with Taker, and that
was the first time that I ever felt like I'd be
OK if that was the last one.
It's one glorious moment after another,
but how do you end it?
How does it end?
You're coming back for another one,
and this just so happens to be his retirement match.
This entire journey, this entire arc
of this guy, this character, that essentially when
everything is said and done, is the Heartbreak Kid,
Shawn Michaels, you know, to go out on your last one,
I wanted it to be poetic.
I have complete peace with it.
So I just knew that it's like, I can do this.
And it does not appear that Shawn Michaels
is intimidated at all.
The resilience of Shawn Michaels is unbelievable.
If he's going to go out, he has to go out on his terms.
It's art imitating life.
Oh.
Well, if Shawn Michaels is going out,
he's going out as defiant as ever.
That look of disbelief on the face of the Undertaker
has turned into a look of rage.
Ahh!
Tombstone.
Here's the cover.
1, 2, 3.
Shawn Michaels' career is over.
I don't know if I've ever seen a moment like this.
This might be the ultimate WrestleMania moment.
Shawn, we'll miss you.
I'm in the background, arms crossed.
I'm...
I hated The Undertaker.
I very much enjoyed those matches with him.
I very much enjoyed my career.
When everything is said and done,
isn't that how it's supposed to be?
I thank you all so much for giving me
the honor and the privilege to come out here
and let me show off in front of you every night of my life.
He left the way you should leave.
He was at such peace with his decision.
He was fulfilled.
This business is your life when you're on the road
and doing it in a lot of ways.
All right, call you tomorrow.
I'll call you tomorrow, buddy.
When you decide, that's it,
there's a brick wall stop moment.
I'm in it every day.
It's all I talk about and all I do to--
I'm not around it.
I don't see people.
I don't talk to those people, because they're all busy.
And you understand that.
So Shawn had gone down this road where he wasn't
involved in the business at all.
He was doing other things.
He had a hunting show.
- Oh. - Dude.
Oh, I almost--
No way.
We have to thank each and every one of you
for making "MacMillan River Adventures"
one of, if not the most successful show
on the Outdoor Channel.
Life after wrestling led me to retirement
and living out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere
in West Texas.
Seeing Hunter once in a blue moon
when I went back to do a special appearance.
To Shawn. It's S-H-A-W-N.
I'm your biggest fan.
I know you hear that all the time.
But...
- I'm your biggest fan? - Yeah.
You're my biggest fan.
Yeah.
As Triple H's in-ring career started to wind down,
he just naturally transitioned into the development
of other talent in creating NXT.
NXT is the next generation.
Shawn was super into the behind-the-scenes
of the business like I was,
but just never saw it as a path.
But at some point, Shawn called me.
He was bringing his family to see his wife's family.
So he was gonna be in the area for a few weeks
for, like, a summer vacation.
He was interested in seeing the PC and being there.
I could just see his spark for the business.
It was just that feeling that I hadn't felt since retirement
eased its way back into my life.
We're in Florida, Orlando.
Our friends are taking us to all these places.
You're doing all this fun stuff.
I'm like, yeah, and Dad's doing work.
Great. I don't care.
We were in Florida on vacation still,
and we walked by a house.
They were like, yeah, we rented this house.
We're staying here for a while.
Like, we're thinking about moving here.
By the time we had finished that vacation,
we had made the decision to go back home to Texas,
pack up, move our entire lives to Florida,
which is exactly what we did.
I think Shawn becoming part of NXT
was this long, sinister plan by Triple H.
Hunter knew once Shawn did this to Owen,
he was jumping all in.
To me, the second Shawn said, I'm in,
I didn't have a new coach.
I had one Shawn Michaels. Oh, good.
I got somebody with one of the greatest minds
in the business that can help this product
immensely across the board no matter what it is.
When I saw the opportunity, like you were coming to the PC,
I literally looked online.
I was still doing the indies.
And I was like, wow, I would be going
to work for Shawn Michaels.
I'll drive 10 hours, a 4-hour round trip
a couple of days a week.
That's nothing.
One of the greatest to ever get in the ring.
Who else would you want teaching the next generations
of sports entertainers?
It's the giving back to the business
that had been so good to me and my family.
I had a great amount of joy getting to do it.
I remember him asking me, like, "Hey,
so I think I'm ready to start having my own class."
And I remember telling Hunter like,
he wants his own class now.
I said, OK.
Well, we're going to watch the matches.
I want you to do the best you can to listen to the crowd
while these matches are going on.
What they inherently end up doing is focusing on the moves
and what they're doing and getting
caught up in the action.
I had us go back, watch those same matches,
but turn the lights off and made everybody
close their eyes and then just listen.
For a while, they all thought I was kind of crazy
and didn't understand what I was doing.
But after a while, as they began to sort of
listen to the crowd
and then recollect where they were at in the matches,
they understood what I was talking about.
When you set that standard,
you sort of got to live up to it every time.
I was in his class.
That's why he has all these accolades,
because he was that meticulous in his art.
So I remember I was working with Eric Young.
For three weeks leading up to this match,
we had a hard time finding our way into the finish.
So I'm like, let's just ask Shawn.
He goes, OK.
Why don't you slide, hit those two?
Go to do a Skin The Cat back in.
He grabs you off the ropes, and hit him.
Neckbreaker.
3!
He got it in, like-- at 15 seconds.
That's the legendary mind.
And that's just--that's Shawn.
The thing about Shawn is, at first, he was very much,
you know, I can contribute like this.
I can contribute like that,
you know, but I wouldn't want any responsibility.
He wants a job, but he doesn't want a job.
He doesn't want the responsibility of a job.
But I also knew, once you start to get into this,
it's addictive.
I've joked with him about this before.
I just had to give you a taste,
and then you'd come back for more.
Right? Like--like a dealer.
My role kind of slowly gets bigger and bigger
as time goes on.
Things are gonna move fast.
And that's how this line of work is.
So that's the only thing I'm gonna say is,
take the time.
Every now and then, when you get out there,
take a look around.
Look at those people, and take it all in.
I can't speak for everybody, but let yourself be
certainly what I was, and that is
a 12- to 15-year-old kid going, oh, my goodness,
I can't believe I made it and I'm here doing this.
Well, I was having fun doing NXT
and all that stuff beforehand.
Now, all of a sudden, he's back doing it with me,
sitting next to me.
That's awesome! That's awesome!
Attaboy, Johnny.
That's awesome.
Being able to work with your best friend
on a regular basis, it really was
as close as we could get to getting back
in the car with one another, driving down the road,
and talking about wrestling.
We both, like, a big fight, we just--
I know what he's thinking. He knows what I'm thinking.
I can bring up one thing. He knows exactly what I mean.
I don't have to long-form spell it out for him
or give him the full idea, and vice versa, same.
Get it to work.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
Bing, bam, bam.
Bam, boom, kicks.
Watching those two know what the other person is thinking
and almost watching as-- like it's a movie,
like you're the firsthand, like, seat to a movie.
Having the opportunity to sit there and listen to them,
the ideas that they have, there are times that I'm like,
oh, why didn't I think of that?
I want to think of that.
I want to be on that level that
it comes to them like that.
You know, he was kind of my right hand there.
And then, in my mind, that was becoming the plan
of, like, OK, if I ever have to take "Raw,"
SmackDown, or any of that--
if I have to move up the line,
if I have to take on a different role,
he could handle that.
That stuff going on.
And then that's sort of what happened.
I'm looking for people that stand out in a crowd.
I'm looking for people that are larger than life.
We had been running hard, Vegas, LA, LA back to Orlando.
And I was sick while I was along this tour.
But I just thought I had, like, flu or something.
That leads me to finding out, like--
getting a phone call from a doctor telling me,
hey, you need to go to pack a little bag
right this second.
Do not dillydally.
Put it in the car.
Have your wife drive you.
Don't drive yourself.
Go to Yale in New Haven.
And I was like, what is going on?
And they go, "You're in heart failure."
Looking back on it, it's all kind of a blur.
Your buddy, who's had this very real-life,
traumatic moment in his life, that in and of itself,
on a whole separate level, was just tough personally.
In 2021, we're looking for somebody
due to Triple H's health scare.
OK, who can step in and just do this?
It was Shawn. Shawn was there.
He had prepared for it his entire life.
He just didn't know it.
Honestly, I didn't want the responsibility.
I didn't want the pressure.
I didn't want the anxiety of doing everything that he did.
I really wanted a life where I could contribute
to this business that I love but not
have any of the hardships or the heartache
or the pressure or the anxiety that goes along with it.
But at the same time, the responsibility of
stepping in for my friend was something that,
there's no way I could say no to that.
You know, you're talking about somebody who made a great deal
of sacrifice for me at times in his career
where it was very tough to do that.
This was a moment that I felt like I could maybe,
in some way, pay him back
for what he had done so selflessly.
And so I immediately jumped in with both feet
and did everything I could to at least
not let the ship go down while he was off.
All right, so look, this is where
Hunter usually gives the speech.
All right? He's not here,
and I'm not as good at it as he is.
You don't feel ready.
But when the time came, Shawn was--
Shawn was Shawn Michaels.
I retired from this stuff ten years ago,
and I was happy as a pig in mud.
And I walked in here five years ago,
and everybody in here, all of you,
made me fall back in love with this stuff.
And now I can't get away.
I'm right back in.
I'm as hungry and as passionate as I ever was.
And it's because of all of you in here.
We all knew that Shawn was ready to take over NXT
and take over the PC.
What Shawn definitely didn't know--
what was really ahead of him.
The one thing that helped me with all of this is,
I like a challenge.
Unfortunately, I have such a fragile ego
that I don't want a lot of responsibility,
but when it's thrust upon me,
I don't want everybody to know that I don't want it.
All right, we'll figure it out.
Live TV.
What can go wrong?
This is a 100% challenge,
a 100% struggle each and every week.
It's kind of a sickness, in a way.
Oh, my God.
So I try to just do my job and do it well
and put on a very good two-hour wrestling show.
Thank you all very much.
Thank you.
All I know is that I'm not sick of it yet.
So until somebody tells me to cease and desist,
I'm gonna be doing this again tomorrow night.
Shawn had to pick up that ball really quick
and run with it.
In that period of time where I was down,
a lot of company upheaval was happening.
When I was first taking over,
there was a transition of going from
this black and gold to a 2.0.
The black and gold era, that was an era
where Hunter was building a brand,
experienced talent.
We got a new champion here at NXT, Drew McIntyre.
You know, 2.0, we're bringing in
these athletes now,
getting them ready for "Raw" and "SmackDown."
We're all here right now, and it's a brand-new chapter.
All right, three, two, one.
Shawn Michaels takes over.
And then everything changed.
Guys like myself-- Carmelo Hayes, Bron Breakker,
like, that's when we all kind of broke in to NXT.
They threw us out and see if we can sink or swim.
Welcome to a brand-new era in the rich history of NXT.
What's gone on in NXT 2.0
in the last six months is a miracle.
80% of that show are people that have been
in the wrestling business for six months.
At six months, I'd have shit a golden brick
had you sat me in front of that crowd
that you all were in Saturday.
We won't be able to show any of this on film.
That's OK.
After a while, you begin to have an attachment
to the talent that comes through
these Performance Center doors.
You start to feel a real responsibility to them,
and to understand that all of this
doesn't happen unless somebody is there
managing this ship.
Shawn was doing such a great job running NXT
that when Triple H was able to come back
and return to "Raw" and "SmackDown"
to run creative there, Shawn was able to just
take the ball and keep running at NXT.
One of the things that Hunter taught me
that he said Dusty taught him,
which is kind of the 70% rule, which is,
no one's ever going to be able to convey
the vision that you have in your head.
Only you have that.
And you can do everything you can to best verbalize
and vocalize that to somebody.
But it's never going to quite be the way you're picturing.
So understand that, and grade it more in a--
you know, if you can get 70% of that, consider that a win.
You're not gonna be able to start slow like that.
- Yeah. - You know what I mean?
So I just feel like, again,
you just got to get more energy, more fire.
Right now, you've got to show people
that you can do everything under the sun
and still follow the rules.
Thank you both for it.
But again, I'm not doing my job
if I don't give you the honest truth.
He's always there.
And he'll give us his feedback and tell you the truth
whether you want to hear it or not.
And I think that's the best kind of criticism.
Like, you can only grow from getting real critiques.
And I think Shawn's great at that.
Jacy Jayne is now Women's Champion.
Attagirl.
He really does care about us.
- Seriously, good job. - Thank you.
- Congratulations. - I appreciate it.
And it's really funny.
A lot of my friends would be like, "Oh, my God,
you know who Shawn Michaels is?"
And I'm like, yeah, I see him literally every week.
Like, he's my boss. He's the best.
Don't mind if I do.
You just caught me after 100 reps, man.
100 reps. Ah!
My biggest thing talking to Shawn is about,
there's sacrifices that you have to take to be the man,
but most importantly, be great at what you do.
This is a new era being led by Trick Williams.
Shawn Michaels, he gave me a chance.
And I feel like I earned his respect.
They know I care.
And that's the reason that
I always want it to go so well.
I see them with this unbelievable opportunity
and this unbelievable amount of ability
and want them to harness all that.
I was like, that's my wrestling dad right there.
Wrestling grandpa.
He's so funny.
Like, he's such a character still.
Is that what you're wearing?
You don't like the sparkly?
He'll joke around with you,
especially if you're close to him.
Like, he'll probably talk trash about you.
Is that what's fly now?
Is fly still fly?
You know, a little drip for the youngins.
A little drip for the youngins?
Yeah, for the youngins.
All right, go ahead and wear it.
It's all jokes. It's all jokes.
But it's so cool, like just being in the same room,
or just having, like, a close enough connection
to one of the greatest to ever do it.
All right, bet. Say less.
- Hey, I'm just kidding. - Oh, I know.
You already know. - Thank you very much.
- Yes, we're all good? - Thank, y'all. Awesome.
Thank you guys.
He is somebody who is never afraid to, like,
step out and learn a little bit more about anything.
Three, two...
Ooh, this is nice.
Girl!
There are old-timers rolling over
in their grave knowing that I'm doing
TikToks and stuff like that.
It's been something that I never thought
I would have done.
Well, it's one of those keys, Shawn.
But at the same time, having the opportunity
to embarrass your children never gets old,
even when they get older.
♪ Go crazy ♪
We definitely have to, like, kind of show him
and, like, talk him through, like, this is the trend.
This is how it works.
Like, all you have to do is this.
We try to make it really, really simple.
♪ Go crazy ♪
Some of that is his real personality,
which is what makes it funny.
I do think it's funny.
I do like it.
He is all about giving everybody a platform
to be the best version of themselves,
to be the most authentic version of themselves.
He truly just wants everyone to succeed.
It's a genuine family.
And he's like--he's the head of the family.
Darrell, it's his birthday today.
He's a young 45 years old.
I want to wish him a very happy birthday.
- Thank you. - All right, very much.
He is legitimately helping people achieve their dreams.
Thank you all so much for doing this and working so hard.
Fantastic last couple weeks.
And obviously, next week, man, we're gonna cut you guys loose.
Go out there and show the world who in the hell you are.
All right?
For so many years, here in the WWE, it was WWE only.
And we did everything we could
to kind of make sure
we were the absolute number one,
and possibly only,
sports entertainment brand out there.
Let's get to tonight.
A bigger picture here is NXT under attack by TNA.
And remember to put your differences aside.
This is for brand supremacy here.
One thing that comes across the desk of NXT all the time
is working with different promotions.
There's an opportunity with TNA.
TNA Wrestling is another wrestling
organization in America.
And NXT and TNA decided to begin a partnership
that was designed to mutually benefit both parties.
There will be TNA and us, TNA and NXT.
I think it's unprecedented, TNA wrestlers,
NXT superstars.
This truly is the answering the question of, what if?
What if these two worlds collided?
It happens for the first time in "Showdown."
- I appreciate you coming in. - I'm glad to be here.
- It's a long time coming. - Appreciate it.
To see Shawn Michaels embracing this collaboration
between TNA and NXT was exciting, was refreshing,
because the possibilities could be endless.
Shawn Michaels, like, this is the guy
who was on the forefront of the Monday Night Wars
between WCW and WWE.
When you're in the fight,
when you're one of the soldiers,
it seems like the right thing to do.
But when you're on the other side and you're talking about,
well, why can't the whole business flourish,
how bad would that be?
Just don't make it go long.
But if I can get it off of him, get it off of him.
- Right, yeah. - OK.
All right.
Hey, where is this thing going?
Oh, it's going here, "Showdown."
Here's our best, and let's see what happens.
Looking forward to a good night.
And nothing we can do to control it
once it's executed.
It is a big fight atmosphere tonight
inside the Performance Center.
I'm an old guy.
So for you to, you know-- - No, no.
You to have any idea,
as young as you are, to know what I did...
- Yeah. - No, man.
You're the ultimate performer. - So I'm flattered.
That's even better to hear.
The collab we didn't know we needed.
- Yeah, exactly. - Truly.
Fastest man in the world and Mr. WrestleMania.
Talk about it. - Yeah.
That's awesome.
There are matchups there that people can talk about
or think about or "dream about"
that now you're able to deliver on.
It is just awesome and amazing to see
how the Hardys have continued to stay
at the top of their game.
They've got some veterans there
that many of our young athletes here
might not have had the opportunity to work with
that they can now have.
Completely ignore that you're out there
with one of the best tag teams in the world.
All right?
Show them who you are, all right?
- Yes, sir. - Go get 'em.
Go get 'em, boys. Go do it.
Yeah.
Tag team titles versus tag team titles,
winner take all!
Jeff Hardy going up for the Swanton Bomb!
Gotta love it.
all: One, two, three!
For the first time,
TNA wrestlers are WWE and NXT champions.
It's such an honor to be here
with him kind of running the show
and thanking us for being here.
I mean, it's just-- it's unreal, man.
Anything you guys can pass along--
they're good boys.
They don't get the opportunity to be in there
with people that are this much better than them.
It's so amazing to come and see Shawn
in this environment to be a teacher.
Thank you, Shawn Michaels, for giving back
like you're giving back right now.
Here it comes, boys.
Oh, shit.
Well, I guess the thing is, like,
I'm still a wrestling fan.
I still find myself getting caught up in the show.
He's grabbed my hands a few times and started a prayer.
And I was like, yes, count me in on this prayer.
Here we go. Let's go.
both: Ooh!
Holy shit.
That was incredible!
all: One, two...
Ooh, whoa.
When he sees the highs,
he shares the highs with the talent.
Holy shit, dude.
That was good. - Thank you.
You happy with that? That was freaking good.
You OK? - I'm OK.
Oh, yes.
Drop it like it's hot. Drop it like it's hot.
Oh, yes.
Oh, yes, man.
Those are the nights you sleep the soundest.
That's what you work the other six days of the week for
to have that show that goes off really well.
Everything clicks.
It all works.
A TNA-NXT "Showdown" that 5, 10, 15 years ago
nobody thought would happen.
And we made it all happen here at NXT.
That turned out really good.
Hell of a night.
I'm gonna see if I can hug HBK.
Let's see what happens.
Thanks, brother.
- Boss man. - Thank you very much, brother.
Love you, boss man.
All right, I get it.
I see you hamming to the camera.
Good boy.
All right, NXT champions.
Those of us that have been doing this
for a really, really, really long time
appreciate all the hard work and effort
that goes into this job.
Thank you, ladies. - Thank you, Shawn.
Appreciate it. - Thank you very much.
Appreciate it. Thank you, dear. - Thank you.
That was fun. - Thank you very much.
Sometimes we didn't have people telling us.
And we just want to make sure that we're at least
a generation that acknowledges this generation's hard work
in hopes that they'll do it with the next.
Thank you guys very much. - Thank you.
- Thank you.
Good job, ladies.
Hey, thank you all very much for a long night.
Thank y'all very much. Appreciate it.
Thank y'all.
Overall, fantastic show.
Everything we do here at the Performance Center
is about trying to make "Raw" and "SmackDown"
stronger for the future.
And I think we're doing a hell of job,
and I think it speaks well.
All these unbelievable athletes are coming through here,
learning how to do this stuff, learning how to do it right,
and hopefully,
it will be successful for a long, long time.
They're ready?
They're ready.
Take it home.
Shawn could be on a beach right now
sipping a piña colada or a Malibu Bay Breeze,
but he doesn't, because he loves this.
If you were to ask in 1995,
where is Shawn Michaels gonna be
in 35 years or whatever?
You'd say, hopefully, teaching the future.
I've been up on him like this at 7 or 8.
And I do something, and he--
ah, boom, down.
I think he values the interactions, you know,
the real life stuff behind everything that we do on TV,
making a difference in people's lives.
I got an idea.
It could be stupid.
I'm all about stupid, Trick. Lay it on me, man.
I have experiences that will benefit people--
if nothing else, scare them straight.
I don't have anything to say.
Everybody that I had relationships with back then,
they're all mended now.
The stuff that you worried about 20 years ago...
- Seems pretty small now. - Sort of pales--yeah.
Exactly, yeah.
I think he's changed a lot.
He's matured, and he's a different guy.
I love telling people about my dad.
My dad deserves to be acknowledged
as one of the greatest, 'cause he is.
The Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels!
Shawn's one of those guys
that moved the business forward.
That's why he became one of the greatest of all time.
For a quarter of a century,
Shawn Michaels has entertained the WWE Universe.
To see the passion that he had as a performer--
but I think leading these new generations
of talent coming up, that will be
his biggest contribution to wrestling.
Come on. You can do it. You can do it.
Ah!
I don't like to grow up.
I tried to stay a child majority of my life.
And I've had the luxury of doing that.
There are two things in this life that I care about,
and that is my wife and children and the WWE.
If I can leave them both better off,
I'll rest easier in eternity.
Ah. Oh, my goodness.
Oh.
Make sure you come back and visit me.
- Of course. What? - All right?
All right. - For sure.
I appreciate you.
Congratulations, man.
- Appreciate it. - All right.
Like I told you a couple weeks ago,
that number doesn't change, so...
- Yes, sir. - You know what I mean?
Anything I can do along the way.
- Yes, sir. - All right.
I appreciate you.
I'm more nervous for this than I've ever been,
simply because you two are here now.
My goodness.
♪ Oh, oh, Shawn ♪
♪ I think I'm cute ♪
♪ I know I'm sexy ♪
I don't know, but I feel like
that's a bit of a fake smile.
You got the whole family judging now.
I don't--I don't-- I don't smile that much.
If he was throwing it and yelling, that's the photo.
That's what really happens.
"I should have just stayed retired."
Oh. Not the--
Yeah.
That's it. That's the one.
- Yeah. - That's the one.
Oh, my goodness.