wrestling / Columns

The Piledriver Report 04.29.10: The Shawn Michaels Story Part Three – The Heartbreak Kid is Born

April 29, 2010 | Posted by RSarnecky

As the year 1992 was approaching, the World Wrestling Federation was loaded with talent. The WWF roster included Randy Savage, the up and coming Bret Hart holding the Intercontinental championship, and Sid Justice, who hadn’t turned “Pyscho” just yet. The most popular wrestler in the history of the business, Hulk Hogan called the WWF home. There were rumors that the Ultimate Warrior would be returning soon. Most importantly, the WWF was entering its first full calendar year with the face of World Championship Wrestling, and arguably the greatest performer in the history of wrestling, Ric Flair, on their roster.

Little did anybody know at the time, but a tag team specialist would eventually enter into the conversation as which performer is the best ever. This wrestler was former “Rocker” Shawn Michaels.

After throwing his former partner, Marty Jannetty through the “Barber Shop’s” window, Shawn was supposed to start a feud after Marty Jannetty “recovered from his injuries.” The two were supposed to have their first match against each other at WrestleMania VIII. Unfortunately, Jannetty had some personal problems he needed to deal with which led him to leave the WWF. With Marty out of the picture, Shawn was left without an opponent for his first high profile singles match. The WWF put Michaels in the ring with Tito Santana at WrestleMania VIII.

“The master plan back in November was to build to a match with Marty at WrestleMania VIII, but he wasn’t around, so they put me in a match with Tito Santana. Tito was a great guy, a solid professional who had been around for a long time and always did what was right for the business. I have a lot of respect for Tito, and he put me over. It wasn’t the kind of win that springboards you to the next level, but we couldn’t get the big blow off with Marty.”

SENSATIONAL SHERRI

On the road to WrestleMania, Shawn was paired up with “Sensational” Sherri Martel to play the role of his love-crazed valet. Shawn’s new character was cocky, and full of himself. He nicknamed himself the “Heartbreak Kid” at the suggestion of Curt Henning. He would have Sherri hold up a full-length mirror before his matches, so he can make sure that no hair was out of place. Early in his run, Shawn would wrestle early in the card. Later in the evening, the ring announcer would let the crowd know “Shawn Michaels has left the building.”

Looking back at Shawn Michaels’ career, while the Shawn-Sherri union was a small blip on the Michaels’ career map, the addition of Sherri to the “Heartbreak Kid” package was an extremely important aspect of Shawn’s early WWF singles push. In an RF Video shoot interview years ago, Shawn even admitted this himself. Michaels stated that when he first started in singles competition, the veterans didn’t want to “sell” for him. Sherri would get ticked off and order Shawn to throw his opponent outside the ring. Sherri would then proceed to lay the wrestler with stiff kicks. After getting the boot by Sherri, these veterans started to sell for Shawn. Another thing that Sherri brought to Shawn’s arrogant heel was that she was the singing voice for Shawn’s entrance music “Sexy Boy.”

“If Sherri saw that someone wasn’t selling for me, she would yell, ‘Throw them out here, Shawn.’ I’d throw them out and she would kick them with her big old boots and scratch them on their back. They would come rushing back to the ring to be with me where it was safe.”

In regards to working with Sherri, and developing the “Heartbreak Kid” character, Shawn remembers, “In early January, I did a couple of quick shots in Japan. When I returned to the States, I checked my phone messages. There was one from Pat Patterson telling me while I was in Japan, Sherri Martel had done a great interview in which she had called me her boy toy. They wanted to put her with me. I was opposed to the idea. It wasn’t anything personal, I just wanted to stand on my own.

Sherri was an awesome lady to work with. She was very excited to work with me and said she would do whatever I wanted. I told her that I had always thought she was an attractive lady and asked her if she wouldn’t mind dressing up in boots and leather instead of the evening gowns she was wearing. It fit my gimmick a whole lot better.

To be honest, I wasn’t too hot on the boy toy name because I felt there was no longevity to it. But I liked the concept, and it did help me develop as a performer. I made it a point that in order for people to take me seriously, I had to be the one in control. Sherri couldn’t be the dominant figure. She was completely cool with that, and just wanted to do well.

She’s one of the few women I’ve known in this industry who understands how the business works. I can’t say enough good things about Sherri. We were only together for a couple of months, but she helped me so much. She encouraged me to be creative. I needed that at the time because I didn’t know who I really was, I was just developing a persona and a style. Sherri’s only agenda was helping me. She was always positive, and it was refreshing and comfortable to be around her.”

THE FIRST WWF LADDER MATCH

Shawn’s first major singles feud was against the man who he would be forever linked with; Bret Hart. Their feud was centered around the “Hitman’s” Intercontinental championship. During their initial singles feud, Shawn fought Bret in the first ladder match in WWF history, which was taped for Coliseum Home Video. According to Bret Hart, Vince was going to have SummerSlam 1992 in Washington D.C. or London, England. Bret suggested that if they decided to have the card in London, that Vince should book Bret against Davey Boy Smith. However, if the WWF was going to have the pay per view in Washington D.C., then he should fight Shawn in a ladder match. Vince wasn’t sure what a ladder match was, so he book Shawn and Bret to work in one at a TV taping. Of course, the Bret vs. Shawn SummerSlam ladder match never took place, as the WWF decided to hold SummerSlam in Wembley Stadium.

Shawn recalls, “After WrestleMania VIII, I ended up losing to Bret Hart, who was Intercontinental Champion at the time, for about three straight months. We weren’t close friends, but we got along fine and had good matches together. One day in July, Bret came to me with a proposal. ‘Hey, I did this match years ago in Calgary with Dynamite Kid. It’s a Ladder match where one of us had to climb the ladder and grab the belt to win. I haven’t done it here because I didn’t think anyone could do it, but I think we could do it. Do you mind if I mention it to Vince?’ So on July 21, 1992 in Portland, Maine, Bret and I had the first Ladder match in the company’s history. Bret won after drop-kicking the ladder and causing me to crotch myself on the top rope. This was the finish he and Dynamite used, and it would be the one Scott Hall and I would use at WrestleMania X.”

After Shawn’s first feud with Bret ended, he started a short feud against fellow heel wrestler Rick Martel. At the time, Martel was playing the role of the pretty boy, arrogant heel, just like Shawn. Rick Martel was trying to woo Sensational Sherri Martel (no relation) away from the “Heartbreak Kid.” In their match at SummerSlam, Sherri had the two men agree that neither would hit the other in the face.

After Shawn’s one match feud with Rick Martel ended, Michaels set his sights on the new Intercontinental champion, Davey Boy Smith. Although the “Heartbreak Kid” was never able to rest the IC Championship away from Bret Hart, it didn’t take Michaels long until he beat Hart’s brother-in-law for the belt. On October 27’s Saturday Night’s Main Event television taping, Michaels captured his first major singles championship.

THE ORIGINAL BOYHOOD DREAM

“I had now been here long enough to realize that the really good workers, guys like Santana, Savage, Hennig, and Ricky Steamboat, got to be Intercontinental Champions, and I set a goal of winning the IC title. I reached that goal on October 27, 1992, in Terre Haute, Indiana, when I beat Davey Boy Smith. I didn’t know I was going to win ahead of time. I just walked in the building and Davey Boy came up to me and told me I was going over. I was very excited to hear the news, but I didn’t want to show how I really felt because I didn’t want to look like a mark. Pat Patterson had a little talk with me after I spoke with Davey Boy. He was always supportive and told me how I was different, that I was a heel who liked to bump for people and that I would do well with the belt.”

Shawn Michaels didn’t have long to celebrate his IC title victory. He was scheduled to face the new WWF World Champion, and old nemesis, Bret Hart in his first pay per view main event at Survivor Series on November 25th, 1992. Unlike their more famous Survivor Series match five years later, this time Shawn Michaels submitted after Bret applied the Sharpshooter submission hold.

In late 1992, Marty Jannetty returned to the WWF. Before one of Shawn’s matches, he entered the ring where he grabbed Shawn’s full legth mirror from Sherri, and swung it at Shawn. Michaels pulled his valet in front of him, and Jannetty accidentally smashed Sherri with the mirror instead. To sell the injuries from being hit by the mirror, Sherri was taken off of TV. While she was away, in story line, the WWF made it known that Jannetty visited her in the hospital. Whereas, Shawn Michaels never checked up on her. The Sensational One returned at the 1993 Royal Rumble, where she sat in a neutral corner for the match between Michaels and Jannetty. Near the end of the match, Martel confronted Michaels outside the ring and slapped him. At the end of the match, she entered the ring to interfere on Marty’s behalf. However, Shawn ducked, and she hit Jannetty instead. Michaels would go on to win the match as Sherri fled the ring in tears. Backstage, Michaels confronted her, and Jannetty came to her rescue. The following week, Martel thanked Jannetty. There were rumors around this time that the WWF was planning to hire Madusa Micelli and book Sherri/Jannetty vs. Michaels/Madusa matches. However, Jannetty was fired for passing out in the lockerroom before this ever happened.

In a trivia note, on the inaugural episode of RAW, Shawn Michaels was the first title holder to have a match on the WWF’s flagship television show. On the January 11th, 1993 episode Shawn Michaels beat Max Moon (a.k.a Konnan).

With Marty Jannetty gone from the company yet again, Shawn was left without an opponent to feud against. He found a willing challenger at WrestleMania IX as he faced Tatanka for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. Tatanka had previously beat Michaels by pinfall in two non-title match-ups. To add feul to the Shawn/Tatanka Mania match-up, Sherri came out to stand in Tatanka’s corner, thus combatting any interference from Luna Vachon who was positioned in Michaels’ corner. While Michaels feud with Tatanka ended following a count-out loss to the Native American, a new feud was about to begin.

Following the Lex Luger vs. Curt Henning WrestleMania IX match, Shawn Michaels attacked “Mr.Perfect” backstage. The feud between the two featured one of the top segments in the early history of Monday Night RAW. On the May 10th edition, Mr. Perfect attacked Shawn outside the building as Michaels was being interviewed by Lord Alfred Hayes and threw Michaels onto the hood of a car.

“The post-WrestleMania plan for me called for me to work an angle with Curt Hennig. I was psyched. He was my friend and had helped me so much over the years both inside and outside of the ring. Curt had been the Intercontinental Champion before me, and I molded my reign after his. I saw how he worked as a heel and how he made everyone look good by flying all over the place. It’s no coincidence that I was doing the same thing. Lord Alfred Hayes was going to be interviewing me outside the Manhattan Center, and Curt was going to come out of nowhere and attack me. He was going to throw me through the windshield of Howard Finkel’s brand new Cadillac, and then we were going to scuffle until the end of our segment. It was Vince’s idea to smash Howard’s new Cadillac. He liked to throw a few ribs in here and there and thought it would be funny to get Howard. He was going to fix it or even buy Howard a new car. After we taped it, Vince brought Howard into his office to show him what had happened. ‘I’m sorry, Howard,’ he said. ‘We didn’t know they were going to do all that.’ We could all see that Howard was really bummed, but he tried to stay strong. Vince let him wallow in misery for a little while before breaking the news to him that he had been had. Everyone got a laugh out of it, and Howard ended up with a brand-new Cadillac.”

The next week, Shawn Michaels issued an open challenge to anyone who wanted a shot at his Intercontinental title. A man wearing a disguise accepted Shawn’s challenge, and beat Michaels for the title following Curt Henning’s interference in the match. The new champion was an old rival and former friend of Shawn’s; Marty Jannetty.

THE BIRTH OF THE CLIQUE

On June 6th, in a move that would change the course of professional wrestling history, Shawn Michaels debuted his new bodyguard, Diesel (Kevin Nash) before his WWF Intercontinental title rematch against the new champion Marty Jannetty. Shortly after debuting, Diesel distracted Jannetty, allowing Michaels to hit Marty with a superkick for the 1-2-3. The next night on RAW, Shawn proudly displayed his new belt and new friend to the TV audience. Throughout the late spring and early summer, with Diesel by his side, Shawn Michaels turned away all challengers to his Intercontinental championship.

“I had been doing a lot of DQs and countouts. Every match ended in a similar manner. My opponent an I would put on an exciting show, but the endings were just brutal and took the wind out of our sails. Vince asked me what I wanted to do about it.

‘What about giving me a bodyguard?’

‘Who do you have in mind?’

Back in March after I had separated my shoulder in the match against the Nasty Boys, I was sitting home one Saturday night and decided to turn on the WCW Saturday evening show. I see this guy named Vinnie Vegas do an interview. He was really funny and entertaining, and I also couldn’t help but notice that he was huge. I remembered him and said, ‘I saw this guy on the WCW TV and he goes by the name of Vinnie Vegas.’

‘I can’t do that, Shawn. I don’t want any WCW guys coming in. There are legal and contract issues I don’t want to deal with.’

‘He’s very funny.’

‘It’s a contract issue and I don’t want to get into it. We’ll put this idea in the old computer and see what happens.’

I came out of that meeting and went looking for Rick and Scott Steiner. I knew they had been down in WCW and might know this guy’s situation. I found Rick and asked him, ‘Have you ever seen this guy in WCW who goes by the name Vinnie Vegas?’

‘Yeah, that’s Kevin Nash. He’s a good buddy of mine.’

‘Well, I’d like to do a bodyguard gimmick with him. Do you know what his contract situation is?’

Rick ran down the hall and called him. ‘He’d love to do it,’ Rick told me, ‘He’s going to go in tomorrow and see if he can get out of his contract.’

Kevin was under contract to WCW, but really wanted to come here. He went in to Ole Anderson, who was one of the bookers, and said, ‘I’ve tried the wrestling thing and it’s not really working out. I want to go back to being a bouncer. Can you let me out of my contract.’

Ole obviously didn’t have any plans for him, so he let him out. Kevin took a copy of his now dissolved contract and faxed it to the WWE office. They looked it over and sent him a plane ticket to come to New York for next week’s RAW.”

While there was no wrestler that was able to wrest the title away from Shawn Michaels, there was one man who was able to strip the title away from HBK. That person was Shawn Michaels boss; Vincent Kennedy McMahon. It was in September of 1993 that Shawn Michaels was suspended by the WWF for failing a steroid test. To this day, Shawn Michaels still denies that he ever failed the test. According to Shawn, he tried to convince Mr. McMahon that this was bullshit, and he never used steroids. However, Vince was still suspending him. Plus, Shawn had to give back the IC belt.

“About two weeks after SummerSlam, Vince called and told me I had tested positive for steroids. ‘What?’ I asked incredulously.

‘You tested positive for steroids.’

‘I’m not taking steroids.’

‘The test came back positive. You have to take six weeks off.’

‘I’m not taking six weeks. I didn’t do anything. Look at me, I’m out of shape. I’m drinking a case of beer every night with Nash and matching him meal for meal. I would tell you if I took steroids. Why would I of all people take steroids?’

‘I have no choice. You have to take the six weeks,’ Vince said.

‘Fine!’

‘Well, you have to give the belt back to us.’

‘I’m not giving the belt back to you.’

Vince was angry, but I wasn’t going to budge. I didn’t do what they said I did. If I was being punished for something I did wrong, no problem. But I didn’t do it. I told him about the things I did do and said, ‘If you want to punish me for that, that’s fine, but I’m not giving your belt back.’

‘Fine. We’ll talk in six weeks.’

And that’s how we left it.”

After Shawn Michaels was stripped of the title, it was announced that there would be a battle royal on RAW. The last to men left in the ring would then fight in a singles contest the following week with the winner getting the belt. On October 4th, 1993, Rick Martel and Razor Ramon were the last two men standing in the ring at the end of the battle royal. The next week, Razor Ramon beat Martel to become the new Intercontinental Champion.

Shawn Michaels made his television return at the 1993 Survivor Series when he took Jerry Lawler’s spot on the card against the Hart Brothers following Jerry Lawler’s legal problems.

It didn’t take long for Shawn Michaels to make his presence felt upon his return. During the first RAW following the Survivor Series. Shawn interfered in Diesel’s match against Ramon by trying to piledrive Razor onto his IC belt. From there the war was on. While Razor Ramon was billed as the Intercontinental Champion, Shawn Michaels was calling himself the real Intercontinental Champion. Their feud climaxed at WrestleMania X where Shawn and Razor fought in the first ladder match on a WWF pay per view. Shawn lost the match, in what will be remembered as one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history.

WRESTLEMANIA X

“When Scott and I started our program, we knew we were going to build to a match at WrestleMania X, but we had no idea we were going to do a Ladder match there, not even after doing a few at house shows in January 1995. I don’t know who actually came up with the idea. My guess is Pat Patterson, who always came up with great ideas, and pushed for it. It made perfect sense to do a Laddr match because both of us had legitimate claims to the IC title, and both of our belts could hang from the rafters above the ladder. There were two belts and there could only be one champion. Why not make one of us climb that ladder and grab to see who really deserved to be called the Intercontinental Champion? We didn’t have to force anything. It wasn’t like the ladder was thrown out there to be interesting or exciting. It fit within the story, and that’s why I think the Ladder matches they’ve had since can’t compare to this one. A lot of them were really good-they just seemed a little forced.

When we made it to the back, we knew we had stolen the show. We didn’t know that we had set a new standard. We just knew we had a great match. Soon, everyone else started putting the match over, and that really gave us the sense that we had done something out of the ordinary. The icing on the cake was when Gorilla Monsoon told us , ‘I think that may have been the greatest match I’ve ever seen.’ Gorilla Monsoon, of all people! He had been with the company since its inception in 1960. He wrestled for over twenty years and then went on to become a great announcer and front office person. He garnered more respect than just about anyone else in the business, and he was very old-school. He appreciated ring psychology and wasn’t into gimmicks like ladders. His was the compliment of compliments because he didn’t give out many.

My mentors had always told me that it didn’t matter if you won or lost, only that you put on a great match. I’m sure they were proud of their student. I lost the match, but I made my career. People began to look at me in a different light.”

NULL

article topics

RSarnecky

Comments are closed.