Product Description

He is one of the most charismatic showmen ever to grace a WWE ring. He was HBK: The Heartbreak Kid - the most resilient champion in WWE. And pound for pound, he may well be the toughest. He was the first Grand Slam champion - the only competitor to hold every title WWE had to offer at the time. Weighing in at 225 pounds, he was WWE Champion on three occasions, defeating men who were close to twice his size. From the very beginning of his spectacular career Michaels gained a reputation for pushing his body to extremes. He was willing to go the limit: to do whatever he had to do to put on a stunning show - and eventually his body paid the price. In his early thirties, an age when most Superstars are hitting their prime, Michaels had to bow out of the spotlight, plagued by recurrent injuries which had ended - or so he thought - his career. But then, sensationally, after four years out of the ring, in June 2002 'The Showstopper' returned to a rapturous reception from which he has never looked back. He is now once again wrestling at his physical peak and it is a measure of the regard in which he is held that in late 2004 no less than 4 million WWE fans voted him the man they most wanted to see take on World Heavyweight Champion, Triple H at Taboo Tuesday. This is the full story of his truly remarkable comeback, and of his glittering twenty-year-plus career.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #260507 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Customer Reviews

very interesting
as a big Shawn michaels fan i really wanted to read this book as he has always kept his private life private. I really enjoyed this book and i read it in 2 days (which was good for me as it has 340 pages)it explains his life before wrestling, his time at the wwe (he explains what happened with bret before bret left) and also talks about his wife and kids. this is a must for any HBK fan and is worth a read for a wrestling fan even if you didnt like HBK.enjoy

Poor, poor HBK.
I bought this book on the notion that it would be an entertaining read and a great look at a mans career, of which Shawn has had a great one. In all honesty I thought he realised it a little early, especially since he has fought Hogan and Vince since, and I would have loved to have heard his thoughts on this, especially on the backstage issues involving the Hogan work. Since Have a Nice Day is my favourite autobiography, Ive pretty much set it as the template of which a wrestling bio should be set so I'll probably be refering to it a few times in the review.

Firstly, I want to point out. Am I a Shawn Michaels fan? No! Do I respect his work? Yes, very much. Its impossible not too. The man goes out and puts on a show every times hes in the ring, heck, the guy wrestled with a broken back just to get Steve Austin over. That demands respect. The book itself, begins telling tales of Shawns youth, and provide some very funny and humours tales, about his mother, his brother, school friends and his temper. While he doesnt go into huge detail like Mick Foley did, he paints a very interesting picture and its enjoyable to read about how he got into wrestling and his training. Again though, he doesnt go into as deep as Mick did in his book which hurts a little because you dont learn about the emotional and physical pain he goes through. More like 'he was great and gifted and he would do well'.

Once he gets through his early years and into his times with Marty and being the Rockers, the book goes down hill a little for me. Instead of offering funny stories, of which there could be many, he spends to much time in the book making himself look like the innocent victum, how he was always in the wrong place at the wrong time, how everyone hated him and no one understood him. Shawn was a piece of work, he admits it, but to many people have said to much of the same thing over the years to allow him a get out of jail free card. He lied his face off for nearly 7 years about the screwing of Bret Hart, even lying to his face and 'swearing to God' that he knew nothing about it, so to read about how he was innocent in so many of the dealings of what went on stretches the imagination a bit.

Especially that when you consider, Shawn was the top dog, the champion and always seemed to be in the main event shuffle, despite all these things happening to poor HBK. He always takes pot shot after pot shot against Bret and buries him on more than one occasion, claming he was the carrier and Bret was just the load. If you've watched Brets DVD, and heard Bret put Shawn over, despite how he feels about him, it just makes Shawn like incredibly petty. A great instance of his disliking for Bret is when he calls Bret 'not a great wrestler'. Now, Bret is a man who made any man he worked with look like a killer. Bret and Shawn hate eachother, theres no doubting this, but its Shawns argument that makes the statement laughable. He claims Bret only wrestled his way and that caused problems for Kevin (Diesel) in their matches. For the record, Kevin Nash has had 5 good matches in his whole career and 3 of those matches were with Bret. Now, this should easily point out that Bret made these matches work, but Shawn refuses to acknowledge this and buries Bret further.

If you can look past the sob stories, of which there are many and the knocks at Bret, at which there are many more, you'll enjoy the book. He does get mixed up and contradicts himself on a few occasions, claming how he didnt mind loseing to Bret, only then saying he DID mind loseing to him. Another funny point is when he says two good wrestlers (himself and Mr Perfect "Curt Hening") just couldnt have a classic match, conveniently forgetting that two good wrestlers (Bret Hart and Mr Perfect "Curt Hening") had two classic wrestling matches. He also conveniently forgets how he 'well knowingly' tried to hold down The Rock (which has lead to heat that exsists to this day between them.)

Its like I said, I am not a Shawn Michaels fan and knowing how he has had drug problems and having watched his shoot interview where he looks out of his mind and completely contradicts everything he says, it makes his sob stories in this book a LOT harder to believe, and will to anyone who has actually seen the shoot interview. However, despites Shawns constant Bret bashing and sob stories, the book is a great read and any HBK fan should not go without it. It is really interesting to see how he met Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Triple H and how he howned his character and adjusted it with the times. It also helps to provide an interesting look on his character and how he has changed since finding God.

Mr Michael Shawn Hickenbottom to HBK
Mixed feelings, I have always been a Shawn Michaels fan, but I have to admit that I think that he has been a little dishonest when writing this book when making refrences to his old foe Bret Hart and the influence he and his Kliq had on the WWE/F. He also skirts around some of the relationships he has had over the years especially with Marty Jannetty, he makes refrences to the fact Marty disappeared, had troubles but never went in to the detail. I think it is quite significant that he never made mention of Marty in his thank you page, I can only think that they still do not get on despite what he says in parts of the book, there seems to be contradictions throughout, but you can't help but read on to see how his perception of events transpired. It doesn't rate with Mick Foley's originals (but what does) but it does rate very well against some of the other WWE books that have disappointed (The Rock, Hardy Boyz, Chyna and Lita's spring to mind). I hope the WWE can come to agreement with Bret to release his side of the story.