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    Diary of a Heartbreak Kid: Shawn Michaels' Journey into the WWE Hall of Fame
    Diary of a Heartbreak Kid: Shawn Michaels' Journey into the WWE Hall of Fame
    Diary of a Heartbreak Kid: Shawn Michaels' Journey into the WWE Hall of Fame
    Ebook112 pages48 minutes

    Diary of a Heartbreak Kid: Shawn Michaels' Journey into the WWE Hall of Fame

    By Craig Tello

    2.5/5

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    About this ebook

    It’s the week of WrestleMania, an event that’s flourished in parallel with Shawn Michaels’s decorated career, an annual spectacular that The Heartbreak Kid seized time after time as his personal stage of excellence. Such a grand setting could not be more appropriate for WWE’s one and only Showstopper to add “Mr. Hall of Fame” to his myriad monikers.

    From his debut in 1984 to his final WWE match in 2010, the world has seen Michaels allure audiences and perform like no other entertainer in history. But that’s inside the ring. What if you could walk beside the incomparable Heartbreak Kid outside the squared circle, beyond the curtain, and spend four days with the man living a boyhood dream?

    Diary of a Heartbreak Kid shadows Shawn Michaels for an immensely poignant occasion of reflection, introspection, and celebration as The Heartbreak Kid is inducted into the esteemed WWE Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 2, 2011.

    In a moment-to-moment narrative, Diary captures the raw emotions and unfiltered candor of The Heartbreak Kid as he’s reunited with family, friends, and a veritable who’s who of squared circle lore—Triple H, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Ric Flair, The Rock, Vince McMahon—all of whom have crossed and shaped Michaels’s path to the Hall of Fame.

    With his beautiful wife, two jubilant children, time tested faith, and nearly three decades of four-cornered memories, the retired Michaels steps back into the warmth of the limelight during the weekend of WWE’s grandest extravaganza to experience the greatest honor in sports-entertainment. And with Diary of a Heartbreak Kid, you’re riding shotgun.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWorld Wrestling Entertainment
    Release dateDec 27, 2011
    ISBN9781451668889
    Diary of a Heartbreak Kid: Shawn Michaels' Journey into the WWE Hall of Fame
    Author

    Craig Tello

    Craig Tello is the bestselling author of several WWE book titles. A former WWE content executive and a past contributor to NPR, Marvel Entertainment, and more, he is now head of content strategy at EA Competitive Gaming. He resides in Stamford, Connecticut with his family.  

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      Book preview

      Diary of a Heartbreak Kid - Craig Tello

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      PROLOGUE: A Showstopper Is Born

      DAY ONE: Thursday, March 31, 2011

      DAY TWO: Friday, April 1, 2011

      DAY THREE: Saturday, April 2, 2011

      DAY FOUR: Sunday, April 3, 2011

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      It was uncomfortably silent when Shawn Michaels warily toed the aisle for the first time in his career on October 16, 1984. In an undersize arena that’s possibly no longer standing in Texas today, a Lake Charles crowd devoid of reaction met Michaels, a sandy-haired youth with a pure and charming smile, as he crossed through the ring ropes.

      More than two decades later, an attending audience that was exponentially larger—plus a worldwide viewership watching from home—sat in respectful awe when HBK, a veritable ring marvel, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 2, 2011.

      Richly inspired by his athleticism, showmanship and expressions of genuine heart, the WWE Universe embraced the Showstopper’s high honor as he was rightly exalted for performing like no one else in all of sports entertainment.

      In one night, his legendary laddertop leap, fulfilled boyhood dream and repeated masterful dances on the Grandest Stage of Them All were celebrated in grandeur—on the eve of WrestleMania XXVII, appropriately enough.

      Michaels’s squared circle career was born just months before Vince McMahon hatched WrestleMania—two phenomena that evolved in parallel until Michaels seized the event as his personal stage for excellence. Christened "Mr. WrestleMania" after consistently unforgettable performances, HBK completed his grandest ambition at the Show of Shows, but this time there was no championship, no rivalry, no battleground.

      This time, it was simply a guaranteed glory that Michaels indisputably earned over the course of a twenty-six-year career: entry into the WWE Hall of Fame.

      PROLOGUE: A Showstopper Is Born

      tello_001.tif

      1

      BUILT BY ASSOCIATION

      All it took was the initial exposure to Joe Blanchard’s Southwest Championship Wrestling in the HemisFair Arena to convince Shawn Michaels. Raucously cheering for the likes of Bruiser Bob Sweetan, Michaels, a self-admittedly shy youth, conjured a dream to chase and a passion to fulfill from the sound of the very first ring bell.

      Michaels was introduced to and trained by Jose Lothario, and his squared circle apprenticeship earned him a spot on the roster of the American Wrestling Association (AWA). Here Shawn was first paired up with an equally energetic competitor with a comparably frenetic ring style: Marty Jannetty. As the Midnight Rockers, the young tag team kicked off their careers, ascended their division ranks, captured the AWA World Tag Team Championship and readjusted their aspirations to a larger pond with much bigger fish in WWE.

      tello_002.tif

      2

      ROCKIN’ OUT, ROCKIN’ IN

      Following an invitation by WWE officials, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty landed in June 1987 on the doorstep of Vince McMahon’s vastly growing franchise, where the pair clashed with Jose Estrada and Jimmy Jack Funk in their first-ever WWE match. Despite an unsavory first impression among fellow Superstars that led to the dismissal of Jannetty and Michaels, the revitalized, less rebellious Rockers were welcomed back to WWE on July 7, 1988.

      The rugged road to the truest proving ground in sports entertainment would pay off in spades as The Rockers—with their neon fringe and heavily teased hair tresses—propelled themselves upward to be among the most prolific tag team specialists in WWE history.

      3.jpg

      3

      A REAL GLASS ACT

      Ironically similar to a crack in a glass windshield, a trivial incident between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty led to a much more severe fracture during a visit to Brutus The Barber Beefcake’s Barber Shop in late 1991. Michaels’s ego had grown too large for

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