Michael Sean Hickenbottom is a former American professional wrestler, actor and television host. He is better known as Sean Michaels. He is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Going in for sports from the age of six, he decided to become a professional wrestler when he was 12. Later, he dropped out of college and joined the National Wrestling Alliance, where he began training with Mexican professional wrestler Jose Lothario. Over the next few years, he honed his skills. He performed under several pseudonyms, including The Heartbreak Kid, The Boy Toy, and The Showstopper. Michaels announced his final resignation in 2010, and a year later was admitted to the WWE Hall of Fame. Since then, he served as ambassador for the promotion of wrestling from 2012 to 2015, and since 2016 he has been a trainer at the WWE Center.
Childhood and youth
Michael Sean Hickenbottom was born July 22, 1965 in Chandler, Arizona, and is the youngest child of Richard and Carol Hickenbottom. He has two older brothers, Randy and Scott, and Sister Cherie.
Richard was an officer in the US Air Force, so Hickenbott and his brothers and sister grew up moving from one base to another. In the early years of his life, the family remained in Reading, Berkshire, England, and then moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he spent his childhood.
As a child, he did not particularly like his name, Michael, and preferred that his name was just Sean. His athletic talents began to show when he became a member of his school's football team at age six. At 12, he realized that he wanted to become a professional fighter. In high school, he often had to do wrestling exercises on a talent show.
He then enrolled at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Nevertheless, he realized that college life was not for him, and dropped out of school for the sake of wrestling.
Career
Studying with Jose Lothario, Hickenbottom took the name Sean Michaels for his performance in the ring and made his debut as a professional wrestler in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) on October 16, 1984. He has also performed on All Texas Wrestling Stars (TASW) (1985 - 1986) and the American Wrestling Association (AWA) (1986 - 1987).
In 1987, he began performing at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a member of The Rockers (along with Marty Giannetti), but was fired after two weeks. Because of this, he and Giannetti had to return to AWA.
A year later, WWE hired them, and The Rockers appeared in the WWF ring on July 7, 1988. Soon the group became extremely popular among women and children. The team eventually broke up on December 2, 1991, when Michaels first hit Giannetti and then threw it through a glass window.
Then WWE management combined him with Sensational Sherry. In his first match at WrestleMania VIII, he was included in a match against Tito Santana.
In June 1993, he formed a coalition with Diesel, who is also his friend. Michaels was suspended for two months after a positive steroid test in September of that year. His match with Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X was awarded the highest rating by Dave Meltzer from the Wrestling Observer newsletter.
By the beginning of 1995, Michaels became the most popular wrestler to sign a contract with WWE. At that time, professional wrestling was a highly competitive industry. Two companies, WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), rose to unprecedented heights.
Michaels had a good relationship with WWE chairman Vince McMahon, who allowed him and his friends, Diesel, Ramon, and rookie Hunter Hirst Helmsley (known together as The Kliq) to become dominant wrestlers.
Recent years in wrestling
In May 1996, Diesel and Ramon left WWE in WCW.
In Sean's career, there were only a few serious cases of hostility in the ring, which had the same significance as the one between Michaels and Bret Hitman Hart. All this culminated in an incident known as the Montreal Screwdriver.
Hart was supposed to lose the world heavyweight title, losing to Michaels, but he did not want to do this in the 1997 Survivor series in his hometown of Montreal. Despite this, McMahon decided that the title would have a new owner, but did not tell Hart about it. After the match, a surprised and furious Hart spat on McMahon and left WWE.
In a fight with Undertaker, Sean Michaels suffered serious back injuries in 1998 at the Royal Rumble. These injuries eventually forced him to resign for the first time the night after WrestleMania XVI. From November 1998 to June 2000, he worked as WWF Commissioner.
He returned to WWE in June 2002. Over the next eight years, he performed with Kurt Angle, Triple H, Chris Jericho, John Cina and Edge. The final match of his career, Undertaker vs. Sean Michaels, took place at WrestleMania XXVI in 2010.
Activities outside the ring
In the following years, in addition to being the WWE Ambassador and trainer at the WWE Center, he also participated in the television show. In 2017, his films were released: Sean Michaels appeared on the screen in the films “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone” and “Pure Country, Pure Heart”.
He also published his memoir, “The Struggle for My Life: Legend, Reality and Faith of the WWE Superstar” on February 10, 2015 through Zondervan, an international Christian media publishing company. The book was co-written with David Thomas.
He did not ignore the music either: Sean Michaels released two albums (State of the Union and Perfecto Vegas).
Awards and Achievements
Sean Michaels won the WWF Championship three times (March 31, 1996, January 19, 1997 and November 9, 1997) and once the World Heavyweight Championship (November 17, 2002).
He is twice the winner of Royal Rumble (1995, 1996).
During his career, Sean Michaels has received 15 Slammy awards, including five Match of the Year awards (1994, 1996, 1997, 2008 and 2009).
In 2011, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame with Hacksaw Jim Daggan, Bullet Bob Armstrong, Sunny and Abdullah the Butcher.
Personal life
Sean Michaels married Theresa Lynn Wood in 1988. In 1994, they divorced. He then met Rebecca Curci, a member of WCW The Nitro Girls in the 1990s, through a mutual friend named Rich Minzer. They married on March 31, 1999, at the Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple has two children: son Cameron Cade (born January 15, 2000) and daughter Cheyenne (August 19, 2004).
In the 1990s, he took drugs and alcohol to cope with his anger and depression. His marriage to Kurchi and the subsequent birth of their son finally convinced him to put his life in order. After Michaels left wrestling in 2010, he and his wife sold a house in San Antonio and moved to their Texas ranch.