WWE: Shawn Michaels - Heartbreak & Triumph - DVD Review

Still working on getting the older review stuff up on the site. This was originally typed up on December 2, 2007.

I watched the new WWE Shawn Michaels Heartbreak & Triumph DVD that was released last week. I'm a huge Shawn Michaels fan and have been for over 15 years now so there was no doubt that I was looking forward to this DVD set. The DVD covers the ups and downs of his career. The biography part of the DVD runs 2 hours and 2 minutes in length. Various people interviewed for the DVD are Shawn, his parents, his wife Rebecca, his pastors, his high school friend and also his high school football coach, Triple H, Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Chris Jericho, Mick Foley, Ted Dibiase, Marty Jannetty, Pat Patterson, and plenty more. I thought I'd go over some random thoughts on the DVD as I scribbled down some notes as I was watching it. The story covers his whole life including his parents talking about how they were hoping that Shawn would grow out of his wrestling phase as a kid. Shawn and Marty Jannetty were put together in a random tag team match and Shawn said he knew immediately that there was something special there. They were later paired up in the AWA. Shawn and Marty were always known as the party guys and trouble sometimes followed them. Sensational Sherri tells a story of how there were so many hotels that they got kicked out of cause of Shawn and Marty. They moved on to WWF after Pat Patterson had been watching them wrestle on TV. Things went bad though when they got there and felt immediately under a microscope. They decided to lay low cause they knew that they needed to be on their best behavior. Jimmy Jack Funk came up to them one night (in a bar if I remember right) and had some alcohol in him. He demanded to see what kind of party guys that they were made of. Shawn finally got tired of hearing it and picked up a glass and broke it over his own head. The story got blown out of proportion the next day and the talk had turned to how they trashed the bar completely. Their reputation proceeded them so their side of the story didn't go over at all. Ironic thing is that Jimmy Jack was one of them that hung them out to dry. Shawn and Marty were fired by Vince. Their dream had been shattered and they went back to working other territories. Shawn said that his heart wasn't in it at that point cause everything else just seemed ridiculous besides working for WWF. They went back to the AWA and also worked Memphis. Shawn started having fun again and they were then brought back to the WWF. They were determined to make this turn last and it did. The Rockers started their run in the WWF. The phantom title switch is shown on the DVD which has never seen the light of day as far as airing. The 2 out of 3 falls match against The Hart Foundation which was at a Saturday Night's Main Event taping had a problem when the top rope broke during the match. Shawn says the match looked terrible cause of it. The Rockers won the tag team titles and Shawn comments that they weren't happy with winning the tag team titles in that kind of match. They found out that the match was not going to air and that the belts would go back to the Hart Foundation due to the top rope breaking. Hmm, I've heard different stories about what occurred there. I've heard the constant story that Jim Neidhart's contract was up at the time of the title change. He hadn't resigned and the belts were put on The Rockers. After the match happened and before the show itself aired, Neidhart resigned and the decision was made to leave the belts on the Hart Foundation. That isn't mentioned on the DVD however. Great compliments from Arn Anderson where he discusses working with The Rockers. He said that he felt that he and Tully (as the Brain Busters) brought a level of maturity to The Rockers helping to elevate them. He then felt that after that, they learned things from The Rockers as well. Arn goes on to say that The Rockers may be the best tag team that he was ever in the ring with. Chris Jericho is all over this DVD and provides great comments. He talks about how The Rockers are still his favorite tag team ever cause they were doing things that other wrestlers weren't doing at that time. The decision was made to split up Shawn and Marty. Shawn admits that things were starting to get rocky between them cause they had been together for so long. He added that he was wanting more as well in his career. Jericho gives a great comment on the Barber Shop segment when the split of The Rockers happened saying that he was shocked and angry at what Shawn did saying "why Shawn?". Pat Patterson was the one that pushed for Sherri to manage Shawn telling Shawn that she'd be able to bring him to the next level as she had managed so many other great singles wrestlers. Shawn wasn't crazy at all with how he was being pushed as the sexy boy gimmick. He wasn't comfortable with it at first. After Sherri was gone, Shawn decided that he needed a bodyguard. He was watching WCW Saturday Night and saw Vinnie Vegas otherwise known as Kevin Nash. He thought the guy was hilarious and started asking questions about him. Word got to Nash and Nash told Ole Anderson that wrestling wasn't working out for him and wanted to quit. He got his release and went to work for WWF to be Shawn's bodyguard. LOL. The two clicked immediately and became good friends. Shawn was suspended when Vince told him that he had flunked a steroids test. Shawn greatly denies that he's ever taken steroids saying that he was taking prescription medicine at the time and maybe someone gave him something that showed up without his knowledge. Shawn flat out says very seriously that he has NEVER taken them. WWF wanted the Intercontinental belt back as he was the champion. Shawn said that he wasn't sending the belt back. So, when Shawn came back after suspension, they decided to do the two champions angle which led to the Razor Ramon ladder match. Everyone puts over how great that match was and it really was!! Triple H says that Ric Flair always says how Shawn went out that night and had a great match with a ladder. Not sure if that is Flair taking a little shot at Scott Hall or not. Talk turns to The Kliq after that. If you aren't familiar with The Kliq, this was the name that was given to the group of Shawn, Diesel, Razor, 123 Kid, and HHH behind the scenes cause they always ran together. Pat Patterson and Ted Dibiase talk about how the group could be too much at times. Shawn said that they didn't have pull like people thought but weren't afraid to speak their minds on things. They cover the concussion angle with Shawn and Owen Hart where Shawn passed out in the ring live on Raw. Shawn had been attacked in a bar a few weeks earlier. Triple H comments that Shawn was being Shawn and some guys probably decided to show up this wrestler. Triple H also adds that he, Hall, and Nash were out of the country at the time and usually they all looked after each other. Kid was the only one with him and Shawn got beaten up badly. Shawn did come back after a few weeks and he pushed hard to do the concussion angle. When it happened, Shawn says only two or three people knew that it was angle and that didn't include the doctors. They took him to the hospital to make it look very realistic. It fooled me watching on TV. That is for sure!! Moving to WrestleMania XII, Pat Patterson was the one that pushed for the ironman match with Bret. Vince didn't want to do a match that long in length concerned that fans wouldn't want a match that long on a PPV. When Shawn won the belt, Vince told Shawn that he wanted him to have fun with his title reign and enjoy it. That didn't happen. Shawn put a lot of pressure on himself being the top guy. Triple H thinks that Shawn knew that he was the best guy in the business and wanted to prove it. Hall and Nash decided to leave for WCW and that hurt Shawn that two of his best friends were leaving. This brings us to the Farewell To The Kliq show at MSG. They once again showed the bootleg footage of the event which always surprises me. That is the only footage that exists of that moment except it appears that WWF did get some footage with their own cameras of other points in the night since they showed some footage of it on the DVD. The Kliq had talked about doing some kind of farewell for Hall and Nash for weeks leading to the show. They ran it by Vince who didn't really want to do it cause it broke kayfabe with some being faces and heels. It would confuse fans. Vince reluctantly agreed to let them do it. So, it all happens and they celebrate together at the end of the show. Vince asks if "it was important to them?" which they said yes, and Vince said "well, it was important to me then too". Bruce Pritchard comments on the DVD saying that he thought it was a "slap in the face" to the business. There was a lot of backlash over it and Vince had to lay out punishment for it. As has been talked about since it happened, Triple H took the punishment over it. He was the only one that could. Hall and Nash were gone. Shawn was champion. Triple H was the only one left. Triple H was said to have taken his punishment and not complained at all. Triple H says that Shawn was hurt over them leaving and told Hall and Nash to not come crying back to WWF when WWF was destroying WCW in the ratings in a few months. Well, that didn't happen as the nWo angle launched. Triple H says that Shawn became an "angry young man" trying to carry the company along while they were losing in the ratings. Vince and Foley talk about how Shawn was the glue holding the company together. Shawn makes a comment of "follow that" in the DVD which is something that I've heard over the years. Shawn would go out and knock a homerun out of the park with a match and then yell at the others to "follow that". Vince said that Shawn was very difficult to work with a times and that he took stuff from Shawn that he didn't take from anyone else before or after Shawn. If Shawn was told to do something that he didn't want to do, he'd do it but wouldn't like it. The Rumble 1997 win was special to Shawn as he felt that he was responsible to fill that Alamo Dome to capacity due to it being his home town. He did and he talks of how special that WWF title win was to him especially having his family and friends there. This brings us to when Shawn stepped away from the WWF. He forfeited the title in February 1997 due to a knee injury that his doctor told him could end his career. During this time, he also said that his mom made a comment to him that he didn't smile like he used to. She said it's like you've lost your smile. This was where the "lost my smile" speech came from with the title forfeiting. He was completely burnt out from all the pressure on him and was basically miserable. Shawn did comment on the rumor that has been flying around since it happened that his leaving didn't have to do with the fact that he was told that he was going to drop the belt back to Bret at WrestleMania. That was the original plan. Glad that didn't work out looking back cause Austin/Bret at that event may have never happened. They skip ahead to DX in late 1997. Shawn and Triple H pushed Vince to do more pushing the boundaries stuff and bring attitude to the show cause that was where the company was going and what the fans were into. They show the footage from Raw where DX aired the Farewell To The Kliq footage and yelled at Vince about it. I remember this at the time with how stunned I was that they were talking about and airing the footage of that moment. I was stunned!!! They started saying stuff that they wanted to say and it made others say true feelings back at them on the air as well. Funny comment from Jericho where he talks about a moment that Shawn was in an anklelock by Ken Shamrock but yet still had his lollipop in his mouth. Jericho laughs at it saying "it was very funny but what an a******". I cracked up at that. There were several DX segments where USA called WWF threatening to pull them off the air. This was where the DX public address came from where they mocked the call on what they were supposed to say and not say. This is the presidential address looking thing if you're confused on which one it was. WWF then got a call the next day from USA saying that they loved it and thought it was hilarious. Triple H says that DX was them trying to have fun and not make the business as stiff. We then move on to Montreal. Triple H says that he was the one that came up with the idea of what they could do to Bret commenting on how mad he was that Bret didn't want to do business right. Ted Dibiase comments that he still doesn't understand why Bret didn't want to lose there. The decision was made to do it and Vince told them to not let on to anyone ever that they knew in advance what was going to happen. After it was over, they got back to the locker room and Triple H says that the Harris Brothers met them at the door. They understood why it had happened and stayed with Shawn and Triple H all night to make sure nothing happened to them. JR says that he felt a lot of talent turned on Shawn that night when it wasn't Shawn's fault cause Bret was already leaving. They don't mention on the DVD how a lot of wrestlers were threatening to quit and not show up at Raw the next night. Foley was one of them as he talks in his book that he was about to not go to Raw over what had happened. We move on to Royal Rumble 1998. This is the casket match with The Undertaker that basically ended Shawn's wrestling career. It was kind of a fluke deal where Shawn was backdropped out of the ring and his lower back caught the edge of the casket on the floor when he landed. Shawn said that he was fine immediately but days later, he couldn't walk. Read his book where he explains the terrible pain that he was in. It's incredible. The doctor said that it was a torn up disc in his back. The doctor said that he could get him through WrestleMania but that was going to be it. Shawn would have to quit. This was when Shawn really went downhill knowing that his young career was getting cut short before he was ready. This wasn't on the DVD but I will say that Shawn did not have any physical contact for weeks leading up to WrestleMania trying to protect him. There was one time where he superkicked Austin on the stage on Raw and it sent pain all through his body. When that news got out at the time, I kept wondering how is he going to get through WrestleMania? They go into the DX workout that took place outdoors days before WrestleMania and how Shawn was not in the right mental state at that time at all. The match with Austin vs. Shawn at WrestleMania is covered and I know that Shawn hates that match cause of how bad of shape he is in. If you've never seen this match, you need to watch it. I like this match cause it showed just how hard Shawn was working in this match while barely being able to walk. Just watch how much pain that he is in through the whole match and how he still does all his normal stuff. This is one of the toughest in ring performances that I've ever seen in my life. It is just incredible and at the time, I knew this was his last hurrah and was just concerned on him getting through the thing. He did and JR comments about how happy that he was for Austin but then sad for Shawn. They don't comment about this on the DVD but Shawn was very angry about the Austin shirt being laid on top of him by Tyson. He was very against that happening cause of the symbolism but it did anyway. I think this is what set him off and resulted in him making a scene at the post show press conference which is shown. Shawn says that after his career was cut short, he did drugs and was just in terrible shape. Shawn says that he won't call it a depression but instead "feeling sorry for himself". He was home watching Nitro one night and saw this Nitro Girl named Whisper and was just amazed at how beautiful that she was. He eventually met her and they hit it off. They got married and she became pregnant with their child. She told Shawn that he had 9 months to clean himself up but he didn't. Triple H talks about how Shawn showed up at Raw in 2001 which was the night that Shane McMahon showed up at Nitro. He says that Shawn was not in his right mind at all. Triple H says that Undertaker leaned over to him and said that he'd just about had it with this guy. Triple H got Shawn out of there. There had been plans to do something with Shawn on TV but this scene ended those chances as Vince said he was done with him. Shawn then proceeded to call out Triple H in front of everyone making a scene saying that his best friend had stabbed him in the back and finished him off. Shawn tears up when talking about what made him turn around. He says that his son was crawling on him one night while he was an induced soma sleep commenting that dad was sleeping. His son was getting old enough to understand things that were going on. He says that he asked his wife one night where all the cookies went. She replied that you and your son ate them all and he had no remembrance of this. He called Kevin Nash who he hadn't talked to in a long time and they had a long conversation. Nash said that he needed to clean up now. Shawn commented on how he hadn't talked to Triple H in a long time to which Nash said that was Shawn's fault. Shawn said that he turned to his wife, Rebecca, and told her that he was done doing drugs and drinking and that was it. This is what snapped him out of it and things turned around immediately. Rebecca is a very religious person and he went with her to a bible study shortly afterwards and it changed his life. He became involved in the church and accepted Jesus as his lord and savior. Shawn called Triple H and talked to him. They had a good talk and Shawn thanked him for sticking by him all these years. He later got a call wanting him to return to WWE. He asked Rebecca what she thought and she was all for it. Shawn reappeared and was part of the nWo. Shawn kept wondering if he could do one more match. He asked Triple H if he'd want to wrestle him in one last match to which Triple H was all for. That match took place at SummerSlam 2002. Triple H comments at how amazed that he was at how good Shawn was for someone who hadn't been in the ring for over 4 years. If you've never seen that match, you really ought to watch it. You'd never know that he had been out of the ring for that long and it is incredible with the performance that he gives. They move to Survivor Series 2002 where he won the title and Rebecca says that the reaction that Shawn was given that night was incredible. She said that wrestling fans are so loyal to who they like and loved the reaction that he got. They move ahead to WrestleMania XIX with Chris Jericho. Jericho talks about how excited he was for this match cause he was a Shawn fan all of his life and how Shawn influenced much of his career. Jericho says that during the match that "he was 99% professional and 1% lunatic raving mark" getting to be in the ring with Shawn. Shawn says that match boosted his confidence a ton letting him know that he can still do this. The DVD jumps way ahead to Hogan/Shawn in 2005. As you can expect, these are two very clashing egos. Shawn says that he wanted the match to be face vs. face but Hogan later changed it wanting it to be classic face vs. heel. He also wanted it to be classic 98 heel Shawn which Shawn reluctantly agreed to. Dibiase says that Shawn should have won the match but it wasn't going to happen. Jericho says that the match was fun and one of Hogan's best matches ever. Jericho also points out how Shawn got the best match possible out of Vince McMahon at WrestleMania. Shawn talks about how the ladder that he jumped off of during it was taller than he was expecting. Talk moves to the Backlash match where Vince and Shane wrestled Shawn and God. Jericho comments saying that it was the "dumbest match ever for WWE beating Kennel In The Cell as far as an idea". Shawn didn't comment on this match at all. The story moves on to the DX reunion. Shawn said that years earlier that he would do or say anything and is now limited on what he'll do. He says he takes the responsibility seriously with what he does for kids and how he acts on TV. The story finishes up with talk of Shawn and Cena. Triple H confirms the story that it was originally going to be Triple H vs. Cena at WrestleMania. Triple H went down with the bad injury and he was happy to see Shawn get to be back in the WrestleMania main event. Shawn said that he had a lot of pressure on him in the match with Cena being the veteran. He knew if the match was bad that he would take all the heat for it. The match went good and Cena said that he was honored to be in the main event with Shawn. Some summaries at the end commenting on Shawn's career. Triple H calls Shawn the best person he has ever been in the ring with. JR says that Shawn is top one or two in ring performers ever.

The deleted stories on the DVD cover Shawn and Angle from WrestleMania 21. Shawn talks about how he trained hard to wrestle Angle knowing he'd have to have his "A" game to keep up with Angle. Really good feature on that match. There are several different stories including one about a fight between Shawn and Marty in WWF which Marty says that Roddy Piper instigated. Randy Savage ended up saving an arrest from happening when he arrived at the building and the police were in awe of him. He gave them autographs and no arrest happened. LOL. Marty says that it was a fight that shouldn't have happened but it started a separation between the two. One really funny story is about the bad brown tights that Shawn wore at Survivor Series 2002. Shawn talks in his book about how embarrassed that he was to wear them. The people that were making the tights hadn't finished them and they looked terrible. Jericho says that Shawn always wore these really cool flashy tights and was suddenly wearing these poopy brown tights. Triple H laughs about it saying that he looked over at Shawn in the locker room with a look of "are you kidding"? Shawn asked if they looked bad and Triple H gave a "no, they're great" response while thinking oh my goodness those things look bad.

Some stuff that was left off the DVD that I would have to have seen covered in the documentary. They didn't touch at all on the Shawn/Marty series of matches that they had with their feud. They had some great matches on the early days of Raw. They covered the Kliq but I would have liked to have seen a little of the last Shawn/Diesel match from Good Friends Better Enemies to go along with Hall and Nash leaving. They showed clips of the Shawn/Mankind match from Mind Games but didn't really go into great detail on it. That was a great match and definitely one of my favorite Shawn matches of all time. It could actually be argued as my favorite. They showed the Shawn title win from Sid but didn't really cover that feud at all including Sid turning on him years earlier. The title loss at Survivor Series 1996 to Sid wasn't covered at all. Come to think of it, they really didn't mention Sid at all even when they covered the Shawn victory at Royal Rumble 1997. They didn't really talk about how Shawn turned face in 1995 and how it all happened. One thing that was left out and I completely understand why was that they didn't cover Shawn's first time back in the main event at a WrestleMania since his return. That was WrestleMania XX against Triple H and Chris Benoit. That was a big moment that had to be overlooked now due to the circumstances around Benoit. I also should point out that Benoit is still continuing to be edited out of the Monday Night Wars show on WWE 24/7. They didn't really go much into major detail on how badly Shawn and Bret got along. They didn't touch at all on the fight backstage between the two at Raw in 1997 where they had to be pulled apart.

Thoughts on the matches. I didn't watch a lot of the matches on the set as I've seen 80% of them. I did watch the ones that I haven't seen. The one that I watched first was the tag team title change with The Rockers and The Hart Foundation. I have always wanted to see this match as I remember reading about it in the magazines as a kid and how the top rope breaking resulted in the reversed decision of the tag team titles. The match never aired on TV. There is no commentary on the match. This was a Saturday Night's Main Event taping so I'm sure that they just decided to not add commentary to it later on due to them deciding not to air it. I actually enjoyed the no commentary on the match as you were able to listen to the match more as far as the referee, crowd, and the wrestlers. I can definitely see why they didn't want to air this match as it is kind of a disaster once the top rope breaks during the second fall. Neidhart goes flying into the corner and that is when the rope falls apart on the other side of the ring. The reaction of when it happens is interesting to watch as you can see everyone figuring out what to do. You can also see anger too from the guys knowing that this match is going to look bad now no matter what they do. In between the second and third falls, the crew hits the ring and fixes the top rope. The Rockers win the match in the end and win the WWF tag team titles for their one and only time only for it never to be recognized. Lots of other good matches on it including the Rumble 95 win where Shawn wins after entering at number one, Rockers vs. Brain Busters from MSG which I've seen lately on something, Shawn vs. Jarrett from 1995 which I think is Jarrett's best match ever, Rockers reunion match from 2005 on Raw, the one hour match with Cena and Shawn from Raw back in the spring, a couple of fun AWA matches, and more. Nice that they put stuff on this set that wasn't on the Vault set from a few years back.


Overall, I give this DVD a big thumbs up!! The biography is very well produced. I'd definitely recommend picking up the book as a companion to the DVD to get the complete story due to time constraints on the DVD. When hearing the theme song used on the menus, I again have to ask why WWE can't get the updated version of his theme song. Why do they still use the 1993 version of his song? How hard can it be to go to the sound guy and get the rockier version? Anyway. LOL. Hope you enjoyed the review!!