WRESTLINGFEUDS

Shawn Michaels

Shawn Michaels appears in eight storylines documented on WrestlingFeuds, as a principal in six, spanning 1992–2000 in WWF.

Feuds and rivalries

New Generation·WWF·1992–1997

Bret Hitman Hart vs. Shawn Michaels The Heartbreak Kid (Jul 1992 – Nov 1997)

A five-year rivalry between the WWF's two defining New Generation stars ended with Vince McMahon secretly ordering the bell rung on Bret Hart's own Sharpshooter, handing Shawn Michaels the WWF Championship without Hart's knowledge or submission in Hart's home country of Montreal, an incident that broke apart a real friendship, birthed the villainous Mr. McMahon character, and is still argued about by everyone involved.

Bret Hart · Shawn Michaels

New Generation·WWF·1993–1995

The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (Sep 1993 – Aug 1995)

Shawn Michaels took his Intercontinental title home during a 1993 suspension and refused to send it back, so the WWF crowned a second champion and hung both belts over the ring at WrestleMania X. The ladder match that settled it was the first WWF match Dave Meltzer rated five stars, and the two men did it again in Pittsburgh eighteen months later.

Shawn Michaels · Razor Ramon · Diesel · The 1-2-3 Kid · Rick Martel · Jack Tunney · Dean Douglas

New Generation·WWF·1996–1997

The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels vs. Sycho Sid (Jul 1996 – Jan 1997)

Shawn Michaels spent his 1996 WWF Championship reign defending it against the same handful of opponents, until his one-time bodyguard turned attacker turned ally, Sycho Sid, chased off a rival at ringside and earned a title shot of his own. Sid beat Michaels for the belt in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd that booed the champion out of the building, and Michaels won it back two months later in San Antonio while running a fever, only to forfeit the title three weeks after that over a knee injury Bret Hart never believed was real.

Shawn Michaels · Sycho Sid · Vader · Ahmed Johnson · Jim Cornette · Owen Hart · British Bulldog · Bret Hart · Steve Austin

New Generation·WWF·1997

The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (Aug 1997 – Oct 1997)

A SummerSlam chair shot meant for Bret Hart instead crashed into The Undertaker's skull, turning Shawn Michaels heel and igniting a rivalry that ran through a no-contest riot and a brass-knuckles brawl before landing on professional wrestling's first Hell in a Cell match. Kane tore the cell door off its hinges to end it, launching one of the most famous debuts in wrestling history and sending Michaels straight into the Montreal Screwjob five weeks later.

Shawn Michaels · The Undertaker · Kane · Paul Bearer · Triple H · Chyna · Rick Rude · Bret Hart · Mankind

Attitude Era·WWF·1998

D-Generation X vs. The Nation of Domination (Mar 1998 – Sep 1998)

Within a day of WrestleMania XIV, both factions changed hands: Triple H inherited D-Generation X from a retiring Shawn Michaels, and The Rock took The Nation of Domination from Faarooq. The rivalry between the two new leaders ran through a widely condemned blackface parody, a two-out-of-three-falls time-limit draw, a weapons-filled street fight, and a SummerSlam ladder match that made both men into main-eventers.

Triple H · The Rock · Chyna · X-Pac · Road Dogg · Billy Gunn · Mark Henry · D'Lo Brown · The Godfather · Owen Hart · Shawn Michaels

Attitude Era·WWF·1998–2000

The Rock vs. Triple H (Jul 1998 – Jun 2000)

Dwayne Johnson and Paul Levesque spent two years trading the Intercontinental and WWF Championships across a ladder match, a strap match, a Fatal Four-Way, and a sixty-minute Iron Man match with Shawn Michaels as referee, a rivalry that grew out of real backstage friction between two ambitious young stars and ended with both of them running the company's next decade.

The Rock · Triple H · Chyna · Vince McMahon · Shawn Michaels · The Undertaker · Steve Austin

Also appears in

New Generation·WWF·1997

The Hart Foundation vs. The United States (Mar 1997 – Nov 1997)

Bret Hart turned heel by attacking Steve Austin's fans instead of Austin, reformed the Hart Foundation with his real family, and spent 1997 getting cheered across Canada and Britain while getting booed everywhere in the United States, an angle that peaked in front of a delirious Calgary crowd and ended in the same building where Brian Pillman was found dead and, five weeks later, in Montreal.

Bret Hart · Owen Hart · British Bulldog · Jim Neidhart · Brian Pillman · Steve Austin · Ken Shamrock

Attitude Era·WWF·1997–1999

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon (Sep 1997 – Jul 1999)

A boss-versus-employee rivalry born out of Steve Austin's real neck injury and Vince McMahon's new on-screen villainy, escalating from a single Stone Cold Stunner into a year and a half of Corporation ambushes, rigged tournaments, and stipulation matches that defined the Attitude Era and turned around the WWF's fortunes against WCW.

Steve Austin · Vince McMahon

Featured alongside

Key events