DVD Review: Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story

This 3-disc DVD set is not a complete chronicle of the career of "The Heartbreak Kid," but is a pretty good representation of one of the most dynamic performers in the WWE. It covers his early life and his desire to be a wrestler, at the Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, to his early career after High School in which he began wrestling in Texas and Louisiana, to his fateful meeting with Marty Jannetty and their pairing in the old American Wrestling Association (AWA) as the Midnight Rockers, where they defeated "Playboy" Buddy Rose and "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers for the AWA Tag Team Championships. After dropping the belts, and still under contract to the AWA, the Rockers went to New York and the WWE and made a huge splash there, even winning the WWE Tag Team Championships from the Hart Foundation (Bret "Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhardt) in a non-televised 2-out-of-3 falls match. Unfortunately, because of the match being unrecognized due to the top rope snapping, the titles were returned to the Hart Foundation, and the Rockers continued on till a fateful segment on Brutus Beefcake's Barber Shop in which Michaels superkicked Jannetty and threw him through a plate-glass window, thus becoming "The Heartbreak Kid" and pairing up with "Sensational" Sherri Martel. He defeated "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith for his first singles title, the Intercontinental Title, his first of three. Michaels also had some personal troubles behind the scenes, which caused tension between himself and the wrestlers in the dressing room and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, even after Michaels won the WWE Title from Hart in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match at Wrestlemania 12 in 1996. His forming of the multi-federation organization known as "The Clique" (Triple-HHH, Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall, Kevin "Diesel" Nash and Sean "X-Pac" Waltman) is highlighted, as well as his falling-out with Triple HHH and eventual reconciliation. Shawn found faith thanks to his wife Rebecca, and he and his wife have two beautiful children today and are both strong Christians. Michaels has won at least 3 World Titles, the World Tag Team Titles, the Intercontinental Title and the now-defunct European Title, making him the first-ever Grand-Slam Champion of the WWE. Michaels' career is covered on Disc 1; on Discs 2 and 3 are some memorable matches, from WCCW (World Class Championship Wrestling), the AWA and WWE. Tag matches with Jannetty from the AWA and WWE are profiled, as is his first I-C Title win from the British Bulldog, as is his 1995 victory in the Royal Rumble, winning and lasting even though he came in at Number 1. His third I-C Title win is shown on Disc 3, winning over "Double-J" Jeff Jarrett, as well as a match on Raw with then-World Heavyweight Champion Triple-HHH, as well as a reunion with his former tag team partner Jannetty in a win over La Resistance, a match against Kurt Angle at the 2005 Vengeance Pay-Per-Veiew, and the Disc (and entire set) is rounded out with a win on Raw over then-WWE Champion John Cena in a non-title match that went nearly an hour. This is a great DVD set, and I highly recommend it to all WWE fans and fans of HBK.