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“Heartbreak & Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story” is one of the more fascinating biographical DVDs released by World Wrestling Entertainment over the last few years. It’s supposed to be an uplifting comeback story about a man who conquered his demons, found God and family and ultimately returned to the top of his profession. Instead, it’s full of so many conflicting statements, half-truths and outright lives that it leaves you wondering what’s fact and what’s fiction.

Growing up and the early years

The beginning of the DVD covers Shawn’s childhood and early years in the business, with comments form childhood friends and his parents. He talks about how quickly he learned and claims to have begun calling matches with much more experienced wrestlers after just six months. One of the funnier things on the DVD is hearing World Class Championship Wrestling announcer Mark Lawrence introduce a skinny, short-haired Michaels as “Sean Nichols” prior to a match with Billy Jack Haynes.

Marty Jannetty talks about The Midnight Rockers and the AWA, and their yearlong feud with Buddy Rose and Doug Sommers. Anyone unfamiliar with that feud should pay close attention to this segment and the match that’s included on the DVD, as this feud really set a new standard for brutality and realistic brawling in the mid ‘80s.

One of the first great inconsistencies of the DVD comes from Shawn and Marty, who talk about how the Rockers partied all night in the AWA and how wild they were. Then, when they jumped to the WWF for a brief stint in 1987, they claim they were well behaved and did no wrong, and instead were fired after being the victims of locker room gossip that was started by Jimmy Jack Funk.

After that, they toiled in a few regional promotions, before going back to the AWA and ultimately the WWF in 1988. Shawn goes on to say how depressed he was during that time in the regional promotions, because the WWF and the AWA were the only big leagues in that day. Really? What about the NWA? At no point in the 1980s was the AWA a more successful promotion than the NWA.

WWF “tag team specialist” and superstar

Chris Jericho compliments the Rockers’ run in the WWF, calling them one of the most innovative teams of all time. True to some extent, as they borrowed from the Midnight Express and the Rock ‘n Roll Express and showcased their moves to a larger audience.

There’s also a nice little segment on the title change that never was when the Rockers beat the Hart Foundation during a Saturday Night’s Main Event taping. After a rope broke, the match was never aired and the Rockers’ title win was never acknowledged by the WWF, although the Apter mags treated it like a big story and ultimately left fans scratching their heads, because the magazine was published several months after the title match, which very few people saw.

Shawn’s transition into a singles wrestler is covered, beginning with the memorable scene of him throwing Jannetty through a glass window on the set of Brutus Beefcake’s Barbershop. Shawn recalls what an honor it was to be paired with Sherri Martel, because “Sherri only worked with the top guys,” like Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase. The DVD moves into Shawn’s first Intercontinental title victory in 1992 and through 1993 (with no mention of his memorable feud with Jannetty), and ultimately his departure from the WWF that fall.

The way Shawn tells it, Vince McMahon called him to tell him he failed a drug test and he wanted the I-C belt back. Shawn still insists there’s no way he could have failed the drug test (another inconsistency, as he admits to being a drug user during other points of the DVD). He refused to send the belt back to Vince, which ultimately led to the classic WrestleMania X ladder match between Shawn and Razor Ramon.

Shawn wins the belt then loses his smile

The DVD talks about Shawn’s relationship with Kevin Nash, which grew into the Clique. People like Pat Patterson, Vince McMahon, Shawn and Triple H talk in vague terms about what the Clique was and its power behind the scenes, without including too many details. There’s absolutely no mention of Shawn refusing to do jobs to a variety of wrestlers, including Shane Douglas.

Shawn talks about becoming “the man” in the WWF, and how much pressure he was under during his first reign as WWF Champion. His iron man match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 12 is shown in great detail. Conveniently left out, however, is Shawn yelling at the referee to “get him (Bret) the f*** out of my ring” at the end of that match; pick up Bret Hart’s DVD to see that footage.

People shouldn’t blame Shawn for Nitro’s dominance in the ratings from 1996-98, according to Jim Ross. We see X-rays of a knee (supposedly Shawn’s) from the spring of 1997, during which time Shawn infamously lost his smile. To this day, Shawn claims he had a legitimate knee injury, and credits his mother with telling him that he lost his smile. Nothing is mentioned about the rumors that this was an excuse to avoid jobbing to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13.

The Montreal screwjob

The most interesting part of the entire DVD covers the 1997 Survivor Series. If you’re a Bret Hart fan (admittedly, I am), you’ll find this segment both incredibly frustrating and infuriating.

Shawn is portrayed as a courageous soldier who does what he is told by his boss. During a job interview with Wal-Mart my freshman year of college, I had a supervisor tell me that “the boss may not always be right, but the boss is always the boss.” Vince must have fed Shawn a line like that somewhere over the last 20 years, and he bought into it.

If we’re to believe just this DVD, the story goes like this: Bret Hart sold out to WCW, then refused to lose the WWF title and planned on taking it to WCW with him. That’s it. There’s no mention of the animosity between Bret and Shawn (other than Triple H stating vaguely, “Those guys hated each other”), their locker room brawl or any other history between the two biggest stars of that era.

It’s revisionist history at its worst as Triple H just stops short of taking credit for masterminding the entire screwjob. As his version of the story goes, he and a group of other people, including Shawn, Vince, Pat Patterson, Jim Ross and a few others were sitting in a room discussing how to get the belt off of Bret, when Triple H, ever the company man, piped up and said, “F--- him. If he doesn’t want to do business, we’ll do business for him.”

In another great inconsistency, Jim Ross tells us that fans should stop vilifying Shawn Michaels for what happened to Bret Hart. Bret, he explains, already had “accepted a better offer” from WCW and was on his way out the door. Over the years, Shawn, Vince and others have bragged about the fact that it was Vince who orchestrated Bret’s ability to sign with WCW. So which was it? Did Bret “accept a better offer,” or did Vince orchestrate the whole thing?

Shawn Michaels offers no apologies for his role in Montreal, but to his credit, he does appear to be the only person involved in that incident who has been able to move on. Montreal left a scar on Bret Hart that few of us can understand, like Eric Bischoff said on Bret’s DVD, and Vince has taken every opportunity he could over the last decade to rub his thumb in Bret’s eye. Ted DiBiase is interviewed on this DVD, and suggests that Shawn has tried to make peace with Bret, and although he has refused, it would be best for Bret to let go and make peace with Shawn.

The comeback

After Bret’s departure, Shawn hurt his back against The Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble before a courageous performance at WrestleMania XIV. Footage is shown of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin at the press conference following WrestleMania, and Shawn interrupting and throwing a tantrum before kicking open and walking out the door.

Shawn tried to make a comeback at various times, as a figurehead of different sorts from 1998 to 2000 and as a wrestler in 2001, but according to Triple H and Michaels’ wife, his drug addiction was worse than ever. Triple H recalls Shawn showing up to Raw the same night Shane McMahon appeared on Nitro, and stumbling into the locker room and drooling all over himself, and accusing Triple H of turning on him.

Shawn battled his demons (which we are told in the vaguest of terms) over the years, and the breaking point, as his wife tells it, came when he was looking for some cookies one night. She explained to him that he and his 2-year-old son had eaten all of them, which he had no memory of. He broke down crying, got help, found God and was reborn.

The DVD chronicles Shawn’s comeback, beginning with his victory over Triple H at SummerSlam 02 and his World Title win in the Elimination Chamber. It also talks about his WrestleMania matches with John Cena and Chris Jericho, but leaves out his WrestleMania XX main event (not surprising, considering Christ Beniot was involved) and his feud with Kurt Angle. Shawn also talks about the headaches of dealing with Hulk Hogan’s backstage politics leading up to their match at SummerSlam 05. (Note: Shawn’s Larry King spoof of Hulk Hogan is as funny now as it was more than two years ago.)

Recommendation: Shawn’s story is fascinating and the DVD is well told, so it’s definitely worth a look. Be warned, though, that longtime wrestling fans are likely to be enraged by what isn’t said and what isn’t true. Newer fans should check out other DVDs, Bret Hart’s book or the Torch archives to fill in the gaps.

Shawn Michaels’s story is supposed to be an uplifting one. He found God, became a family man and remains one of the absolute best in his profession. Given the dubious skewing of the facts in this DVD, however, it’s bound to leave some wrestling fans wondering if they’ve been worked by one of the best.

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