If you ask any real wrestling fan who Shawn Micheals is...they would easily be able to tell you that he was made for this. He had something right off the bat that people work decades to obtain. The question I've been asking myself since he officially retired is...why is the best wrestler that ever lived far less known in the world than many lesser wrestling personalities. If that is indeed the case...then what is Shawn Michaels legacy? What did he really mean to the wrestling business, and all things related?

After thinking about these question for awhile...I began to trace Shawn Michael's singles career back to its very roots. The year is 1992 (January), and as the wrestling world is all to famous for doing, they meld a personal disagreement between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty into an on-air feud between the two. Shawn Micheals throws Jannetty through the barber shop winder and launches himself from tag team competition to singles. The plan is for the two to fued for the rest of the year. Sadly, Jannetty falls deep into a drug habit that forces him out of the WWF until the end of the same year. Already the plan for Shawn Michael's rise to the top of the wrestling world is set back from the very beginning.

The bad thing about this timing is that professional wrestling is about to into a very deep lull, and will remain there for the better part of the next 5 years. Hulk Hogan is still with the WWF at this point, along with many other wrestlers that brought wrestling to the forefront in the 1980s. Add to that the Vince McMahon is under heavy pressure from the feds regarding rampant steroid use within the company, and you have quite possibly the worst time in 30 years to possibly be coming up in the wrestling business.

If you go back and look at tapes from this era, you will see that the product was clearly losing its luster. Monday Night RAW debuted in January of 1993 in an arena that held 2,000 people at best.

Back to Shawn Michaels, though...

Shawn Michaels rapid rise to the top of the company begins in early 1992...a point in wrestling history where almost no one was watching it. Amidst great internal strife, the next two years will see MASSIVE fallout and turnover within the WWF. From 1992 to 1994, Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man, Roddy Piper, and many others will make way for questionable replacements like Knuckle Ball Schwartz, Skinner, Doink the clown, and Repo Man. All creations of the early 1990s creative force known as the WWF.

These first couple years are very good to Shawn Michaels. He leads off Wrestlemania XIII (1992) with a match against Tito Santana to good reviews just two months into his singles career. From this point on Shawn Michaels is constantly in the spot light in the WWF. He goes on to lead off Summerslam 1992, as well in a match against Rick Martel. He broke new ground in this match as well with a heel vs heel match. In September of 1992, after just 8 months as a singles wrestler, Shawn wins the WWF Intercontinental Championship, capturing it from the British Bulldog at a match on Saturday Night's Main Event.

At the time that Shawn obtains this title, the Intercontinental title is a very highly esteemed title...recently held by Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, Roddy Piper, and The Ultimate Warrior. Shawn's career is sky-rocketing in 1992, but the WWF is continuing to fall apart.

A new era embarks at Survivor Series 1992 when relative newbies to the top of the card, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels squire off for the WWF title. Less than one year ago, Shawn Micheals was a tag team wrestler on a mid-card tag team. In November of 1992, he is wrestling for the WWF championship. This is all great for Shawn Michaels...but the timing is horrible.

Shawn Michaels holds the Intercontinental title for the better part of 1993. At the Royal Rumble in 1993, he finally gets to begin the fued with Marty Jannetty that was planned from the get go. Shawn again leads off Wrestlemannia IX against Tatanka. This match was also went down to good reviews. However, the rest of Wrestlemania IX was abysmal. Hulk Hogan comes out of no where at the end of Wrestlemania and wins the title in a match the wasn't scheduled. Anything good that happeend at Wrestlemania will be forgotten now, as Hulk shows up with now angle build or big pay per view pay off and steals the show.

Interest in wrestling dramatically declines in 1993. Hogan is gone from the WWF in the following 2 months, and will not return for a decade. Hogan does not pass the torch to anyone, and only loses the title because a 'camera' blew up in his face. Michaels holds the Intercontinetal title through out most of 1993, and fueds with Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) over the title that brough him to a match in 1994 at Wrestlemania X. This is the famous ladder match that everyone discusses in the anals of gimmick match history.

The year of 1994 sees many match ups between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. Diesel (kevin nash) also is brought into the mix as a wrestler and acquires the Intercontinental title  from Scott Hall in the mid-summer of 1994. If there is one thing to be said about this year (1994)...it is here that you can clearly see the future of the business of wrestling.

However, fans aren't buying it yet...

Ratings are continuing to slip...and as we approach 1995...things are doomed to get worse.

The final piece of the 1980s wrestling dynasty is let go in the fall of 1994. The Macho Man is released, and never sets foot back in the WWF. Shortly after, Diesel (Kevin Nash) wins the WWF championship at an untelevised house show. This has never happened before the in the WWF and has not happened again since.

In 1995, Shawn Michaels has clearly come into his own. He is now extremely confident, and putting together top teir matches with ease on command. He now gets to feud with former buddy, and now WWF Champion Diesel. For the past 2 years, Shawn has bounced back and forth between both major titles in the WWF, as well as the top of the next generation of talent for the wrestling industry. Another important member for wrestlings future is introduced in 1995 by the name of Jean-Paul Levesque (Triple H).

In large part, fans are not interested. They are tuning into WCW at this point to watch all the wrestlers that the WWF released. WCW is doing new things with these wrestlers that the WWF was afraid to allow to happen due to image and business reasons. Dream matches were now occuring (Hogan vs. Flair, just to name one) and it was becoming clear that these guys had much more mileage to them than the WWF would allow.

Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were wrestling the likes of Jeff Jarrett and Doink the Clown, while Hogan and Sting and the Macho Man were making wrestling history once again and stealing all of the attention. To make matters worse for the WWF, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash announce at the end of 1995 that they will be heading to WCW for the money, and the opportunity to make wrestling history (which they did!) . They were not going to do either in the WWF, wrestling those guys, and making much less than WCW could offer. Many others with potential leave for WCW at this time. The WWF had set the table to reinvent wrestling, and two of their most important pieecs are leaving just as they are blossoming.

Shawn Michaels is blossoming too, but no one is watching. The WWF expereinces their worst ratings in 1995, and 1996...while WCW is thriving. They put the World title on Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XXII in 1996, at the same time Scott Hall and Kevin Nash are beginning the NWO angle in WCW. The NWO angle is arguably the most succesful storyline or angle every created in wrestling history. The WWF is realing at this point, and at the time people even thought they would go under.

Shawn Michaels was entering his prime...and no one was watching...