Wrestling for My Life: The Legend, the Reality, and the Faith of a WWE Superstar

by Shawn Michaels

  Peter writes about that in the New Testament when he tells of God bringing us through various trials until the time when Christ returns.

  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:6 – 7).

  Although I have enjoyed the high of rainbows and unicorns and have suffered painful battle wounds, I would not trade anything for my scars because they remind me of how faithful God has been to me.

  2 James 5:16.

  CHAPTER 5

  LEAVING A LEGACY

  “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).

  I built my early wrestling name as an athletic wrestler who flew all around the ring and jumped off ladders and top ropes. Yet Keith Mark can tell enough stories about my bumbling ways to shoot down that reputation.

  For the past four years, Keith and I have co-hosted the outdoors show MacMillan River Adventures on the Outdoor Channel. The reputation I’ve earned there is as someone who has a tendency to fall into creeks and rivers. Fortunately, most of those bloopers don’t make it onto the program. If a good friend is someone who is willing to overlook your faults, then where my outdoors clumsiness is concerned, Keith is a great friend.

  I didn’t think it possible that I would make such a close friend in my forties, but that is what Keith has become for me. Not only has he become my buddy, but he also is a strong Christian. Keith is different from me in that he has been a good dude his entire life. But Keith also is enough off his rocker that he has qualities like the guys I used to connect with in wrestling.

  During my first retirement was the first time since getting into wrestling that I had been able to pursue a hobby. After reading the outdoors book by the Christian author, I dove into hunting, and when I was back in wrestling, I would watch the Outdoor Channel on my days off and think that having my own outdoors show could be a fun “job” after I retired for good.

  Hunter knew how heavily I had gotten into the outdoors, and I think he was the only wrestler who knew about my hobby. When I would rejoin the guys after spending time at home, he would joke, “The more you are home, the more redneck you become.”

  One of those times when I was at home, I was recovering from a knee injury when WWE came on TV one night. John Cena got hurt, and Rebecca told me, “I guarantee you they will call you tomorrow.”

  She was correct.

  “Can you come back early?” was the predictable question.

  “My knee has another week or two to heal,” I said.

  “We don’t need you to do much. Obviously, we will need you for the pay-per-view. We will get you in there with Randy Orton on Raw, and we’ll take care of you.”

  Nearing the end of my career, I didn’t think there was any more damage that could be done to my body. It already felt like everything had either fallen off or was tearing away, so I said I would hop on a plane and be there.

  I was wearing boots, a cowboy hat, and a camouflaged vest when Vince saw me.

  “What are you wearing tonight?” he asked.

  “You’re looking at it.”

  “No, you are not wearing that,” Vince told me.

  “Yes, I am,” I responded.

  (Just because I was a Christian didn’t mean I couldn’t still enjoy pushing Vince’s buttons on occasion.)

  “No,” Vince said. “Not that.”

  “Look, I don’t have anything else,” I told him. “This is what I brought. You called me. I am wearing this.”

  “Not that,” he said again.

  “Let me tell you something,” I said. “You called me. I have two more weeks to heal this knee. I can wear this, or I can go to the airport and go home.”

  “We’ll talk about it,” Vince finally said.

  Randy and I set up how the Run-In would play out, and then Vince and I went to his office.

  “What was that?” I asked. “You are dressing me down in front of everybody, and you ought to know by now that I’m not going to give. This is what I’m wearing.”

  “You can’t wear that hat,” Vince said.

  “Yes, I can. It’s a cowboy hat. I realize that in Stamford, Connecticut, you may not recognize what a cowboy hat is, but there is a whole world out there that does. I’m going to wear the hat. And I’m wearing this other stuff too. I’m not going to argue about it.”

  “Well,” Vince replied, “you don’t have to get upset.”

  “Get upset? You are giving me a hard time about what I’m wearing. And you do it in front of my peers. I’m not upset, but I don’t like you dressing me down like that. If you don’t like the way I dress, that’s fine. I don’t like the way you dress, but I don’t tell you anything about it.”

  “Is this how it is going to be?” he asked.

  “Yes, this is how it’s going to be.”

  “All right,” Vince said, and I went to the ring in my camouflaged vest and cowboy hat.

  Within two weeks, WWE was selling Heartbreak Kid cowboy hats.

  “The hats are growing on me,” Vince told me.

  With my interest in hunting out there for all of the wrestling world to see, one of our WWE camera guys told me he knew someone at the Outdoor Channel and offered to set up a meeting with him. That is when Rebecca and I met Keith, whom I had watched on television. A couple of weeks after our meeting, Keith called to talk and we hit it off right away. He had previously hosted the MacMillan River Adventures show and invited me on a hunt for a guest appearance on the new version of the show.

  Keith took me on a bison hunt in North Dakota on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. I shot a bison with a muzzleloader, and it was a surreal and spiritual moment sharing that experience with the Sioux because it was a big deal for them to allow us to come onto their reservation and hunt.

  During the trip we were talking in one of our hotel rooms, and the conversation led to personal topics such as family. Keith and I began to find out how much we have in common. Our core values were the same, and we both loved being in the outdoors for what we believed were the right reasons. I thought it was amazing to be able to have a talk with that kind of openness and honesty with another guy on a hunting trip.

  The trip was supposed to be a one-time hunt, but I shared with Keith that I had an interest in working on an outdoors show after wrestling, yet knew nothing about the business.

  Keith presented the idea of the two of us working together. He had the experience and said I would bring in a new group of viewers. I prayed about it, and that answer was a little easier to receive than when I had prayed about whether I should return to WWE! I was offered a contract with the MacMillan River Adventures show and a really, really close friend. Neither Keith nor I consider it coincidence that we wound up working together.

  My entry into outdoors television came like the other events in my life that have impacted me the most: When presented with an opportunity, I jumped right in. For about ten years before I joined the show, I’d had limited time for hunting. I loved hunting, but with my wrestling schedule, I just hadn’t had the chance to make more than an occasional hunting trip. Over those ten years, I’d hunted probably the equivalent of only two seasons, primarily in the fall for white-tailed deer on a deer lease in Bandera, about an hour northwest of San Antonio. I also hunted for pigs and exotics such as axis deer, fallow deer, Dall sheep, and Black Hawaiian sheep. I could also drive down to the Gulf Coast and fish for redfish and trout, or stay closer to home and go bass fishing. In Texas, outdoors options aren’t a problem for anyone any time of the year, but finding time to spend in the outdoors was for me.

  Yet, when I had the opportunity to partner with Keith, I was all in. The show has proved to be challenging and, as the name suggests, adventurous.

  Knowing I would be on t
elevision, I had to practice to actually get good at the sport. Consider shooting a bow, for instance. I had been shooting bows, but I also was aware that some of the best bow hunters in the world appeared on outdoor television shows. Fortunately, although I needed to be proficient with a bow, I didn’t have to present myself as the greatest bow hunter.

  That has been one of the biggest differences between the WWE shows and our outdoors show. Many of the television aspects are similar, but on MacMillan River Adventures — unlike wrestling — I don’t have to talk a big game to sell tickets. I can be myself as a hunter and be more realistic as I talk about learning to get better. I don’t have to be Mr. OutdoorsMania. I’m in a position where I can relate directly to the vast majority of our audience who, like me, love hunting and want to become better hunters. Keith, of course, has been a big help to me and our viewers because of his extensive experience.

  I would hate to have to try to count the number of times our cameraman has captured me falling, because I have developed a tendency in the outdoors to clumsily fall into water. Jumping over creeks or swampy areas, I’ll trip up on the bank and plummet face-first into the drink.

  The last time we filmed in the Yukon, we shot a moose that went down into the river. We tied him to the boat with a rope and were doing our best to pull him down the river when our boat got caught on some rocks. And then the currents got hold of the moose, and we reversed roles, with the moose starting to pull us down the river.

  I thought I could save the day by waiting until we were at a place where the river was shallow enough that I could jump in, dig my heels into the rocks, and hold onto the boat so we could regain command of the proceedings. It was a tremendous idea from inside the boat. But where I chose to execute that idea turned out to be bad.

  When I thought the river was barely deeper than my boots, I jumped in and dropped until the water was up to my chest. I still was able to dig my heels into the rocks and stop the boat, but when I got back into the boat, I was drenched from head to toe. The temperature was in the thirties, and it took me several hours to completely dry out and warm up.

  “I wouldn’t have done that,” Keith told me when I was back in the boat. “But I’m glad you did it.”

  Embarrassing moments aside, I’ve had to earn my stripes in outdoors television. Keith wanted to bring me onto the show because of my name recognition, but sometimes that made things more difficult for the two of us. The other people who host outdoors shows have been wonderful and nice to us, but from the beginning the industry as a whole seemed to go out of its way to let us know that even though I was “big” somewhere else, I wasn’t going to receive any free passes in the outdoors world.

  I think part of that is because Keith and I have a different way of doing business. We get along really well with people in the industry, but we’re not in the clique of outdoor TV guys. A lot of business tends to take place in social settings, and we don’t do a lot of just hanging out. We film our shows and then go home to our families. Our hanging out takes place at home with our families, not with others in the industry. For others in the business — and there are some really good folks involved in outdoors — this is their livelihood. I love what I’m doing now, but I don’t have to do it as a primary source of income, because I’m still making appearances with WWE.

  I hope to reach a point where my outdoors work is my main source of income, because I believe that is the direction in which God is taking me. But if that doesn’t turn out to be His plan for me, I know that He will take care of us because in the past He has demonstrated that He will. I don’t need to worry about anything.

  That’s a stance that Keith and I share. The first season our show aired, we had four or five sponsors, and they all knew Keith from previous working relationships. I brought name recognition to the show, but it took a little while before sponsors like Remington and Mossy Oak came aboard. I guess they were waiting to see if I would stick it out. I have stuck to it, and God has definitely blessed Keith and me.

  And I’m certainly enjoying His blessings!

  When we go to the Yukon, we have to pack our gear on a float plane and fly into the middle of nowhere to land on the river. There are no roads up there, no way in or out except by float plane. The three of us — Keith, our cameraman, and me — stay in a simple wood cabin with rubber-plastic windows. A wood-burning stove is our heat source. The trips last about two weeks, and in our first year there, the weather was so bad that we couldn’t have more food brought in. Thank goodness we were able to get a moose down just as we were beginning to run out of decent food. Otherwise, we would have had to get by on candy and granola bars.

  We have stayed in great accommodations and in not-so-great places. Regardless of where we are, though, it’s always exciting.

  I couldn’t have said that before my salvation. I was a guy who didn’t like being alone, who wasn’t able to keep himself company because I didn’t like myself. But now I love being alone in a deer blind, fascinated to follow the stars as they fade away, watch the sun rise, and observe nature do its thing undisturbed. The quiet and peaceful environment is the polar opposite of what I became accustomed to during all my years in wrestling, where everything was loud, over the top, and constantly moving. Even the lifestyle of wrestling was fast-paced.

  Peace and quiet appeal to me now. I relish having time to sit and be quiet and take in everything around me. That’s a big reason why Rebecca and I wanted to move to a ranch. It’s hard to describe how much pleasure I gain when, returning from an out-of-town trip, I turn onto the long dirt road that leads to our house. I can almost feel peace filling my lungs. There is just something spectacular about being in the outdoors. I look forward to spending all day on a tractor plowing and planting grazer hay for our deer. I’m still a little shocked when I catch myself thinking that.

  When I’m outdoors, I feel close to the Creator. To see the Badlands in the Dakotas and take in their unbelievable rugged beauty and then to go to a mindboggling place like Africa with all its variety is to enjoy His creation. Even at home, as I write this, spring has just kicked in after a winter with more below-freezing temperatures than our typical winter. Everything around our ranch was bare. Then one day I noticed buds appearing. The next day they were starting to bloom. In only a couple of days, everything seemed to suddenly turn from brown to green.

  It is amazing to behold, and it’s not by accident. I don’t see how anyone can spend any time in the outdoors and not believe that there is an Almighty God making all this down here happen.

  Faith, family, and outdoors. The passion I now have for the first two came to me later in life than it should have, and I was even late to discover the beauty of the outdoors. But it is fascinating how God molded those three pieces together in my life.

  God has given me a purpose in each.

  I’m not competing for any Christian of the Year awards. If you ask me how I’m doing, I am liable to say, “Great,” “Fantastic,” or even “This has been a tough day” if that’s what the truth is. But you are not going to hear me answer, “Blessed and highly favored, oh brother!” I don’t speak Christianese. That’s not who I am. God created all of us different, and I believe He created me as I am for a reason.

  Now that I’m a somewhat-experienced outdoorsman, I can tell you that to see a beautiful, white-tailed deer is to know and appreciate that it was created by a loving God. Frogs, on the other hand, are ugly. But the same loving God created frogs for a reason. The frog has its purpose, and so do I.

  Maybe I’m a frog. If so, I am okay with that, because I am simply trying to serve my Lord in the area that He has called me to serve, and at this point in time, that is with my family.

  In the wrestling business, there was so much talk about legacy. I used to be concerned about what my legacy would be, but I no longer am. Don’t misunderstand me, though. I am thankful for my career. I reflect on it and almost get tears in my eyes. I look back at my career in awe, because I was just a kid who wanted to wrestl
e. I don’t want to diminish what happened to me in the ring, because I believe that God gave it to me — even when I was living a life in complete rebellion against Him — so that one day my career would bring glory to Him.

  But now my wrestling legacy is irrelevant. The legacy I am working on is the one I am leaving with my children.

  My goal is very simple: One day, when my body is in even worse shape than it is now, I want my kids to tell me, “Old man, you did us all right. You gave us a good foundation. You taught us right and wrong. You did your best to give us direction.”

  That’s it. I can’t dream of hearing my kids tell me more than that.

  Cameron must have been six or seven years old when we were in a Bible Study Fellowship class and the teacher asked the adults, “If you asked your kids what the most important thing is in your life, what would they say?”

  Of course, I had to ask Cameron for his answer as soon as we had shut the car doors.

  He answered with more of a questioning tone when he said, “Wrestling?”

  “Really?” I asked incredulously.

  “Well,” he explained, “it is what you do all the time.”

  “Oh, man,” I said. “I’m so sorry.”

  That old story came up in a recent conversation with Rebecca, and I had to ask Cameron the question again. He answered without hesitation and with certainty in his voice.

  “Us!”

  Since my retirement, interviewers have wrapped up their questions and told me something to the effect of, “You are the only guy we interview who doesn’t wrestle anymore that seems to be at peace with his retirement.”

  I have had people ask me, “You retired just to go home?”

  Yes, I did, to help raise my kids.

  That itch I have heard retired athletes talk about just isn’t there for me. I do not miss the adrenaline rush of being in the ring and hearing the fans either cheer or boo me. It has been that way since 2002, when I became a Christian. My high comes from being home with my family. I’m no longer chasing the dragon — I’m chasing my kids.