page_title: Shawn Michaels
section_title: The Rockers (1988–1991)
hierarchical_section_title: Shawn Michaels / Professional wrestling career / Return to the WWF/E / The Rockers (1988–1991)
caption_attribution_description: Professional wrestling tag team Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty after a tag team match
context_page_description: Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American retired professional wrestler, actor, and television presenter. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history, he is known by the nicknames "Heartbreak Kid", "The Showstopper", and "Mr. WrestleMania".
  Michaels wrestled consistently for WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation, from 1988 until a back injury forced his first retirement in 1998. He performed in non-wrestling roles for the next two years and returned to the ring for a match in his own Texas Wrestling Academy in 2000. Michaels resumed his wrestling career with WWE in 2002 and retired ceremoniously in 2010, before being assigned as a trainer in 2016. He returned for a final match in 2018.
  In the WWF/WWE, Michaels headlined pay-per-view events between 1989 and 2018, closing the company's flagship annual event, WrestleMania, five times. He was the co-founder and original leader of the successful stable, D-Generation X. Michaels also wrestled in the American Wrestling Association, where he founded The Midnight Rockers with Marty Jannetty in 1985.
context_section_description: The Rockers redebuted at a WWF live event on July 7, 1988. Due to WWF chairman Vince McMahon's desire to have his performers carry WWF-exclusive ring names, Michaels and Jannetty were renamed, as simply The Rockers. The team proved popular with both children and women and was a mid-card stalwart of television and pay-per-view shows for the next two years. During this time, Michaels headlined his first pay-per-view for the WWF when The Rockers were involved in the 4-on-4 Survivor Series match main event of the 1989 Survivor Series.
  On October 30, 1990, The Rockers unofficially won the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart), as Neidhart, half of the championship team, was in the process of negotiating his release from the company. The match was taped with The Rockers winning the title, but soon after Neidhart came to an agreement with management and was rehired. The championship was returned to the Hart Foundation, while the title change was never broadcast or even acknowledged on television (though The Rockers did have a successful title defense on November 3, 1990, against Power and Glory (Hercules and Paul Roma) before the title was returned to the Hart Foundation). When news spread, WWF explained that the original result was void due to a collapsed turnbuckle in the ring during the bout. A buckle had indeed broken, but not to a noticeable or dangerous extent during the match. The Rockers continued their partnership, eventually splitting on December 2, 1991, during an incident on Brutus Beefcake's televised Barber Shop talk show promotional segment. Michaels superkicked Jannetty and threw him through a glass window on the set of Beefcake's talk show. Jannetty returned to the WWF the following year and enjoyed moderate success before leaving the company in 1994, while Michaels became a prominent villain of the early to mid-1990s as "The Boy Toy".
caption: Michaels (left) with Marty Jannetty during their time as The Rockers
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