WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels adds to his long list of titles - Wrestling - MiamiHerald.com
For Shawn Michaels, its fishing, hunting, plowing and EyeBlack.
EyeBlack the company that started a sports revolution by combining logos, phrases and bible verses with EyeBlack announced a partnership with Shawn Michaels, former WWE superstar and current star of the Outdoor Channels show Shawn Michaels MacMillan River Adventures.
Michaels will serve as an ambassador for the company and will collaborate with EyeBlack to produce a customized product line.
My management team at Encore Sports & Entertainment -- they work with Drew Brees and C.C. Sabathia and Matt Kemp and a number of other athletes from different sports -- brought [EyeBlack] to me, Michaels said. They know that I hunt, and they sort of asked me, Hey, you think this is something that will be functional in a hunting realm?
For me, personally, Im a guy who spends a lot of time in the outdoors, period, whether its working or hunting. So I told them that is something I can definitely use. Theyve got a certain type called the Warrior [HBK chuckles a little]. I guess for me it takes the place of the facepaint and things of that nature.
The licensing agreement signed between Michaels and EyeBlack gives EyeBlack the rights to create and sell product featuring Michaels trademark phrases and nicknames like: Showstopper, Mr. HOF and Mr. Hall of Fame.
Youre spending so much time outside, and youre having to deal with the sun and its glare and its reflection, Michaels said. So the functionality was sort of double for me -- less messy, less of a pain, a lot easier to apply than the facepaint.
He continued: Its something I wanted to incorporate in the hunting realm as its already been proven in baseball, football and other outdoor sports. When they gave me the chance, I wanted to give it a try.
EyeBlack will also produce custom designs printed on camouflage EyeBlack for Michaels hit show MacMillan River Adventures on the Outdoor Channel.
Im very excited about this new relationship, Michaels said. Beyond being a cool product in itself, its functional, and Im looking forward to using EyeBlack product in my hunting adventures and in some WWE related activities.
Michaels, 46, wrestled for WWE for more than 20 years. He was a three-time WWE champion and a World champion.
After his retirement from sports entertainment/wrestling in 2010, Michaels continued his relationship with WWE by signing on as an official ambassador for the company.
Shawn is a fantastic athlete, and we are proud to have him on the EyeBlack team, said Peter Beveridge, president and founder of EyeBlack. Shawn had a prolific pro wrestling career and is the perfect representative for the EyeBlack brand as we branch out into the professional wrestling and hunting arenas.
Retired from wrestling, Michaels stays busy by hosting Shawn Michaels MacMillian River Adventures, with his good friend Keith Mark on the Outdoor Channel. The 30-minute program gives viewers an exclusive look into the unique lifestyle of hunting and the duos large game hunts across the world. Visit
MRA Hunting.
Michaels joins an impressive roster of professional athlete ambassadors whom EyeBlack signed in the last year. The company boasts endorsements and customized lines from NFL stars Stevie Johnson, Marshawn Lynch and LaMarr Woodley, as well as tennis pro Bethanie Mattek-Sands and softball legend Jennie Finch and Monica Abbott.
Recently, the company inked a deal with Chicago Bears Pro Bowl linebacker Brian Urlacher to be the face of the Original product line.
Michaels said: When you set up straight into the sun, and youve got EyeBlack on, Ill be darned , if it doesnt work and it doesnt help.
Michaels affection toward fishing and hunting began later in life.
That actually started in those years when I was supposedly never going to wrestle again, after my back injury, said Michaels, whose back injury sidelined him from 1998-2002. Growing up in Texas, I did a little fishing. I always wanted to hunt but never really had the opportunity.
When I got old enough to do it, I was in the wrestling business at that time, so obviously time became an issue. After I got my injury, I got to go out and hunt for the first time and fell in love with it.
From that point on, it became a regular part of my life. It was an opportunity for me to get away from a lot of noise and distractions that were out there. That area and my faith were sort of hand in hand. Both sort of cultivated at the same time. Its something that has gotten deeper and more established in me and in our household as well.
Michaels and his wife, Rebecca, former WCW Nitro Girl Whisper, have two children, Cameron Kade, 12, and Cheyenne Michelle, 7.
Is hunting, fishing, the outdoors something everybody in the family does?
Yea, everybody does it, said Michaels, who lives in San Antonio. Obviously, I get made fun of a bunch, but its funny. We havent been trying to do it, but its one of those things for us that slowly developed into a self sufficient lifestyle. Again, its not anything we set out to do, but for instance, we were expecting rain here, and my wife, our son and I were all out on tractors and other ranch implements this morning because we had to get a certain amount of sunflowers planted, plowed and covered before the rain came.
This is our first year trying black eyed peas, and were going to try to grow sweet corn. Obviously, what Im trying to get at, I dont know the last time weve bought store bought meat. Its fun, and we enjoy it, working on doing our own vegetables. The kids want to do a chicken coop for eggs.
In WWE, superstars and divas work 260-300 days a year. To be on the WWE roster takes dedication and is very time consuming.
One of the reasons I retired was to spend time with my kids and just be a part of their lives, said Michaels, who retired in 2010. It turns out these are things theyre interested in, and they get enjoyment out of it.
So its something we share together and do. Theres a number of valuable lessons there for them, and whether they take those into adulthood or not is not really the point. For me, its about creating memories with my children, and if its something that benefits them later on in life thats even better.
