BIOGRAPHY
Connor Michalek was born in 2005, the son of Brittany Caligiuri and Steve Michalek. He had a younger brother named Jackson, and lived with his family in Shaler Township, Pennsylvania.
A fan of WWE, he was also known by his wrestling-inspired nicknames “Stone Crusher” and “The Crusher“.He developed medulloblastoma in September 2009, when he was three years old. After his diagnosis, he underwent several surgeries and many rounds of chemotherapy. At one point, he developed PHACE syndrome and had to relearn how to speak and walk, but the cancer remained stable until May 2011.
He subsequently began a clinical trial of chemotherapy and treatments but doctors gave him close to a zero percent chance of surviving due to surgery not being an option and having exceeded his lifetime amount of radiation to the brain and spine.
In October 2012, a video featuring Michalek asking to meet his hero, WWE professional wrestler Daniel Bryan, was posted to YouTube and received attention from media outlets. A social media campaign ensued, with hundreds of people joining a Facebook group titled
“Help Connor meet Daniel Bryan”
Within 48 hours, WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon stated that
Michalek would meet Bryan.
Michalek met Bryan on December 18, 2012, and again on October 7, 2013, when WWE held events in Pittsburgh. While attending the 2014 Royal Rumble, Michalek and his family became acquainted with WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts, who maintained a friendship with Michalek and introduced him to other WWE personalities. Upon learning that Michalek had little time to live, WWE invited him to attend the WrestleMania XXX festivities.
Before their Raw event in the week prior to WrestleMania, they had Michalek perform a ring entrance with Bryan and playfully score a pinfall victory over Triple H while WWE performers cheered him on. During WrestleMania XXX on April 6, 2014, Michalek was in the front row to see Bryan win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the main event. Bryan embraced Michalek immediately following his victory.
On April 25, 2014, Michalek died at the age of eight.
Posthumous WWE Hall of Famer
Following Michalek’s death, WWE released a video in his memory, which went viral, featuring him interacting with numerous WWE personnel during WrestleMania XXX weekend.
On March 9, 2015, WWE announced that Michalek would be honored with the inaugural Warrior Award at the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. According to WWE, the Warrior Award is given to individuals who have “exhibited unwavering strength and perseverance, and who lives life with the courage and compassion that embodies the indomitable spirit of The Ultimate Warrior”. Daniel Bryan and Dana Warrior presented the award on March 28, and his father and brother accepted it on his behalf.
Connor's Cure
In June 2014, Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon founded Connor’s Cure in Michalek’s memory, a non-profit charitable organization for pediatric cancer research, which they have personally funded through Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation.
In their response to Roberts’ criticisms in April 2015, WWE stated Connor’s Cure “already raised more than $200,000”. The organization reportedly had raised more than $630,000 by September 2015, and nearly $1 million by March 2016, having helped more than 100 families.
In March 2016, WWE partnered with The V Foundation, a foundation for cancer research created by late sports broadcaster Jim Valvano.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 26 September 2022. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
