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.

[6] 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".

[11] 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.

[14] philanthropy is the future of marketing, it's the way brands r going 2 win" -@biz Stone co-founder @twitter #WWEBPS Justin Roberts, who was instrumental in getting Michalek to meet his favorite wrestlers, wrote an article questioning whether his Hall of Fame induction by WWE was "driven by sincerity and not strategy".

Roberts, who had left WWE several months prior, was driven to write the article after reading a tweet by Stephanie McMahon made on the same day as Michalek's posthumous receiving of the Warrior Award, which as analyzed by PWInsider "raises questions about the company's reasoning for their community outreach" despite Roberts's love of "the company [having] inducted Michalek into their Hall of Fame".

[15] David Bixenspan of Wrestling Observer Newsletter wrote that WWE's statement "really doesn't address much of what Roberts said, for whatever it's worth".

[19] 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.