Match Of The Week 16/03/2012

[Crippler]

[video=youtube;B1MEWPPqlg4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1MEWPPqlg4[/video]​

Most of you won't remember this match cause you don't know what greatness is well this it.


WWE Raw 04/23/2007 - Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena

As some of you might remember Orton got sent home from the traditional after Mania tour so they cancelled Orton/Edge and gave us this. Alot of people HATED the execution of the psychology in the Cena/HBK WrestleMania main event. Shawn Michaels and I were two of those people. Cena hardly even sold the leg during the match like he should have and this match was Cena’s chance to make up for the ‘mistake’. Perhaps the only even minor mistake was that it was a non-title match, it was the first time we had a match on free TV go near an hour’s length that wasn’t a 60 minute ironman match. Just an unbelievable match with both men trying to outdo the other with great WRESTLING and the easiest pick for the 2007 WWE match of the year.

Cena plays some head games with HBK to start attempting the STFU whenever he can get it. Shawn has enough and decides to stop trying to wrestle and turn this into a brawl. Cena proves he brawl too! So yeah, let’s go to a commercial. We return to see Cena grounding Shawn with a headlock. Shawn fights out and starts chopping, but then runs into a boot in the corner and eats a clothesline. Back to the headlock, Shawn escapes again and goes for SWEET CHIN MUSIC as Cena comes off the ropes. Cena sees it coming and puts on the brakes. HBK charges and runs into a possible FU, but Shawn grabs hold of the top rope and heads to the floor to regroup. Commercials! AND NOW WE’RE BACK! Shawn has Cena cornered and delivers some back elbows. Cena fires back and catches Shawn for a front powerslam. That gets two. Release fisherman’s suplex gets two. Throwback gets two. They exchange blows, but then Cena delivers a backdrop for two. Suplex by Cena fails as Shawn lands on his feet and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Flying Forearm has both men down. Shawn kips up and makes his comeback. Flying Elbow Drop? Yes! He tunes up the band and instead surprises Cena with a backslide instead of SWEET CHIN MUSIC for 1-2-NO! Cena misses a crossbody block and tumbles to the floor. Shawn goes to meet him with a pescado, but Cena catches him in mid-air. A snake eyes into the ringpost misses as HBK slips out and shoves Cena into the ring steps! Another commercial break! We come back to see Michaels working over Cena’s arm by running him into the ringpost. Shawn grabs a hammerlock on the mat and hooks the other arm to try and get a pinfall, but he only gains nearfalls. Cena slams out and starts unloading with running shoulderblocks. As we have come to expect, the Protobomb sets up the Five Knuckle Shuffle. The whole time Cena is selling the left arm and shaking it loose to ‘get the feeling back’ in it. They trade finisher attempts – ending with an FU from Cena! Cover, 1-2-NO! Commercials. When we return, Cena literally dumps Michaels to the floor and backs him into the ringpost. Back inside, he gets a two-count. Shawn tries to avoid a suplex and Cena pounds the back to assure Shawn that he is going to in fact pull off this suplex. Nice bit of psychology there. Anyways, the suplex gets two. Cena grabs a bearhug, but leaves himself wide open for Shawn to elbow his way out, which he does. Cena reverses a cross corner whip and sends HBK out as now he’s doing the Harley Race bump. Back in the ring, the Flying Famouser by Cena gets 1-2-NO! Cena takes a limp Shawn Michaels over to a corner for a SUPER FU, but HBK avoids that and powerbombs Cena out of the corner! As both men get to their feet, Cena tries to sneak in the STFU, but Shawn kicks him out to the apron. Once Cena stands up, Shawn charges and bumps Cena off onto the announce table. Now Shawn gets serious as he takes off the top half of the ring steps for a possible piledriver, but Cena backdrops out and crawls back into the ring. More commercials. We return to see Cena and Shawn scrambling on the announce table beating the heck out of each other. Before ref Mike Chioda DQ’s Cena, they head back into the ring for the STFU, which is the move that made him submit in their match at WrestleMania 23. Will Shawn tap?! Nope. He makes the ropes. Once again, they trade finisher attempts and this time Shawn pulls off SWEET CHIN MUSIC. Slow cover gets 1-2-NO! Cena grabs the bottom rope. Shawn corners Cena and starts to unload again, but then Cena reverses the cross corner whip. Shawn does his VINTAGE corner bump and turns around into the FU, but he LANDS ON HIS FEET after he leaves Cena’s shoulders and hits SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Unbelievable. Michaels falls on top of the champ for the 1-2-3.

Now THAT’S more like it. Shawn carried Cena on an unbelievable 55 minute ride and showed him the proper way to work a match if you’re going to be a WWE champion when you don’t have relaxed rules like for example a no-disqualification match to protect you. ****3/4

 

[Slim]

I guess I'm not included in that "most that don't know" cause I remember this hour long battle very very well. It eclipses their Mania match and this match showed how good John Cena can really be. This was without a doubt a match of the year candidate.

 

[PHX]

This match still gets brought up so haven't ran into anybody who has forgotten about this. I love this match and at the time I just couldn't believe that they were actually letting this match go as long as they did but glad they did. I liked their mania match up until Cena seemingly no sold everything HBK did to him earlier and popped up and won the match. This match though they did everything right and in my top 3 favorites of Cena matches (Which includes MITB vs Punk and his LMS with Umaga)

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Nice man, I hadn't thought about this match in a good while. Nice to refresh my memory here.

For the actual match I got to say I never expected that match to even be that good and way better from my point than their Wrestlemania one. It was just kind of like we don't have much else going tonight and it's a pretty big show here in London lets have two of the stars get at each other. Cena's performance I remember being completely able to hang with Michaels(but this was during his best year ever, so yeah) and HBK pulling stuff out like he's on PPV well I guess that's just money. Simple yet effective way to make a great Raw just let them fucking wrestle. Very good example, we could use more matches like this and that Michaels/Triple H match from December '03 on Raw nowadays.

Nice choice, man.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Always loved this match and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Had me drawn in from beginning to end and stunned that it wasn't ending every time they went to commercial. I do believe most people remember it. I do remember that someone, I think effectsofraven hated this match, would love to see him post why here.

 

[Chris]

I actually quit watching wrestling from 2006-2008, so I didn't get to see this match live. I went back and watched it a few months ago and man was it great. Thanks for bringing this back up though. I may watch it again.