An Essay for The Love, Dispelling the HBK Myth - Warning Long Essay a head

[EffectsofRaven]

Okay, lemme get one thing clear before I write this ‘essay’ – Shawn Michaels is does have extremely entertaining matches but that doesn’t mean they’re good matches; hardcore matches are extremely entertaining but are very rarely high quality wrestling matches, infact I think Foley/ Funks/ Rhodes matches are the expectations.

*Bleugh*

This is gonna be long, boring and takes a lot of reading but here we go, where the hell do I start? I suppose Shawn Michaels rise to top which was extremely hurried for a start, after the Rockers split up Shawn Michaels was thrusted into spotlight and was almost straight away put with WWF’s best workers at the time, Razor Ramon and Bret Hart; so straight away he looks like a little gem, and this did continue through out Shawn Michaels Career up till his retirement match.

So Shawn Michaels went onto win the first Royal Rumble and WWF straight away didn’t the belt on Shawn Michaels because of lacklustre feeling and Diesel continued onwards as the WWF Champion. They spent the next year trying to improve Shawn Michaels to be WWE’s Top Draw, and then one of WWE’s most famous matches came along, Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart. 60 Minutes proved to Shawn Michaels downfall, during the match not only was they both unprofessional and pretty much stiffing each other, it proved Shawn Michaels ability was limited and his pacing was lacklustre at the best of times, however Shawn Michaels won the WWF Championship and began WWF’s top draw, now this is where it gets painful for you Shawn Michaels fans.

Shawn Michaels WWF Championship in 96 and his rating slowly declined but apparently his matches was great; indeed they was all entertaining but the only matches were actually top quality were his matches against Vader and Foley; WWF’s two best workers in WWF at the time, both them did indeed bring the best out of Shawn Michaels, no doubt about it and they was good matches but both times Vader and Foley carried Shawn Michaels and this is evidence of WWF protectively booking Shawn Michaels from the start.

The cracks did indeed continue to show as WCW took over and Shawn Michaels was slowly becoming the lowest drawing champion of all time and WWF was straight away looking for a replacement; no other Top guy in WWF/E was looking to be ousted out of their position so quickly. Ultimately Shawn Michaels was failing to hack the pressure and did his little retirement angle and he lost his smile, forcing WWF’s main attraction, the Undertaker to take over the reigns and then worked a program with Shawn Michaels leading to WWF’s first ever Hell in a Cell; another time where Shawn Michaels possibly had a good match out of him but it’d be last for a long time.

Shawn Michaels was quickly being ousted from the top and Steve Austin was slowly climbing to the top but Shawn Michaels entertaining DX was assisting in the rating war but in reality Shawn Michaels time at the top was gone, and after his injury against the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels wasn’t seen in a ring again till Wrestlemania, where he wrestled his last match wasn’t fantastic; albeit Shawn Michaels was refusing to go over to Austin at the time didn’t help the matters, from what I read on dirtsheets, it took the Undertaker threatening him for HBK to give the belt to Austin.

So during HBK’s first run with the WWF, he carried a through out his carry, against talented individuals like Vader, Undertaker, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Razor Ramon and British Bulldog; noting I’m going off the top of my head, I know there is others which I have forgotten to mention.

Then Shawn Michaels returned four years later to have a match against Triple H, were fun to watch and have a good feel about them, absolutely awesome matches but weren’t good from a wrestling retrospective, all quite gimmicky and overselling, underselling etc etc. His best work came from facing the upcomers who knew what they were doing, so the likes of John Cena, Randy Orton and little Diamond in the rough, Chris Master…

Not to denying Taker and Angle mania matches were great but they certainly aren’t the best matches you’ve seen his decade, certainly not the best matches in WWE when you think about the likes Angle/ Benoit, Punk/ Cena, Cena/ Orton, Orton/ Foley. So there are much better matches that happened since Shawn Michaels return, only really the only time Shawn Michaels matches at Wrestlemania have stood is when the rest of the card has been awful/ lacklustre, proof of this is when he face Jericho and Flair, the rest of the card still had a lot of good matches, disproving that Shawn Michaels is Mr. Wrestlemania.

So I’m you’re all wondering now, why does EoR think Shawn Michaels sucks? Well I don’t think he sucks but he’s merely above advance an actual wrestler/ storyteller, he does make his matches feel dramatic and yeah, they can be emotionally but here’s the deal… Shawn Michaels has three types of matches, “Beat me down, then I’ll pull a win out of nowehre!” or “Can you top this?” and finally the “Kick out of every single move in your arsenal!” many of the top wrestlers have many different type of matches and styles, see Mick Foley, I personally think he’s the most versatile man in the whole wrestling industry but not to take it away from Shawn Michaels, against the right opponent he pulls of his styles very well… The whole beatdown match was probably best against Vader, Can you top this, I remember a match against Jeff Jarrett being spot on fantastic (sorry I can’t remember when it was either 95 or 96) then super kick out stuff, Taker & Angle I suppose are the closest two, probably Angle/ HBK at WM21 but after that match but Angle and Shawn Michaels follow that same match philosphopy far too much to get the fans excited.

Shawn Michaels’ best matches actually come from him being a heel because his ringwork is a lot tighter, instead of those looping chops, he uses a tight close fist. His selling suddenly improve dramatically as a heel, he doesn’t oversell many moves like he does a face. If you think about it, his matches against Cena & The Undertaker back up that theory, particularly when you look at the ring work ala WM26 or Raw, Shawn Michaels can be a very good wrestler but never the less he only does it spurts, compared to the likes of others a mention.

So where does Shawn Michaels stand in the pecking order of GOATs? Presuming this is going to lead me to being an ‘indy/ japan’ mark, I don’t care because the relevant factors are there, the obvious top five is really down to the top draws and their tentures at the top, so Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Mitsuharu Misawa, Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena; those are really the best of the best in terms of drawing ability, promo skills and overall talent a wrestler. If we dig deeper into the list, taking into account other top wrestlers, we gotta go to Mexico Mil Mascaras, Blue Demon, El Santo. Then we have the rest of Japan which includes Jumbo Tsuruta, Giant Baba, Kenta Kobashi, Keji Mutoh, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Shin ya Hashimoto, Maso Chono, Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada and in America you do have the likes of Jerry the King Lawler, Andre the Giant, Terry Funk, all where huge huge draws in the terrorties. On that, you have to think of the original creators of wrestling, the likes of Freddie Blessie, Gorgeous George, Bruno Sammartino etc.

So that pretty removes HBK from being even knew the top, then we have to look at the strong alliance underneath all the top heavyweight guys, we have Undertaker, Mick Foley, Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, Big Van Vader, Rickie Steamboat, Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart and we’re now coming close to the 25 mark of top guys and I’m sure these guys aren’t even in the top twenty themselves as I’m writing this off the top of my head.

Continue this idea of areas of wrestling, where there is clearly stronger GOATs than HBK, there are WOMEN wrestlers who are above HBK in the ranking, Wendi Richter, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota, Kyoko Inoue, Bull Nakano; that’s just naming a few who deserve to be in the top 100 wrestlers before Shawn Michaels. Strangely enough you also have to consider who were great wrestlers as unit (I.E Fanastic Tag Team wrestlers), you have Fabulous Freebirds, The British Bulldogs, The Rest of the Four Horsemen, The Midnight Express and *POSSIBLY* The Dudley Boys.

Alas, I’ve still got to list Cruiserweights, Luchadors etc, but to name a few we have Ultimo Dragon, Dean Malenko, Jushin Thunder Liger, Rey Mysterio, Psicosis and The Great Sasuke. You can see by name, the names are piling up and Shawn Michaels position in the top 100 GOATs constantly looking distant, and I know I’m forgetting people, notable mentions include a young Tracy Smothers, Samoa Joe at his peak, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero and rising potential GOATs in CM Punk, Bryan Danielson and Davey Richards.

But now, you should be getting a good idea that Shawn Michaels spot is rapidly disappearing in the top 100 and I’d like to see a good argument against him being in the top 100 after the names I just mentioned, not just “OMG Japan Mark” and try to be objective.

-------------------------------------------------

I swear I have never wrote something this long in a long time, nor do I want to again, I did this all off the top of my head pretty much, I'm sure people will go ahead and pick this apart... Which is what I want, bring it on boys!

Note, the first part is about HBK rise to the top which was flaw then whose in the top 100 before HBK.

 

[Smartmark]

HBK is without a doubt the greatest of all time. Half of the names you mentioned will not be remembered in history as anything else than good jobbers/workers.

 

[EffectsofRaven]

That's the best response you can come up with? Where is your proof to support your claims?

This is what I meant by bad postering, I said HBK wasn't Top 100 and back it up, why can't anyone else back up their claims!

 

[PHX]

Before I get into this is this purely based on in ring work, overall work or what?

 

[EffectsofRaven]

I based on all factors.

Mainly workrate, actual wrestling ability (ie punches, botches etc), not so much promo skill but it's important, there ability to draw... All facts, alot to go through. Use whatever you feel best!

 

[Smartmark]

That's the best response you can come up with? Where is your proof to support your claims?

This is what I meant by bad postering, I said HBK wasn't Top 100 and back it up, why can't anyone else back up their claims!

I'm about to go to bed, but if you want a bigger responce, you will get it later. It's just that I seriously don't want to waste much of my time on anyone saying HBK isn't in the top 100 wrestlers of all time list.

 

[PHX]

Alright firstly will just go into why I think so highly of HBK. Not gonna get all omg he's the best your stupid type mess. Here are the top 3 things off the top of my head. Probably will add more stuff as this goes on.

1. The ability to work with anybody and adapt - I find this very important because there are so many different wrestlers of different sizes skill set, etc. He can work the fast past match with guys his size or smaller which is of course because at least in his prime anyhow the guy was quick as hell. He could work with the mat wrestlers like Bret Hart as he showed and didn't look out of place because he could pull out some submissons of his own and it not look awkward. He was no Benoit or anything on the mat but imo he did enough to get the job done. He could work the big man vs small man aspect better than anyone I could think of. He was able to make a overall shit wrestler in Sid look like he couldn't be stopped and worth a damn in their feud. Did good work with Vader, Nash, etc. The hardcore gimmick match is something he did amazingly well and could even say he could be one of the greatest gimmick match workers of all time since he's been apart of some of the top gimmick matches that have received acclaim praise from his HITC with Taker, his street fight with Triple H, his ladder matches with Razor, etc.

2. Heel/Face in ring work - We've seen some wrestlers who work better as a face or work better as hell as for example just off the top of my head Rey Mysterio is a perfect babyface in ring worker but can you really imagine him wrestling as a heel? It just wouldn't fit nor work. HBK on the other hand could make it work face or heel because didn't limit himself to what he could do in the ring and his face character always had a tad bit of edge to it anyways when it came to his cockiness or when he was heel in DX have the cool heel effect.

3. Connection with the crowd - Always find this to be very underrated as to what can help a good or great match be even better. Thought he did a great job connecting with the crowd whether he was a heel or face. Guy could make the crowd pull for him so much to make a comeback after getting his ass beat or can act like such a douche bag as a heel he'd make the crowd pull for the face more than they usually would.

 

[We Are Legion]

Okay, lemme get one thing clear before I write this ‘essay’ – Shawn Michaels is does have extremely entertaining matches but that doesn’t mean they’re good matches; hardcore matches are extremely entertaining but are very rarely high quality wrestling matches, infact I think Foley/ Funks/ Rhodes matches are the expectations.

I honestly almost quit reading right after this. Comparing Shawn's ring ability to Foley falling off the cell and jobbers hitting each other with trash cans is just asinine. But I assumed this would be the most absurd thing you would post in this essay and wanted to give you another chance because you clearly spent a lot of time on this. I'm just going to assume you don't like spots, which is fine and understandable. But seriously, this was a bogus comparison.

This is gonna be long, boring and takes a lot of reading but here we go, where the hell do I start? I suppose Shawn Michaels rise to top which was extremely hurried for a start, after the Rockers split up Shawn Michaels was thrusted into spotlight and was almost straight away put with WWF’s best workers at the time, Razor Ramon and Bret Hart; so straight away he looks like a little gem, and this did continue through out Shawn Michaels Career up till his retirement match.

Hurried? You think spending 4 years as a singles competitor after a very long and illustrious tag team run (a run that lasted longer than a lot of wrestlers' whole careers in WWE) rushing things? You must have hate Brock Lesnar and Undertaker. In fact, he waited a lot longer than just about everyone today does.

So Shawn Michaels went onto win the first Royal Rumble

That's funny, I thought Hacksaw Jim Duggan won the first Royal Rumble.

60 Minutes proved to Shawn Michaels downfall, during the match not only was they both unprofessional and pretty much stiffing each other, it proved Shawn Michaels ability was limited and his pacing was lacklustre at the best of times, however Shawn Michaels won the WWF Championship and began WWF’s top draw

I'm really not sure if you watched the same iron man match I did tbh. It wasn't the best iron man match ever, and compared to a lot of Flair's in JCP/WCW, it wasn't even that great. But I don't recall Michaels ever looking tired during that match. Even Bret has admitted at the apex of his absolute hate for Michaels that he struggled severely keeping up with him in the match.

Shawn Michaels WWF Championship in 96 and his rating slowly declined but apparently his matches was great

I guess you just weren't aware of what was going on in WCW at the same time. You should read up on this stable called the nWo, they were a pretty big deal that year.

The cracks did indeed continue to show as WCW took over and Shawn Michaels was slowly becoming the lowest drawing champion of all time and WWF was straight away looking for a replacement

No they weren't. In fact even after Austin's famous post-match interview at King of the Ring 96, Vince didn't put him in another ppv match again until Survivor Series 5 months later. And that was only after Bret insisted on it.

Shawn Michaels entertaining DX was assisting in the rating war but in reality Shawn Michaels time at the top was gone

Ummm.... DX was pretty much the genesis of the Attitude Era. When Austin was sitting at home recovering from his neck injury from Summer Slam 97, Shawn and HHH were making history with DX. Austin came along later with pure vocal entertainment, but never wrestled again until December of that year (or November, can't remember, which ever ppv he took on the whole Nation at) and Austin didn't headline another ppv again until Wrestlemania XIV the next year. Do you know who was headling all those other ppv's? Oh, just Shawn Michaels. He even headlined the Degeneration X ppv against Ken Shamrock... and when else was Shamrock ever a main eventer? Never.

only really the only time Shawn Michaels matches at Wrestlemania have stood is when the rest of the card has been awful/ lacklustre, proof of this is when he face Jericho and Flair, the rest of the card still had a lot of good matches, disproving that Shawn Michaels is Mr. Wrestlemania.

I would seriously love for you to list the Mania's that Michaels has been involved in and explain to me which match on the card was better and why. This should be good.

I skipped most of your essay after this because it was just straight opinions and not really worth addressing.

But now, you should be getting a good idea that Shawn Michaels spot is rapidly disappearing in the top 100 and I’d like to see a good argument against him being in the top 100 after the names I just mentioned, not just “OMG Japan Mark†and try to be objective.

You provide the names of 100 better wrestlers first. Then I'll argue why some of those wrestlers are not better than Michaels. That would actually be a lot easier (and fun) for me.

 

[The Cork]

I wont even entertain the idea of Bret Hart being even close to Shawn Michaels in any GOAT list.

Without HBK, Bret is irrelevant and his career is nothing. You can't say the opposite is true.

Some of the things stated in OP are ludicrous, for one, workrate is just a term made up by smarks to excuse boring technical matches and doesnt really have any meaning. And to suggest guys like Misawa and his crew of Japanese no-marks are on a level above Michaels is beyond silly.

 

[EffectsofRaven]

I honestly almost quit reading right after this. Comparing Shawn's ring ability to Foley falling off the cell and jobbers hitting each other with trash cans is just asinine. But I assumed this would be the most absurd thing you would post in this essay and wanted to give you another chance because you clearly spent a lot of time on this. I'm just going to assume you don't like spots, which is fine and understandable. But seriously, this was a bogus comparison.

I said both types of styles are entertaining but not good, learn to read what I said before.

Hurried? You think spending 4 years as a singles competitor after a very long and illustrious tag team run (a run that lasted longer than a lot of wrestlers' whole careers in WWE) rushing things? You must have hate Brock Lesnar and Undertaker. In fact, he waited a lot longer than just about everyone today does.

Shawn Michaels push was rather hurried in terms he was shoved to the spot rather quickly into his career and the idea his tag team was illustrious is funny inself, considering Tag Teams in the 80s was huge, The Rockers were terrible compared to all the other tags team out there. You mentioned Brock Lesnar and Undertaker, they both had more credibility and far better in ring competitors, Lesnar knew how to do a various type of match and Undertaker was awful in his first few years in WWE but he certainly improved.

That's funny, I thought Hacksaw Jim Duggan won the first Royal Rumble.

Correct, I made the typo - I was meant to put his first Royal Rumble.

I'm really not sure if you watched the same iron man match I did tbh. It wasn't the best iron man match ever, and compared to a lot of Flair's in JCP/WCW, it wasn't even that great. But I don't recall Michaels ever looking tired during that match. Even Bret has admitted at the apex of his absolute hate for Michaels that he struggled severely keeping up with him in the match.

Shawn Michaels tired? I never said that, I said the pacing of the match was terrible, they misplaced a lot of their work, I've seen the match and they didn't themselves any favours getting the crowd involved, I said earlier, they just stiffed each other and a lot of Sand bagging.

I guess you just weren't aware of what was going on in WCW at the same time. You should read up on this stable called the nWo, they were a pretty big deal that year.

No shit .. I know about the NWO but the same time, Shawn Michaels was still struggling to even sell out arena in WWE, hell Jim Cornette went on the record explaining Vader was getting higher viewed segments than HBK and that Shawn Michaels couldn't even sell out the Texas Altrodome (I can't remember the proper name) for the Royal Rumble, hell that's no excuse for not selling out your home town as the top draw.

No they weren't. In fact even after Austin's famous post-match interview at King of the Ring 96, Vince didn't put him in another ppv match again until Survivor Series 5 months later. And that was only after Bret insisted on it.

If I remember rightly, while Austin was off the card, Shawn Michaels was placed against the best workers in WWE at the time, or in tag team matches in a hope to make him even more sellable but it was still lacklustre, and by the time Austin appear on the card he was straight being plugged and put into Main Event level matches, regardless of Bret Hart asking or not, he was put in the match for a number 1 contenders match, then won the Royal Rumble, then in another title match and the biggest match of that years Wrestleamania.

Ummm.... DX was pretty much the genesis of the Attitude Era. When Austin was sitting at home recovering from his neck injury from Summer Slam 97, Shawn and HHH were making history with DX. Austin came along later with pure vocal entertainment, but never wrestled again until December of that year (or November, can't remember, which ever ppv he took on the whole Nation at) and Austin didn't headline another ppv again until Wrestlemania XIV the next year. Do you know who was headling all those other ppv's? Oh, just Shawn Michaels. He even headlined the Degeneration X ppv against Ken Shamrock... and when else was Shamrock ever a main eventer? Never.

Who was headlining the shows first of all, Undertaker, Bret Hart, I think the Patriot :S? Ken Shamrock was incredibly over and he was huge in UFC at the time if I remember rightly though, so saying he wasn't credible or drawing would be nonsense, so of course he could headline. Austin being a vocal role is a role never a less, doesn't take away from the back, Shawn Michaels was carried through the majority Austin tenture by The Undertaker who was possibly the main draw at the time, enough though he was just the attraction drawer! DX was an entire group, who was different that doesn't make Shawn Michaels great, however I never denied DXs spot in the attitude but they was part of it, you still had the Rock, Austin, Taker, the Mr McMahon character. When WWE ratings was going back up, it was because WWE had more going on.

I would seriously love for you to list the Mania's that Michaels has been involved in and explain to me which match on the card was better and why. This should be good.

An entire list? Jeez, that will take awhile but sure, but not right now.

You provide the names of 100 better wrestlers first. Then I'll argue why some of those wrestlers are not better than Michaels. That would actually be a lot easier (and fun) for me.

Compiling the whole list, hmm considering you won't know half of the list, sure it be humorous respoonse.

Some of the things stated in OP are ludicrous, for one, workrate is just a term made up by smarks to excuse boring technical matches and doesnt really have any meaning. And to suggest guys like Misawa and his crew of Japanese no-marks are on a level above Michaels is beyond silly.

Hardly, when you consider how successful that entire group of Japanese wrestlers are compared to Shawn Michaels, it's obvious they are... Shawn Michaels has so many lacklustre matches and I would guess between the AJPW Six, they possibly had atleast 200 fantastic matches... Misawa is argubly THE GREATEST of all time, Shawn Michaels marks could fuck off, if they seriously believe that HBK is better than Misawa. ^^.

 

[Passionate Volk Han Fan]

[video=youtube;oS3U1zIw86w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS3U1zIw86w[/video]

nuff said

 

[Passionate Volk Han Fan]

I'm really not sure if you watched the same iron man match I did tbh. It wasn't the best iron man match ever, and compared to a lot of Flair's in JCP/WCW, it wasn't even that great. But I don't recall Michaels ever looking tired during that match. Even Bret has admitted at the apex of his absolute hate for Michaels that he struggled severely keeping up with him in the match.

ive seen all the flair ironmans and that one against ricky morton from greensboro thats a handheld from 1986 and is clipped down to 40 is a classic and the best ive seen from him but the fact remains HBK/Bret is superior from a technical aspect

 

[We Are Legion]

ive seen all the flair ironmans and that one against ricky morton from greensboro thats a handheld from 1986 and is clipped down to 40 is a classic and the best ive seen from him but the fact remains HBK/Bret is superior from a technical aspect

Yeah, Flair/Steamboat at Clash was my favorite. Probably my favorite match ever.

It's really a matter of opinion comparing those long matches, but Flair and Steamboat had chemistry that really pulled me in for the entire duration. I've watched Bret/Shawn a few times, but the pacing always seemed off to me. It's really not even one of my favorite HBK matches.

 

[We Are Legion]

Shawn Michaels push was rather hurried in terms he was shoved to the spot rather quickly into his career and the idea his tag team was illustrious is funny inself, considering Tag Teams in the 80s was huge, The Rockers were terrible compared to all the other tags team out there. You mentioned Brock Lesnar and Undertaker, they both had more credibility and far better in ring competitors, Lesnar knew how to do a various type of match and Undertaker was awful in his first few years in WWE but he certainly improved.

Maybe your definition of "hurried" differs from mine, but I don't see how Michaels was hurried into that spot at all. He was feuding with all the stars you mentioned for years before he ever became champion. That's not being "hurried" for me. And I've never heard anyone else say Michaels was rushed into that spot. Ever.

Shawn Michaels tired? I never said that, I said the pacing of the match was terrible, they misplaced a lot of their work, I've seen the match and they didn't themselves any favours getting the crowd involved, I said earlier, they just stiffed each other and a lot of Sand bagging.

I agree the pacing was a little off, but that isn't completely one person's fault in any match.

No shit .. I know about the NWO but the same time, Shawn Michaels was still struggling to even sell out arena in WWE, hell Jim Cornette went on the record explaining Vader was getting higher viewed segments than HBK and that Shawn Michaels couldn't even sell out the Texas Altrodome (I can't remember the proper name) for the Royal Rumble, hell that's no excuse for not selling out your home town as the top draw.

Not even Austin and Rock could have drawn better during the nWo's inception. That was IT that year. Nothing else in wrestling really even mattered. Shawn will always get shit for his inability to carry the company during that period, but I just gives props to Hogan, Hall, Nash, and especially Bischoff. They knew what the fans wanted to see that year and they ran WWE over effortlessly.

If I remember rightly, while Austin was off the card, Shawn Michaels was placed against the best workers in WWE at the time, or in tag team matches in a hope to make him even more sellable but it was still lacklustre, and by the time Austin appear on the card he was straight being plugged and put into Main Event level matches, regardless of Bret Hart asking or not, he was put in the match for a number 1 contenders match, then won the Royal Rumble, then in another title match and the biggest match of that years Wrestleamania.

Fact remains, WWE was in no hurry to move away from Michaels. They even put up with him going away for a few months after he "lost his smile" and put him right back in the main event picture when he came back immediately. It took "Austin 3:16" almost 2 years to main event a ppv in a singles match and when he finally did, it was against Michaels.

Who was headlining the shows first of all, Undertaker, Bret Hart, I think the Patriot :S? Ken Shamrock was incredibly over and he was huge in UFC at the time if I remember rightly though, so saying he wasn't credible or drawing would be nonsense, so of course he could headline. Austin being a vocal role is a role never a less, doesn't take away from the back, Shawn Michaels was carried through the majority Austin tenture by The Undertaker who was possibly the main draw at the time, enough though he was just the attraction drawer! DX was an entire group, who was different that doesn't make Shawn Michaels great, however I never denied DXs spot in the attitude but they was part of it, you still had the Rock, Austin, Taker, the Mr McMahon character. When WWE ratings was going back up, it was because WWE had more going on.

You should probably know that a lot of the material that was going on during the Attitude era was pretty much directly inspired from Michaels and DX. Austin is my favorite wrestler ever, and he was doing controversial stuff a full year before DX ever came about, but it didn't become wide-spread until September 97 when DX was formed. That is not simply a coincidence.

On a side note... I definitely wouldn't have called Shamrock a huge name then either. He was definitely a fan favorite, but he was never going to be a main eventer and I think pretty much everyone realized that by the end of 97.

An entire list? Jeez, that will take awhile but sure, but not right now.

Surely it wouldn't be that hard if you are serious about what you said. I just want you to name the match in each of his Mania's that was better than his and a brief explanation why.

Compiling the whole list, hmm considering you won't know half of the list, sure it be humorous respoonse.

I'm just saying because you seem pretty confident you can. I want to know who these 100 people are that are better than Michaels so I can watch their matches.

 

[CrabLegsHeavyButter]

I agree there's 100 wrestlers better than Shawn Michaels but the OP is terrible. Where did you get Wendi Richter and Hiroyoshi Tenzan from?