24 years ago tonight, one of my favorite matches of all time, HBK vs. Diesel at IYH: Good Friends, Better Enemies. Such a great match. Probably Diesel/Nash's best match of his career. Shawn got an absolute gem of a match out of him. This match is just action-packed from start to finish. Not a dull moment to be had. I honestly didn't know Nash was capable of a match like this, and neither did most of the fans at this point in time, either. Not just one of my favorite Shawn matches, but one of my favorite matches of all time period.
I love how right after the match when he gets up from the pin, Shawn gives Nash the finger and throws his gum at Nash. They were best friends, but Shawn was legitimately not happy that Nash was leaving the company. Then, after that, Shawn lays the belt down on the floor right in front of him as a way to say he's taking on any challengers. Then, my favorite part happens, he does the Hogan pose for a second, as if to say, he wants a piece of Hogan, too. LOVED that. And then after all of that, when he's doing his signature pose, look at how hard he's flexing and the look on his face and in his eyes. You just don't see that passion anymore. 90's Shawn had a passion for this business like I've never seen anyone have before. Just incredible. I miss that guy so much. To me, that's the only thing that's missing from his 2000's run as great as that run was, you never really saw him so expressive, passionate, and sometimes angry like you did in the 90's. In the 90's the business was his life and it showed. He had no wife or kids. In the 2000's, that obviously changed. Still, a great run, though. Anyway, enjoy the match: