The Shawn Michaels Appreciation Thread

[Chris]

I have no recollection of ever seeing this match so there's a good chance I haven't since I don't think I've seen every Raw during that era (but most).

 

[Showstopper]

I have no recollection of ever seeing this match so there's a good chance I haven't since I don't think I've seen every Raw during that era (but most).

Understandable. It's not like a big match or anything. Just a nice, little gem match that gets forgotten. It's good, though.

Also, this match took place just 6 days before the Curtain Call at MSG.

 

[Showstopper]

24 years ago tonight at a house show at MSG; the Curtain Call took place. I was at this show; as I was at pretty much at all of the MSG and Meadowlands house shows in the 90's, and outside of the curtain call, it was a pretty uneventful show. Best match of the night was by far the main event, HBK vs. Diesel for the title in a cage match, which is when the actual 'curtain call' took place, right after this match.

Everyone pretty much knew Razor and Diesel were leaving. Razor even got 'you sold out' chants during and right after his match. Fans were not happy that these guys were leaving; that's for sure. As for the curtain call itself, if you've ever seen video of it, which there isn't much out there of, the fans were cheering during it. They liked it. It was definitely a ballsy move, though. As we all know, Triple H was the one who paid the price for it. But I'll never forget seeing the curtain call live. Even as a 13 year old at the time, it was surreal to see 'good guys' and 'bad guys' hugging eachother. I mean, you knew it was fake even at 13, but to actually see it shoved in your face at the 'sacred ground' that Vince and his father consider MSG to be; WWF's homebase, was pretty crazy. I'll definitely never forget it. That's for damn sure.

Here's the clearest video of it from WWE.Com:

https://www.wwe.com/videos/the-kliq...-madison-square-garden-live-event-may-19-1996

 

[Showstopper]

Found this on Twitter. All of the legends that held the Winged Eagle in chronological order from the bottom of the pic to the top. Although, they did skip Diesel and Sid, :LOL: . The artist did a great job, though. Shawn's cartoon looks fucking awesome, second from top under Austin. I love stuff like this.

 

[Chris]

Diesel had a pretty long reign why'd they do him like that

 

[Showstopper]

Diesel had a pretty long reign why'd they do him like that

I just noticed they skipped Ultimate Warrior, too. Wow. I guess the guy who made this isn't a fan of Warrior, Sid, or Diesel.

 

[Showstopper]

Random pic of Shawn and Kane backstage in '97:

 

[Showstopper]

Some Shawn matches that took place on this date:

In 1992, he took on Bret Hart for the IC Title (its on the WWE Network in the Home Video Classics section on the 'Rampage 92' show):



In 1997 on Raw, he and Austin as Tag champs, took on LOD:

 

[Showstopper]

18 years ago tonight, Shawn joined the nWo:



I remember by this time, I had given up on thinking Shawn would ever wrestle again somewhere around the late 2000/early 2001 time period. He had been gone since early 1998, and every time he came back I held hope that he would be back to wrestle, and every time I was extremely disappointed.

But when he came back this time and joined the nWo, you could tell that even though he was wearing an nWo t-shirt in this segment, if you look at his arms, he had been training. And not just to stay toned, but to be as big as he could be. Every time he came back before this, it looked like he was in shape, but not wrestling shape. In this segment, you can tell his arms are the biggest they'd been since WM 14 (the last time he wrestled). Plus, all those other times he came back, even as a commissioner and after that, he was sort off to the side of the story. THIS time, joining the nWo, he was IN the story. So, between that and his arms being bigger than they'd been in his entire 4 year+ absence, this appearance just felt different. Even though he didn't do his promo here and did it the following week on Raw, it felt different and looked different and for the first time in a couple of years, I had hope again that he might wrestle.

Plus, I just noticed this for the first time because I just watched this segment, but right before this segment ends and they put the Raw logo up on the screen, Shawn is looking at the hard-camera right into our TV screens, and if you read his lips, he says, "I'm back for good this time!" while pointing down at the ring. If I had noticed that live as it happened, I would have had more than just some hope that he was coming back, but I would've known for sure! But HD TV's didn't exist back then, so... :LOL:

Now, next week's Raw, he does a promo, and it's utterly fantastic. Can't wait to watch that next week!

 

[Showstopper]

WWE's official Twitter account did a Top 5 of the best In Your House main events, and THREE Shawn matches made the top 5, and 2 of his 3 matches were numbers 1 and 2:




Of course number one was my favorite match of all time, HBK vs. Taker HIAC '97. Number 2 on the list was HBK vs Mankind at Mind Games, and number 5 one the list was HBK vs. Diesel at Good Friends, Better Enemies.

Too bad they only counted main events, because if it was overall matches, HBK vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title at IYH 2 could have been on there. Anyway, great to see our favorite get the recognition he so richly deserves!

 

[Chris]

The Mankind Mind Games match

 

[Showstopper]

Tomorrow on WWE Network, a Ric Flair WWE: 24 documentary is being released. Just alittle while ago, the WWE Network Twitter posted this:



The TWO GOATS. I can't wait to watch this tomorrow!!!

 

[Showstopper]

BTW, watch that WWE: 24 on Ric Flair as soon you guys can. It is GREAT. And there is ALOT of Shawn featured on it; both from the past and even NEW Shawn interview segments on his feud with Flair in 2008. Very much worth a watch even if you're not a Flair fan but are an HBK fan. It's great. I even teared up alittle at the end. It's crazy how much Flair loves the wrestling business. And it's awesome to see just how much Shawn loves Ric. It's AMAZING. Watch it ASAP.

 

[Showstopper]

23 years ago tonight was KOTR 1997 which saw Shawn take on Austin. Little did anyone know, that would be the main event for the very next WM just 9 months later. Excellent, little match which always gets lost in the shuffle due to their WM match the next year. But this KOTR match is the much better match. Both guys were more healthy in this KOTR match than they would be for the WM match. This is before Austin got dropped on his head just two months later at SummerSlam 1997 (which I was there for) and 7 months before the back injury for Shawn at Royal Rumble 1998. Anyway, very good match and highly recommend it:

 

[Showstopper]

23 years ago today, before Raw, in the afternoon, was the real life backstage Shawn/Bret fight. :LOL: Raw and Nitro that night were being held very close to eachother that night (Raw in Rhode Island and Nitro in Boston), and when Justin Credible (a friend, and basically the Kliq's 6th member) drove Shawn from the arena back to his hotel there were alot of rumors that he was actually driving Shawn to Nitro in Boston that night since the shows were close to eachother. Obviously, that wound up not being the case. And before Shawn would return to Raw in 6 weeks, this is the most intense time where he wanted to go to WCW the most. He had a meeting with Vince weeks later and Shawn was there with his lawyer and father to meet Vince. Shawn said in his book that at one point in the meeting he said to Vince;to just let him go be with his friends (Hall, Nash, Waltman) in WCW and that he wasn't happy anymore in the WWF since his friends left.

However, Vince convinced Shawn that he wouldn't be the same in WCW. He wouldn't have the same amount of control over his character and matches in WCW as he had in the WWF (which Vince is right about). In the end, he wound up staying in the WWF obviously. But what a fun time in wrestling this was.

The picture below is a picture of Shawn wearing a Hall & Nash shirt during his 6 week suspension after the Bret fight, where Shawn went to a WCW House Show backstage to say hi to people there. Love this pick: