The Shawn Michaels Appreciation Thread

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18 years ago today, Shawn literally kicked Booker T out of the nWo:

 

[Chris]

Booker was treated so terribly

 

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"Marty's hangover sunglasses"

 

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Happy 4th of July everyone!!!! I'll be out most of today with the family celebrating the holiday for the greatest country in the world, but later tonight you can bet your ass I'll be watching THE GOAT TURN HEEL 15 YEARS AGO TODAY ON HULK HOGAN! Hell yeah! TWO AMERICAN GOATS!

 

[Hoss]

And yet you were suspiciously absent from the SummerSlam 2005 rewatch where me and Chris were sucking off HBK...

 

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I didn't know you guys were doing that.

 

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22 years ago tonight, Shawn made his first appearance on WWF TV since WM 14 on Raw. Raw took place at the Meadowlands so I was lucky enough to be able to go see it in person.

I remember earlier that day in the afternoon on the sites that existed back then, it leaked out that Shawn was going to be on Raw later that night. Since I was going, I was so excited to read this. He hadn't been on TV since he lost to Austin at WM 14. So, to know I was going to see him in person that night and see him in anyway since March was exciting.

I remember like 15 mins or so before the show started, they dimmed the lights and were showing video packages on the jumbo-trons in the arena. And when the lights came back on a few mins before the show started, you could see that Shawn's pyro was now in the ring because they were all lined up right next to eachother, which is how his pyro goes off from right to left and back to right. So, a few of us in our section knew Shawn was gonna kick off the show.

It was pretty awesome, because he got four different pops on that entrance. First, when his music hit. Then, a few seconds later when he comes out onto the ramp. Third, when he enters the ring and does his spin around that he always does. And fourth, when he does his pose when the pyro goes off.

The only part I was disappointed in was that we didn't get a promo and he went right to the commentary booth. But being that he wasn't coming back anytime soon, I can see why they didn't have him get our hopes up. This was also the same night Jason Sensation did all of his imitations and did Bret Hart, and Shawn said, "Who in the hell is that? Some mid-carder?" :LOL:

Here are two gifs of his entrance. In the first one, he blows a kiss to the crowd because he's happy to be back. And in the second one, you can clearly read his lips when he's standing on the second turnbuckle, takes his sunglasses off, looks into the crowd, and says "I MISSED YA!"

 

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27 years ago tonight on Raw, Shawn and Marty had a great IC Title match Meltzer 4.75 stars. How many wrestlers in 1993, especially in the WWF, were having near 5 star matches? Let alone on TV? Shawn was having 5 star matches on 1993 Raw, which is one of the worst years of Raw in terms of match quality because it was a one hour show where most match were squashes. This is part of the reason why he is without question the in-ring GOAT, especially in WWE:



And the right guy won this match, too.

 

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25 years ago tonight, one of the best matches of Shawn's career and in company history, for the IC Title at In Your House: 2; Shawn Michaels vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC Title. This is about a 23 minute match without a single resthold used. There's one part of the match where Jeff has Shawn in a dubmission for a dew seconds only for Shawn to reverse it. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s in the early days of the IWC, this was one of the matches that people online traded tapes for to try to watch since the match took place before the internet really took off. This was one of the hottest matches people tried to get their hands on to watch. It was known on the internet in that time as the match that was from start to finish nonstop action and no restholds or submissions or anything like that; just nonstop action and constant 'go.' This is one of my favorite matches/Shawn Matches of all time.

Jeff Jarrett himself called this match out in his HOF induction last year as the single greatest match of his career. He also said this is the match that made him realize that Shawn is the Michael Jordan of pro wrestling. If you've never seen this match, you owe it yourself to at least see it once. And what better day or night to watch it on it's 25 anniversary? Enjoy!: (Oh, and listen to the crowd. Shawn is over like Rover in this arena, holy fuck):

Fun fact: This is the same exact arena that the third and final Flair/Steamboat match from 1989 took place in that received 5 stars (well, all three of their matches in 1989 got 5 stars, but still the one that took place at WrestleWar 1989 in May of that year, took place in this arena. It is also the Flair/Steamboat 1989 match that most people like the most out of their 3 matches that year. I wonder if the fact that that Flair match took place in this arena inspired Shawn alittle bit, since Flair is Shawn's favorite of all time. Just something to think about

 

[Chris]

This was probably Jarrett's best match fairly easily, the only ones that really compare are some of his one's with Angle in TNA.

 

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25 years ago tonight, just a day after the excellent Shawn/Jarrett match at IYH; Shawn and Bret, both as babyfaces, actually TEAMED UP to take the Blu Brothers. This match is on the Shawn DVD that came out two years ago of his unreleased matches.

It is so damn weird to see Shawn and Bret team up, just the two of them, and wrestle on the same side. This match took place in July 1995, so it's even less than a year from their WM 12 Iron Man Match, and it's just so weird to see them tag eachother, talk to eachother without fighting, and even give eachother high-fives at times and even HUG before the match starts. WHAT THE HELL? Check out these gifs, it's like bizarro-world. It'd be one thing if it was the late 80's/early 90's when they were both still in The Rockers and Hart Foundation because they were still so young and far away from hating eachother. But this is mid/late 1995, just several months from starting their WM feud in very early 1996. Checkout these gifs:

I mean...what the fuck? High-fives, hugs, Shawn even pointing at Bret like the Kliq did to eachother in the NWO and DX. So...fucking....odd. But it happened. And here is a link to the match:

 

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About to watch this match on my Rockers' compilation and relax tonight. Rockers and Rogeau's always had killer chemistry with one another. The Rocker's first feud upon entering the WWF in June/July 1988. This one took place at MSG. Pretty sure this was Shawn's first match ever at MSG.

 

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27 years ago today, Diesel made his in-ring WWF debut in a tag match with Shawn vs. Razor and Marty. Wish they'd put this up on the Network!

 

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23 years ago tonight was SummerSlam 1997 which I attended with my dad. Shawn didn't wrestle but was the special ref for the Bret/Taker Title match.

It was a good match, but dragged on alittle bit as I think it went like 33 mins or something. Shawn's antics during the match definitely helped the match along alittle bit as there were some stretches were the crowd were quiet. I think if they cut the match by like 10 mins or so, it would've made the match alot better. Meltzer only gave it 3 stars, and I honestly feel it's a pretty fair rating, maybe 3.25, but pretty close. Cutting 10 mins would've increased my rating for sure.

Owen breaking Austin's neck and the main event along with the great Mankind/HHH steel cage match were the highlights for sure. I went with this show with my dad, as my parents were divorced, and I saw him on the weekeneds, and this show was my visit with him this particular weekend. Only problem was my dad HATED wrestling. Like, absolutely hated it. He actually sat in the car and left right before the main event started. So, I, as a 14 year old at the time, actually watched the main event by myself which was fun. Now, the car was parked in the first row right outside the arena, so I knew where we were parked right outside of the arena exit doors, but it's still kinda funny thinking about how much my dad just hated wrestling. :LOL:

The finish with Shawn accidentally hitting Taker over the head with the chair is one of the most exciting finishes I've ever witnessed at a show in person. When Shawn swung the chair and it met Taker's head; there was shockwave that just went through the arena that I've never felt before. It was such a great, hot finish and the crowd ate it up. Even I was mad at Shawn as I was obviously on the USA side of the USA/Canada storyline, :LOL: To know that I got to see Shawn's 1997 heel turn that eventually led to '97 DX and saw it in my home state and arena is something that I love to this day.

Here are some cool gifs from the main event:

 

[TeaDrinkingLimey]

I saw that WWE uploaded HBK's Summerslam match with Vader.
The majority of the comments were all about THAT spot.