The Shawn Michaels Appreciation Thread

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30 years ago tonight on Saturday Night's Main Event, The Rockers beat the Hart Foundation in a 2/3 Falls match to win the WWF Tag titles. Unfortunately, the match wound up not airing and the title change wound up getting wiped from the record books because the top rope wound up breaking after Neidhart broke it by getting irish0whipped into the corner. It kinda ruined the match, and Vince wound up not wanting to air it. Tough to have a 2/3 Falls match especially, with no top rope.

I watched the match back here in this video, and it's not as bad as I remember. They wind up taking a commercial break like 10 mins after the rope broke, and fix it, but I guess it was too little, too late. Was a shame, too. The Rockers were a tag team in the WWF for 4 years (which is along time), and never got a proper tag title run with the titles. They were the best tag team in the company in this time period, too, and have plenty of classics to their name. Love the gear they wore in this match, too. Anyway, here is the match:

 

[Chris]

This is hilarious to me bc I always thought it was so funny that Vince booked a title change, something not caused by any of the participants went wrong and then he just says fuck it and doesn't even re-book the change later

 

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Almost forgot, 26 years ago tonight on WWF Action Zone, the classic KLIQ Tag Match of Shawn Michaels and Diesel vs. Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid! One of the best matches of 1994. Showed off the great chemistry that these guys had with eachother since they all trusted eachother out there. A fast-paced, non-stop action, 20 minute match. One of my favorite matches of 1994 and Shawn, in general. This was taped in White Plains, NY, so I was actually at the taping for this match. Watch this match if you've never seen it before. And if you have seen it, watch it again. Back when WWE actually cared about tag team wrestling!:

 

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23 years ago tonight was the go-home Raw to the 1997 Survivor Series/Montreal Screwjob. On this Raw, they aired this absolutely fantastic 7 minute video that summed up the Shawn/Bret feud (in the ring, and out of the ring) over the past 1.5 years dating back to their Ironman Match at WM 12. It is such a great video they produced. If there is anyone out there that hasn't seen it yet, I highly recommend you watch it:



In the main-event of this Raw, Shawn took on Ken Shamrock:



At the 2:30 mark of this video, Shamrock botches and awkwardly throws Shawn into the ropes facing the commentary table. At the 2:35 mark, if you look real closely at Shawn's face, he's looking through the ropes where Vince is at the commentary table, and you can see Shawn smile and laugh in Vince's direction at the botch Shamrock just made, as if to say to Vince, "You really hired this guy?!" It's absolutely hilarious.

 

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Almost forgot about this somehow, but Shawn was on his first IC Title ever 28 years ago tonight on Saturday Night's Main Event:

 

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And this cool, little, quick face to face promo between Shawn and Bret from the same Saturday Night's Main Event where Shawn won his first IC Title, it is then announced that the two Champions will main event Survivor Series that year against eachother; World Champion vs. IC Title. Little did Shawn and Bret know where they would be 5 years later at Survivor Series 1997, But for real, that Survivor Series 1992 match between the two is one of my favorite matches. So underrated and forgotten probably because in part the Survivor Series main event match everyone remembers between the two is 1997 for obvious reasons, But here's the promo:

 

[Chris]

That Survivor Series '92 match is insanely good

 

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That Survivor Series '92 match is insanely good

I agree. It's one of those matches where I absolutely hate that it's so underrated and forgotten. 27 minutes of non-stop action. Meltzer actually gave it proper respect with a 4.5 star rating, which he didn't do much of those high ratings for WWF matches in that time period. It would start here though and continue into the New Generation Era with guys like Shawn and Bret leading the way in match quality in that time period. That era is also underrated, especially in terms of match quality. I love that era in terms of matches.

 

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24 years ago tonight, Shawn lost the title to Sid at Survivor Series '96 at MSG. I was at this show and this was the show where fans were mostly in Sid's corner despite him being trash for the most part. Shawn is pretty much the only wrestler who got a good match out of Sid, though. Pretty impressive:



6 years later, to the exact day (11/17/02) on the same show, Survior Series, in the SAME arena, MSG, Shawn would win the title in the first ever EC match. I was also at this show since it was at MSG. The pop Shawn got when he won the title was one of the loudest pops I've ever heard in my life. I don't think many were expecting him to win. This was when HHH was booked very strongly as a heel Champion, and this was just Shawn's 2nd match back and it still wasn't decided if he was coming back full time or not. This was a great match, great atmosphere, great crowd, and great finish. It was also a nice redemption story from losing the title 6 years earlier to the day on the same show in the same arena, which is insane when you think about it. I really think the ups and downs of Shawn's career would make for a great movie/documentary:

 

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Two excellent match took place on today's date (11/25) in HBK History:

11/25/89: On this date in 1989 at an MSG House Show; The Rockers took on the Hart Foundation in an excellent match at Madison Square Garden. This match might be my favorite Rockers match of all time. It's not a match that gets talked about at all because it wasn't televised. But it is one of the matches that was on the "Greatest Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart" DVD/Blu Ray that came out in 2012. It's not really your typical Rockers match with a bunch of high-flying (although, I love those matches of theirs), but it's more of a ground-based match for The Rockers; and them and the Hart Foundation just make it work. Great crowd for the match, too. I also love the lighting style in the arena for old school WWF House Shows where it's all dark and not lit up. Just makes for a cool looking atmosphere to me. Here's the match:



Three years later on the same date (11/25/92) at Survivor Series 1992, the WWF World Champion, Bret Hart, took on the WWF IC Champion, Shawn Michaels. This is Shawn's first PPV Main Event as a singles wrestler, so it was a big deal for him. Bret had just won the Title for the first time a month earlier, and Shawn had just won the IC Title for the first time a couple of weeks before this match. Pretty funny that Bret's first World Title defense of his career on PPV was against Shawn. Little did both guys know, they would main-event against eachother on this same show (Survivor Series) just 5 years later for the Title...with alot crazier circumstances surrounding them. :ROFLMAO: Anyway, here's the match:

 

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29 years ago tonight at Survivor Series 1991, The Rockers teased a breakup and tension, as they would breakup one month later in December 1991, even though it didn't air on TV until January 1992. Couldn't find a link to the entire match, just the part where The Rockers tease their breakup:



And 15 years ago tonight, at Survivor Series 2005, Shawn was on Team Raw in a Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown Survivor Series tag style match. Real good match:



And that wraps up this year's version of Shawn's Survivor Series matches! Hope you all have a good rest of your Thanksgiving weekend! I know I am.

 

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29 years ago tonight, Shawn took on his favorite wrestler of all time, Ric Flair, for the first time in his career on 12/2/91. This was a taping, so the match didn't air until two weeks later, on 12/16. This was also just a couple weeks from the Rockers breakup, so this match also teases that at the end in the finish.

Simply put, the top two GOATS going at it.

If there was any question as to whether or not Shawn would be able to cut it as a singles performer, he answered that in this match. Shawn hung with Flair and looked like a star in the process. The finish was designed to highlight the Rockers feud but it was a bit goofy as Shawn was on the floor for well past ten seconds. And they are making it crystal clear that Shawn will be getting the push once the team dissolves.

 

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29 years ago tonight, The Rockers broke up on a taping of a Wrestling Challenge. It wouldn't actually air on TV until January 12, 1992, but the actual breakup took place on December 3, 1991 in Shawn's hometown of San Antonio, TX, and thus began the singles career of the greatest in-ring performer of ALL TIMES:

 

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On this date on Raw, in 1993, this awesome Shawn/1-2-3Kid match took place. About to watch it now. These two always had such excellent chemistry: