411 Ranks Shawn Michaels’ WrestleMania Matches (8-6)

Introduction: Welcome to the 2017 411 WrestleMania feature. This year’s countdown to WrestleMania will take a look back at the matches of the man they call Mr. WrestleMania, man that competed at the big show 17 times; the heartbreak kid, the showstopper, the Icon, Shawn Michaels. This year the 411 staff was presented with a list of Shawn Michaels’ WrestleMania matches, and were asked to rank them from best to worst. The rankings were then given a number value: #1 = 17 points, #2 = 16 points, and so on and so forth, all the way down to #17 = 1 point. The individual staff lists were then compiled into one master list. Today we begin looking at that master list, starting at #17. Each match will have a review by Robert Leighty Jr., a video of the match, and then two writers sharing their thoughts on the match, its place on the list and its place in HBK’s Mania history. Feel free to share your thoughts or even your personal rankings as the feature goes on to see how it lines up with ours.

Enjoy!

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-As everyone is aware, if Flair loses his career is over because of a mandate issued by Vince McMahon a few months earlier. Flair gets quite the entrance and is sporting a fantastic blue and silver rope that is more than fitting for the occasion. The production truck gives us the awesome visual of Flair posing with the WrestleMania stage in the background and fireworks going off overhead. Sweet! JR mentions that tonight we celebrate Ric Flair. I know everyone knew he was losing here, but give us a little suspense. Fittingly Charles Robinson is the ref for this match. Shawn hits a shoulder block to start as both men jockey around the ring. They go into a reversal sequence and Flair gets the upper hand for a short period before Michaels locks in a hammerlock. Shawn charges into a hiptoss, and Flair struts to the delight of the crowd. Shawn looks a little embarrassed by that actually and he slaps Flair in the face. Awesome! I love pissed off and cocky Shawn. The slap actually drew blood from Flair’s lip, which I always found cool for some reason. They take turns teeing off on each other with chops, and Shawn ends up eating a back elbow. He drops his patented knee to Shawn’s head, but a blind charge eats an elbow. Shawn heads up top and in a reversal of fortunes he gets caught by Ric and slammed to the mat. Flair heads up and they tease Flair getting caught, but he fights Michaels off and hits the cross body. That would have been an even cooler moment had he not hit the move several other times in previous years. They head to the floor and Michaels tries an Asai moonsault, but Flair moves and Shawn lands on the announce table in sickening fashion. Damn! That table did not budge and Shawn took the full force on his ribs. Well, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know what Flair will be targeting now. He hits a few suplexes to continue the damage to the back and ribs. A beautiful standing vertical suplex gets a loud pop as Flair shows off some power. Lawler makes sure to mention that Old Yeller wasn’t put down because he was too old. He was put down because he had rabies. Flair makes the mistake of charging and Shawn sends him over the top to the floor with a backdrop. Shawn hits the moonsault from the top rope to the floor, and while a piece of Shawn clipped Flair, most of him hit the ground and hit the ground hard. Back inside the ring they start trading chops again before Flair hits the flying forearm. He kips up and starts quickening the pace more to his tempo. He drops Flair with an inverted atomic drop, and heads up top. The flying elbow hits and it’s time to tune up the bad. The crowd is not pleased though and Shawn starts having second thoughts. He hesitates and Flair has no problem taking the advantage as he sweeps Shawn into the figure four. The crowd is thrilled by the turn of events, but Shawn reverses rather easily since Flair never targeted the leg earlier in the match. They attempt to do a Flair/Steamboat wrestling sequence, but this isn’t 1989 Flair anymore so they have to abort that idea. That’s kind of sad actually. Shawn gets sent into the buckles and as he bounces back Flair finally goes for the leg with a nasty chop block. Woo! That’s the Ric Flair we all know and love. Flair ducks an enziguiri and locks in the figure four. This time Shawn is in a lot more trouble and can’t reverse the hold. Each time he tries Flair just rolls with him to keep the hold applied. Michaels rolled enough though that he’s able to get to the bottom rope. Flair struts a little too much though and walks right into Sweet Chin Music. It only gets two however as Flair somehow gets the shoulder up. Shawn starts tuning up the band again and starts screaming at Flair to get to his feet. Flair doesn’t get up though and as Shawn looks to get him to his feet, Flair’s trick knee comes into play as he casually hits Shawn in the balls. Tremendous! Flair is still a little out of it though and gets caught with Shawn’s inverted version of the figure four. A thumb to the eye breaks the hold and Flair gets a cradle with the tights for two. The two men battle to their feet and start firing off chops once again. Flair gets in one last chop, so Shawn decides to fire off Sweet Chin Music. Shawn looks heartbroken as he stands in the corner and watches Flair struggle to his feet. Flair tells him to bring it with tears in his eyes and Shawn (“I’m sorry. I love you”) finally delivers the final Sweet Chin Music that ends Flair’s career at 20:24. Shawn says something to Flair before exiting the ring to little fanfare. That leaves Flair all alone to soak in the cheers from a very appreciative crowd. He hugs his wife (now ex-wife, who is smoking hot by the way) and kids on the floor before making the walk back up the ramp. Just a chilling moment at the time and one that still gives me chills today

– Robert Leighty Jr.

WrestleMania 24 – Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair – 193 points

Scott Rutherford: I will say right from the start I was surprised to see this match so low considering it had so much emotion around it. However, the more I think about it, I shouldn’t be that surprised thanks largely to Ric Flair coming back to the ring within a couple of years and ruining the ending that was so perfect crafted into this match that had grown men in tears. Considering the Chris Benoit three-way ranks three places higher I do think maybe too much significance has been placed on the post happenings of this match compared to others.

What was clear about the match itself was that Ric Flair really was ready to hang it up. Much has been made about his incredible ability to not get injured and stay healthy well into his senior years but at times in this match he was clearly struggling to keep it together. Not being able to hide behind gimmicks matches and having it be a straight wrestling match exposed his rapidly depleting abilities and certainly the saying “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” was certainly proving prophetic. The fact that Shawn was able to create such a quality match, full of drama and emotion considering we all know this was going to be Flair’s swansong. While you can give other matches higher ratings no other match on this list shows Shawn’s ability to capture an audience and draw them into world and take them for a ride. Maybe the first Undertaker match but that was both of them making that happen. This was the Shawn Show.

This finish is legendary. We all know the “I’m sorry. I love you” coda that just killed everyone watching. It was genuine and gutting all at once. It was masterful and it made Ric as bigger star in the modern era as he ever had been. No other wrester was put over as hard in losing a retirement match as Shawn did for Flair. It’s why I’m surprised to see the match sit so low. I certainly think it should be higher than the Bret Hart and Chris Jericho matches, even with the pedigree both have. Hart and Jericho both have largely been the ones pushing the barrow for those matches respectively as Michaels himself doesn’t mention them much himself.

It’s a pity that history has been unkind to this match. When Flair wrestled again on a full-time basis after this it effectively lost its mystique and become just another match, which is a real shame. With no one out there talking about it and enhancing its legend it’s mainly seen as the 8th best Shawn Michaels WM match and that’s not right. At the time, it was a masterwork and rightly needs to be viewed today as such. Just because one man didn’t adhere to a fake retirement in a fake sport and ended up becoming a parody of himself, doesn’t mean this match is any less magnificent.

Ken Hill: There’s no doubt as to the magnanimity of this match: Flair’s impending retirement, the honor in him choosing the best Mania performer of all time to face him, and seeing just what Flair and HBK would bring out of each other going into their epic encounter.

HBK is always at his audacious best come Mania season, and this wasn’t any different. Michaels was honored but somewhat unsure as to accept the challenge, yet as soon as Flair convinced him to accept, he immediately turned presumptuous in putting Flair down like “Old Yeller.” That got Ragin’ Ric’s blood boiling, and it set the dramatic, tumultuous stage for WM 24.

Flair, as Good Old JR put it, “wound the clock back” to the days of his career’s prime, busting out every dirty trick in his arsenal. Then came vertical superplexes, cross bodies, and other moves near 60-year olds shouldn’t have been doing. Ric didn’t care though; he was going to give HBK everything he could handle and more, showing that “Old Yeller” would literally bite, scratch and claw every step of the way to keep his career afloat if he had to.

HBK, in the manner of “art imitating life”, started out this match the same way he initially responded to the match, confident but unsure as to truly pull the trigger, leading Flair to try and motivate Shawn to be his WrestleMania self, to give everything and leave nothing to chance, all from a simple shove and a slap. Then we saw Shawn turn it on, countering each and every “dirtiest trick” by Flair with one of his own, and at one point exemplifying that trademark HBK audacity by attempting a modified Figure Four to end Naitch’s career.

It seemed for a few fleeting moments that Flair could pull it off, keep his career alive for another day and hope to probably keep wrestling until his dying day (a fear we’ve all felt about Ric at one time or another), but then came the first of HBK’s Sweet Chin Music…then another, and yet Ric still persevered. Yet when Flair struggled to his feet after the second kick, though, it was apparent he had nothing left, and it was all done but for Michaels to pull that trigger, with Flair literally begging him to do so.

After pouring his mind, body and soul into giving his long-time friend and mentor the match he deserved, HBK delivered Flair’s swan song the only way he could, signing off on possibly one of the most emotionally riveting matches in Mania and pro wrestling history

Tony Acero: Man, it’s hard to rate this match justifiably without tears clouding your ever-cynical eyes. Truly, the only thing that has damaged this match was Ric Flair’s inability to stay retired. But in a bubble, this match had every emotion possible wrapped up in a nice little bow. The superkick heard round the world spoke volumes, as did – ironically – the voiceless “I’m Sorry, I love you” that will live in infamy in wrestling lore. The match itself is a chop-filled average one that, at times, feels a bit uncomfortable due to Ric Flair’s sagging, orange skin. But even so, there was an aura of emotion surrounding it which made the most feeble chops mean something. We all dove into the possibility that Flair would win, even if our better judgment basically pointed towards the obvious loss, and what about Flair actually hitting a cross body for once in his damned career? Oh yes, if you rate this on wrestling alone, it’d be somewhere in the middle. But as with most classic wrestling matches, emotion is deep in this and creates a beautifully tragic story.

First 20 Minutes: Bret gives his sunglasses to his son, Blade before the match gets started. As expected a very slow start to the match as they are trying to pace themselves. Shawn controls early with some basic wrestling moves and that frustrates Hart. Bret reverses to a side headlock, and works that for a few minutes. Shawn tries to push off, but Bret holds on and rides Michaels to the mat. Our first two count of the match comes for Bret off the side headlock. Shawn tries to escape again, but Bret maintains the hold. Shawn gets his first two count when he rolls Bret back on his shoulders. A small flurry occurs with various counters much to the crowds delight, but it all ends with Bret regaining control with the side headlock. Shawn gets another two count before both men get to their feet. Michaels breaks with a back heel trip, but Bret switches to a front facelock. He switches that right back to the side headlock, but Shawn finally quickens the pace, and drops Bret with 2 arm drags. Shawn now works his hold of choice: an arm bar. We are about eight minutes in, and Lawler starts breaking out the age jokes on Helen and Stu Hart. Shawn reverses Bret’s attempt at another side headlock into a hammerlock. The story so far is that Shawn has been able to match Bret on the mat, which nobody expected going into the match. Lawler has done a tremendous job of putting this fact over. Bret starts to go heel as he won’t break clean in the corner. He tosses Michaels, but he uses the top rope to counter with a head scissors that sends Bret to the floor. The move had little effect on Bret physically, but his reaction shows it frustrated him. Shawn gets sent over the top, but skins the cat, and rides Bret back to the mat with the arm bar. Bret quickens the pace and buries a knee into midsection of Shawn. He drops a head butt to the abs, and goes right back to the neck. Shawn breaks a chinlock with a jawbreaker, and grounds Bret with a cross arm breaker. Both men get to their feet, and things pick up as Shawn tries a leapfrog. Bret catches him though and drops him with a spinebuster. Shawn gets clotheslined to the floor and Bret follows. In the chaos on the floor the poor timekeeper eats Sweet Chin Music. Perhaps that’s why he had no problem ringing the fucking bell some 18 months later. He was pissed at Bret for moving out of the way of the kick. The medics stretcher out the timekeeper as Bret controls things in the ring with another chinlock. Bret screams “ask him Earl, this isn’t a starring contest,” in a funny moment. Bret hits a sweet hooking clothesline that damn near killed Shawn, and we go right back to the chinlock. The crowd has hung with them so far and starts rallying behind Shawn. He responds with a dropkick and takes Bret right back to the mat with another arm bar.

Middle 20 Minutes: Michaels continues the arm/shoulder work, and after Bret rolls to a facelock, Shawn casually counters to a hammerlock. They get to their feet, and head to the corner where Bret breaks with two pretty vicious back elbows. Shawn reverses a whip, and sends Bret shoulder first into the ring post. He wraps Bret’s shoulder around the post, and has time to curse at a cameraman who got a little too close. Classy! A sweet shoulder breaker continues the damage, and things get better with a nasty looking hammerlock slam. He sends Bret shoulder first into the turnbuckle this time. I think the post worked better, but still effective. This first twenty-five minutes has been all about Shawn. Bret starts to fire back, but sets to early on a backdrop and eats a single arm DDT to further damage the shoulder. He goes back to the cross arm breaker, but Bret escapes by raking his boot on Shawn’s face. A stun gun on the middle rope finally gets Bret a chance to regroup. He slingshots Shawn into the post, and because of a delay he is only able to get a two count. Things pick up as Bret starts taking over on offense. He hits a nice bulldog, and heads to the top rope. That doesn’t go so well though as Shawn catches him. They fight there for a few seconds before Bret rides Shawn down into the ref. Shawn is able to snap off a powerslam for a two count. He attempts a backdrop, but he also sets early, and Bret hits a piledrive much to the delight of Lawler. Hart goes to the top rope again as Lawler questions his logic, and again it fails, as Michaels slams him to the mat. They seem to blow a spot as Bret hooks the ropes earlier than Shawn had thought. They repeat the spot after a backbreaker, and it ends with Bret bailing to the floor. He walks around the ring and Shawn greets him with a cross body off the top rope. Bret stated in his book that he practically had to catch Shawn because he was heading for the railing. Shawn fires Bret back into the ring, and heads to the top rope. He hits another cross body, but Bret rolls through for a hot near fall. That seriously should have been in a pin in any other Iron Man Match. Shawn actually has the balls to bust out a perfect-plex, but it only gets two. I guess that proves Shawn’s not perfect. He slows things down again with a sleeper. I always loved how this decided a fall in the Rock/HHH match, but not here. Shawn sends Bret across the ring with a mule kick. He charges at Bret, but in a crazy bump he gets back dropped over the post and to the floor. Shawn got some serious elevation on that one, and took a sweet bump as he hit the floor. Bret goes out to greet Shawn and rams him back first into the post. He fires Shawn back into the ring and goes to work on the damaged back. He heads to the middle rope and drops an elbow into the lower back. They seem to botch another spot, but they cover well enough as Bret hits a backbreaker.

Final 20 Minutes: Shawn gets sent into the buckles and does a flip to end up sitting on the turnbuckle. That’s perfect for Bret as he brings him down from the top rope with a belly to back suplex. That easily could have been a fall as well. Bret locks in a camel clutch, but Shawn is able to break. He gets a fluke two count off a sunset flip, but has nothing to follow it up with. Shawn finds the strength to come off the middle rope, but Bret calmly buries a fist into the midsection. He nails a side Russian leg sweep, and sends Shawn into the buckles with such force that Shawn flips to the floor and lands on Jose. There were some big cheers from some in the crowd for that one. Bret follows to the floor and fires Shawn into the steps where he runs into Jose again. Bret has time to yell at Jose before getting back in the ring. The two men start trading blows in the center of the ring, but Bret cuts him off with a timely shot to the back. Bret attempts a suplex, but Shawn flips out and gets a roll-up. Bret kicks out at two and it sends Shawn to the floor. As Shawn gets to his feet he is met by Bret diving through the ropes. He looks to pick Shawn up, but changes his mind and decides to get a count-out. Shawn is able to get to apron, and Bret tries to suplex him back in the ring. Again, Shawn lands on his feet, and tries a suplex of his own, but Bret reverses and hits a sweet German suplex. Bret fires away, and Shawn tells him to bring it. That only pisses Bret off and he stiffs the shit out of Shawn with a boot. Awesome! We reach the 10:00 mark with Bret controlling with a modified camel clutch. Shawn is able to get to his knees to relieve the pressure on his back, but Bret is content to control from that position. The fans again rally Shaw, and he breaks the hold with some elbows. They do the double clothesline spot to leave them bout out with 7:30 remaining. They start trading blows again in the middle of the ring as they are doing a great job of selling their exhaustion. Bret is able to hook Shawn on the top rope and deliver a super-plex. He goes for the sharpshooter, but Shawn blocks. The Hitman keeps hold of the ankle, and goes for a figure four, but Shawn blocks that, so Bret settles for a single leg Boston crab. Shawn is too close to the ropes though, and is able to break things rather quickly. He continues the work on the back with another backbreaker. He heads to the middle rope, but all he finds is Shawn’s boot as he lands. A beautiful dropkick from Shawn hits Bret squarely in the face. Bret takes his sternum corner bump as Shawn starts to build steam. The flying forearm leads to the nip-up, and now Shawn is controlling things. He lands a flying back elbow, and gets a two count off a twisting double axe from the top rope. A snap suplex sets up the flying elbow (still not as good as Savage’s) and that gets another two count. At the two minute mark Shawn hits a gut wrench powerbomb for two. A moonsault press from the top rope gets yet another two count. Shawn is throwing all he has to Hart to get the much needed pin fall, and it’s not working. He heads to the top rope for a final time, but Bret catches him and locks in the sharpshooter with 35 seconds to go. The fans erupt as half are begging Shawn to hold on, while the other half are hoping he squeals like a pig. The match ends 0-0 and Bret receives the title from Hebnar. Gorilla gets in the ring, and lets the ref know that there must be a winner. Finkle lets everyone know we are headed to sudden death OT much to the chagrin of Bret. I got to side with Bret on this one.

Overtime: This was all set up when Piper announced that there had to be a winner one way or another. The bell rings and the OT starts with Bret pounding on the injured back. A backdrop kills Shawn, and a side suplex doesn’t help the bad back. Shawn floats over Bret in the corner and gets Sweet Chin Music out of nowhere. Bret actually beats Shawn to his feet, but he walks right into a second Sweet Chin Music and that finishes things at 61:53.

– Robert Leighty Jr.

WrestleMania 12 – Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart – 195 points

Dino Zee: This match holds a very special place in my progression as a wrestling fan. In 1996, I was the biggest Bret Hart fan alive (like we all say). He ended a weak 1995 by defeating Diesel for the WWF Championship, and everything looked to be back on track for him. Well, besides having to defend the belt against The Undertaker at The Royal Rumble…

As I was preparing for that matchup, I stumbled upon a call-in show that would change my level of wrestling literacy. On what was known as the “Cable Radio Network,” (which, for me, ran on the local billboard channel), I came across a show known as “Squared Circle” hosted by The Shadow Man. I had been flipping through the channels and, in that 1 ½ second gap before I changed the channel again, heard someone talking about wrestling. This show became a weekly engagement for me, as I’d do some homework while this guy and his listeners talked wrestling.

The thing was, they were talking about it in a way I hadn’t heard. We were discussing why Ahmed Johnson wasn’t getting a “push.” We talked about the rumors that Ultimate Warrior was returning, and that Hunter Hearst Helmsley may be his opponent, and why “sacrificing a young up and comer to Warrior” was a bad idea. This stuff blew my mind in 1996, because it was my first encounter of someone just speaking openly about the business.

Shadow Man would do one better when, in early 1996, he gave out a phone number for someone who worked in the WWF Offices. “WrestleMania is your show. Call them. Tell them what matches you want to see.” He repeated this over and over throughout the show, until I decided to give them a call. When the man answered the phone, I had two wishes: “At WrestleMania, I’d like to see Diesel against Undertaker in a casket match, and I’d like to see Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels in the main event.”

The man thanked me, I hung up, and I was sure that I would have no effect on the card at all. And I didn’t. But I still got Diesel/Taker (albeit not in a casket match), and Hart/Michaels.

How I’d regret ever asking for that main event.

Hart would make it to WrestleMania after Undertaker and Diesel cost each other in separate title shots. Michaels would win the Royal Rumble, and after defeating Owen Hart the next month with his #1 Contender spot on the line, the match was set: a 60 minute iron man match, ostensibly done so that there couldn’t be any shenanigans to bring the match to an end. No weak count outs or disqualifications. The two men would have an hour to get it done.

And for sixty minutes, Shawn Michaels proved that he was good – damn good – but he was not better than Bret. For sixty minutes, the tide would turn multiple times, with all out displays of technical mastery, aerial wizardry, and passionate brawling taking place. Still, no one would give.

Finally, with about a minute to go, Michaels would launch himself at Bret with a missile dropkick. The Hitman was ready, though, and he’d catch the dropkick, and put Michaels into the Sharpshooter, where he’d remain until the time ran out, and Bret kept his title with a hard earned draw.

Only, to the surprise of everyone, it wasn’t over. It wasn’t a draw. Drawing off the “There MUST be a winner” prophecy (instead of the “sixty minutes” declaration), the match would be restarted, and Bret would eat two superkicks later, giving Michaels the win at 62 minutes. Of a 60 minute match. And without a proper restart where Michaels was in the Sharpshooter.

All kayfabe-for-fun complaints aside, I love this match. I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s quite possibly the purest wrestling match ever put on in Vince’s confines, and I appreciate every single second of it. Even the parts where the two headstrong combatants don’t work together so well. It’s Hart/Michaels. It’s perfection.

Tony Acero: In 2017, we are used to 3-5 minute matches on RAW. We are accustomed to fast-paced action and ADHD mindset of hurry, hurry, hurry, SQUIRREL. Wrestlemania 12 was 20+ years ago. I won’t say that things were so drastically different that wrestling fans had a completely different mindset, but it certainly was NOT the same as it is now. Case in point, a sixty minute match that ends in a draw is something that would probably piss every single fan that is reading this column way the fuck off. Don’t deny it. The first fifteen minutes in this match is essentially a feeling out process stretched out longer than I think anyone now would enjoy, yet Michaels and HBK had a chemistry that I remember being tumultuous, and it was very much in the ring here. One thing I noticed while rewatching was just how much commentary put Bret Hart above Shawn Michaels as a wrestler and technician, which made the surprising upperhand that Shawn Michaels had from the offset a very interesting yet needed fold in the match. The decision at the end, as I noted, would definitely upset people off today, and probably did back then, yet there was a trust here with these two to pull this off and mean something with it. I was too young to understand what was going on here, and remember not truly being interested in this match until the final moments when I was younger. Even now, we selected which matches to review, and I made a specific effort to take this one over to show proper respect to a match that – I think – is truly a sign of the times, because I don’t think it would last in this current product.

Admittedly, the first half of the match could really be eliminated if all you’re looking for is excitement, but I truly do feel that without the first twenty minutes, you won’t be able to see just how hard HBK was trying to be better than Bret, how hard the announce team was trying to put over HBK as a viable threat, and just how much respect they demanded from the audience towards Bret Hart. It’s an interesting match, especially considering what would happen eventually between the two involved.

Michaels returned at SummerSlam and then got a month long title run with the World Title. The thought was that he would wrestle from time to time, and then this match happened. Remember when I said this card was stacked? Well, this match, featuring 2 of the greatest ever, is 5th from the top. Think about that for a second. The crowd is actually pretty split as we get Y2J and HBK chants. A wrestling sequence to start and that shocks Lawler. Well, this is WrestleMania, Jerry. Ross is even getting on Lawler’s case as he asks him why you wouldn’t start a wresting match with wrestling holds. Shawn controls with a side headlock and Jericho starts elbowing out. He runs Shawn over, and after a criss cross sequence slaps the spit out of his mouth. Awesome! That only serves to piss Shawn off though, and Jericho gets sent to the floor. Shawn feigns coming over the top, but fakes and then drops Jericho with a baseball slide. They head back in the ring, and a cross body from the top from Shawn gets rolled through and Jericho gets a two count. Jericho fires off some chops, and sends Shawn back first into the opposite corner. He tries a running bulldog, but Shawn shoves off and Jericho goes groin first into the middle turnbuckle. Shawn doesn’t follow up on the balls though and instead goes to the leg with a figure four. Jericho is able to turn it over to break, so Shawn tries again. This time he gets kicked off and goes shoulder first into the post. Jericho sends Shawn over the top, but he skins the cat. Jericho wanders over and gets flipped to the floor. Shawn follows with a slingshot plancha. He tries a dropkick, but Jericho casually catches him and locks in the Walls of Jericho in the aisle. Jericho has to break though so he can sprint back to the ring to break the count. He heads back to the floor and continues to work over the back by sending him into the post twice. Jericho celebrates in the ring to a chorus of boos. Shawn gets to the apron, but gets killed with the springboard dropkick. Once back in the ring Jericho continues the assault on the back with a belly to back suplex. Jericho lets Shawn know he is better than him, and then delivers a nice delayed vertical suplex. A nasty backbreaker follows, and the arrogant cover only gets two. Some in the crowd sure loved it though. Jericho locks in a chinlock, but redeems it by burying a knee in the back as an added touch. Cool! The crowd urges on Shawn and hits fight back, but an eye rake stops that. Jericho sets to early for a backdrop, and ends up taking a DDT. Both men get to their feet, and Jericho hits the Michaels flying forearm before kipping up to mock Michaels. Sweet! Shawn kips up behind him though and starts taking control of the match. Jericho goes flying off a backdrop, and hits a moonsault press for a two count. We get an awesome Flair/Steamboat pinning sequence that ends with Jericho looking for the Walls. Shawn kicks off, but Jericho ends up getting a northern lights suplex. They fight over a backslide, so Jericho says to hell with that and drops Shawn. A modified bulldog sets up the lionsault, but Shawn is out at two. Jericho starts throwing a tantrum as he doesn’t know what else to do. Again, he sets too early and eats a boot from Shawn. He gets too cute and goes for a rana, but Jericho counters to the Walls of Jericho dead center in the middle of the ring. Shawn crawls to the ropes, but Jericho makes sure to hold until the ref counts to four before breaking. Jericho breaks out a double underhook backbreaker in a nasty spot, and heads up top. A beautiful reverse elbow and Jericho starts tuning up the band. Jericho delivers Sweet Chin Music, and it was pretty damn impressive. Sadly, it only gets a two count. Shawn gets sent to the corner, but comes off the middle rope with a cross body. Now Shawn tries to get fancy and goes for the Walls, but opts to slingshot Jericho into the corner. He falls back into a pin attempt, but it only gets two. Jericho throws a shot to Michael’s back, and that quickly turns the tide. They head up top and Jericho goes for a belly to back, but Shawn turns it into a cross body for a two count. Now Shawn heads up top, and looks for the elbow, but Jericho simply kicks the ref into the ropes to throw Shawn off balance. Nice! Jericho looks for the superplex, but Shawn sends him down, and finally gets the flying elbow. The band gets tuned, but Jericho ducks and is able to lock in the Walls of Jericho. He crawls for the ropes again, but Jericho pulls him back to the center of the ring to a massive pop. A second attempt finally gets Shawn to the bottom ropes. Jericho pleads with the ref and he ends up walking right into Sweet Chin Music. Shawn crawls for the cover, but Jericho is able to kick-out at two. Jericho fires Michaels into the corner where he takes the Shawn bump. He staggers back into Jericho who looks for a belly to back suplex again, but Shawn flips out and gets a roll-up for the pin at 22:28. Shawn offers a hand, and a tearful Jericho opts to embrace him with a hug instead. Then the awesomeness happens as Jericho kicks Michaels squarely in the balls. Just a total dick move and I loved it (as did a vocal group in the crowd).

– Robert Leighty Jr.

WrestleMania 19 – Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho – 196 points

Nick Bazar: As we all know, Shawn Michaels returned to pro wrestling after a four-year absence at SummerSlam 2002 in a classic “Non-Sanctioned” street fight against Triple H. As good as that match was, it was HBK’s WrestleMania 19 performance against Chris Jericho that truly signaled The Showstopper was back. He was still technically a part-timer at this point, and to go out on the “grandest stage of them all” against a full-time seasoned performer like Y2J who was still in the prime of his career and go toe-to-toe, move-for-move in a traditional straight-up wrestling match shows you why they refer to Shawn Michaels as Mr. WrestleMania. Up until that point, Michaels was mainly put in stipulation/gimmick matches which can often times be used as a crutch so-to-speak to hide weaknesses. And understandably so as it had been several years since HBK had been a full-time performer. From the aforementioned non-sanctioned street fight, to the Elimination Chamber and Three Stages of Hell matches, we still really hadn’t been treated to a more traditional and classic Shawn Michaels style match. That was until his return to the event that sparked his signature nickname. At the time, watching this match was like taking a time machine back to the middle of 1996. It was Shawn Michaels doing Shawn Michaels things. The flow of the match, the timing, the signature move set, the reversals, the high-flying dives, it was all there and it was an absolute joy to watch. This was a statement match for the Heart Break Kid and he made sure to remind the world who he was. The greatest pro wrestler of all-time was back and still had a ton left in the tank.

Dylan Diot: This is one of my favorite matches of all-time, a match that continues to get better and better with each viewing. They had a very simple and effective story heading into the match, with Jericho wanting to prove that he surpassed his childhood hero and was becoming a legend in own right while Michaels wanted to prove that he was still the showstopper in his return to the grandest stage of them all. I was blown away by the layout of the match and how great of a job they did dragging out the buildup to the big spots, making a big impact when they finally occurred. The match started off with Michaels seemingly toying with Jericho, evading Jericho as he attempted to control Shawn on the mat and getting the better of him. After being outsmarted during the first couple of minutes, Jericho finally got his opening, as he caught a dropkick attempt on the floor and locked in the Walls of Jericho, holding on to the hold until the last possible second in order to extend the damage to Shawn’s surgically repaired back. Jericho methodically worked over the back and taunted Shawn with his own signature-flying forearm but Michaels quickly returned the favor. They had a series of reversals, culminating in Jericho countering a hurricanrana into the Walls of Jericho but Shawn was able to fight his way to the ropes. Jericho continued to mock Shawn, drilling him with a Sweet Chin Music for the biggest near fall of the match up to that point. Jericho went back to work on the back, attempting a belly to back superplex but Michaels countered into a cross body in mid-air. Jericho countered Sweet Chin Music into the Walls of Jericho again but Shawn once more fought to the ropes before finally catching Jericho with the Sweet Chin Music for a close near fall. Michaels countered a back suplex attempt from Jericho into the O’Connor roll to steal the win. After the match, they looked to embrace after an incredible battle but Jericho hit one of the greatest nut shots in the history of wrestling, sending Shawn crumpling to his knees and shoving him away in disgust. The character work and storytelling in this match was incredible. I think this is the pinnacle match of Jericho’s career, especially in the heel role. He was just as determined to show Shawn up as he was to beat him, mocking him on several occasions in an attempt to show Shawn what he could do Jericho could do better. Shawn bought him time and constantly waited for the right moments to strike, he made Jericho make the mistakes and he was able to capitalize. Both men played their roles to absolute perfection and I truly believe this match is an underrated masterpiece. For my money, it’s the greatest match of Jericho’s career and the match that officially proved that Shawn was back to the level he was at before his injury in 98.

The list so far
#17. WrestleMania 8 – Shawn Michaels vs. Tito Santana – 40 points
#16. WrestleMania 5 – The Rockers vs. The Twin Towers – 43 points
#15. WrestleMania 7 – The Rockers vs. Haku & Barbarian – 52 points
#14. WrestleMania 6 – The Rockers vs. Orient Express – 55 points
#13. WrestleMania 9 – Shawn Michaels vs. Tatanka – 63 points
#12. WrestleMania 11 – Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel – 91 points
#11. WrestleMania 22 – Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. McMahon – 100 points
#10. WrestleMania 23 – Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena – 138 points
#9. WrestleMania 14 – Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold – 151 points
#8. WrestleMania 24 – Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair – 193 points
#7. WrestleMania 12 – Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart – 195 points
#6. WrestleMania 19 – Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho – 196 points