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Top 5 Desired Shawn Michaels Opponents

December 11, 2016 | Posted by Larry Csonka

The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. We take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to participate and give us their Top 5 on said topic. So, onto this week’s topic…

Week 351 – Top 5 Desired Shawn Michaels Opponents

IF Shawn Michaels were to come back, what are the top 5 matches you’d like to see him have in WWE?

Chad Perry (@cpgoat)
5. Kevin Owens – Based off the title I am not sure if we are including non-WWE talent but for the sake of my top 5 I am going to stick with just wrestlers signed to WWE contracts currently. Owens has been a favorite of mine for years and basically took over as my favorite WWE guy when Bryan was forced to retire. Owens has constantly performed in WWE when put into big match situations and this would be no different. Of the five picks I have here Owens is the one I feel would have the biggest styles clash with Michaels. I don’t think their difference in styles would really inhibit them from having a great match though. The thought of Michaels countering out of the pop-up powerbomb into sweet chin music sounds amazing.

4. Dolph Ziggler – Why not wrestle the guy that has been trying to be you for years now? Ziggler has often been compared to Shawn Michaels from the way he wrestles, sells and sometimes even dresses. Ziggler has had some revitalization this year on SmackDown and feels more like the DZ that I enjoyed a few years back. When Ziggler is being properly motivated and booked he can sell with the best of them and their similar move set would create an interesting match. Ziggler could take it a step further and work more of Michaels’ signatures into his move set in a heel fashion.

3. Seth Rollins – Originally I had Rollins at my #2, until I started writing about my former third pick. Rollins seems poised to be the face of WWE for many years to come. For the first time in Rollins WWE career he is currently working as a babyface and so far is doing a good job at embracing that. However, turning Rollins heel for this encounter would be a must as for my money there has not been a better WWE heel in the last 5 years than Seth Rollins. Rollins plays the slimy and despicable heel to a tee, right down to his greasy hair. Rollins is of course building to a match with Triple H (WrestleMania?), from there you could very easily move Rollins onto Michaels as Rollins raves about how The Shield was infinitely better than DX or any other faction in WWE history.

2. Johnny Gargano – I love Johnny Wrestling. Watching Johnny rise from a nobody on the pre-show of a Dragon Gate USA show to the face of EVOLVE and now a bonafide NXT star has been spectacular over the last 7 years. Gargano used to be fairly basic and sloppy but now has a fantastic moveset and great personality. Of the four men I have picked this is certainly the least likely to happen if Michaels was to somehow return in the next year. If the feud was to happen, having Johnny play the starry eyed Shawn Michaels fanboy would be a great start. You could either go the Mickie James route were things get a little strange as Gargano grows obsessed or you could just have a match straight up out of respect.

1. AJ Styles – The man that sparked this to even be a conversation gets my #1 spot. In June 2002 Styles became a star when TNA debuted on PPV, in August 2002 Shawn Michaels returned to the ring for the first time in 4.5 years. By 2004 this was my biggest desire to see for a cross promotional match between WWE and TNA. Unfortunately with AJ waiting so long to come to WWE this match never had a chance to take place, hell I would venture to say that there is a good chance that they have never even been in same arena as each other before this years WrestleMania. Styles has proven to the WWE Universe this year that if they were not paying attention to him the last 14 years of his career that they were missing someone special. Everything Styles has touched in 2016 has been gold (including his ***** encounter with Nakamura at WrestleKingdom) and this match would be the same thing.

Jack Stevenson
5. Cesaro vs. Shawn Michaels – Of all the matches I’m suggesting, this one needs the least justification. Shawn Michaels! Was very good at the pro wrestling! Cesaro! Is very good at the pro wrestling! Together! They would surely put on great pro wrestling! Cesaro has the technical acumen required to match Shawn every step of the way and would have great fun throwing him all over the place. This could be such an enjoyable 15-minute Raw match!

4. Roman Reigns vs. Shawn Michaels – I really like Roman Reigns, I think he’s a great wrestler, and I remember his matches against AJ Styles earlier this year very fondly indeed. And, if Reigns and Styles had great chemistry, logic suggests that Reigns vs. Shawn Michaels would absolutely rock the kasbah as well. Shawn has a track record of thrilling performances against much bigger guys, whether as the heroic underdog against Diesel and Vader and Sycho Sid, or as a little weasel against the Undertaker. Whatever role he wanted to play, Reigns would be able to keep up with him- I’ve got this mental image of him just throwing bombs in Shawn’s general direction while HBK ducks and dives and flings himself about the ring. It would be the best PPV main event in ages.

3. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker – This is the only match on this list where I’m assuming it would be 2016 Shawn Michaels coming back, rather than Shawn in his prime. Mostly for nostalgia reasons, of course, but also because it would be genuinely interesting to see what these two could put together in their early fifties. They had some of the better matches in the history of WWE in their thirties, and then just over a decade later had those celebrated WrestleMania bouts back to back. Would they be able to recapture the magic one final time, or would both their bodies be in too great a state of decay? I think their advanced ages would add a sense of vulnerability to both of them which would make the hypothetical match more dramatic; whether that would compensate for their declining athletic ability is another matter, but it would be an enticing prospect either way.

2. Brock Lesnar vs. Shawn Michaels – Lesnar has had a pretty rotten 2016, but presumably the one off return of one of the most iconic wrestlers in WWE history would be enough to motivate him out of his slump. The prospect of an in form Brock dealing out some of his personal brand of ultra violence on Shawn, which HBK would sell in his inimitable, over the top style, flopping and pirouetting all over the place… I’d be rather excited to watch that. I’m writing this on the Sunday of Hell in a Cell 2016, and I reckon Lesnar vs. Michaels would be exactly the sort of match, with sufficient blood and danger, to restore some prestige to that once terrifying match type. Caging Shawn in there with the Beast would be a recipe for pure drama.

1. The Rockers vs. The Revival – For all the great matches he had as a singles wrestler, I think my favorite Shawn Michaels is one half of the Rockers Shawn Michaels. I love elaborate double teams and graceful highflying and just good old fashioned tag wrestling, and the Rockers did all of those things in abundance. Their matches with the likes of the Brain Busters, The Hart Foundation and the Orient Express have really aged well, and if we could get both Shawn and Marty back in their physical primes, I’d love to have them matched up with the most hard nosed, no nonsense, aggressive tag team in modern WWE history. The Revival and American Alpha have put on some of my favorite WWE matches of the year, but you’d have to assume that if the Rockers were plugged into the formula against Dash and Dawson it would just get even better. Make it two out of three falls or something! It would be just fantastic!

JAKE CHAMBERS
5. Ric Flair – Assuming Shawn Michaels were to really come out of retirement then we’ve gotta bring back Flair too, right? Somebody has got to teach this generation of fans that no one EVER retires from pro-wrestling. And don’t you want to know what they’d do to make YOU cry this time?

4. Hulk Hogan – If the WWE intends to rescind Hogan’s excommunication, then why not punish him in the ring then by making his old ass do the favours on a return mega-bump job for HBK? Besides, rather than the technical wizard Shawn Michaels that I’m sure everyone wants to see again, I want that jerky, smart-ass who humiliates people on the mic, and Hogan’s recent issues would be sure to motivate some ruthless shit talking.

3. Braun Strowman – As part of the inevitable “Braun Strowman destroys the Cruiserweight Division” storyline, who better than one of the most high profile, over-achieving Cruiserweights of all time to be the one to defend the honour of the 200-pound and under set.

2. The Big Show – While we’re talking big men, here’s a guy with whom HBK never got to have a great one-on-one match. In fact, Michaels was awesome with some way bigger guys, like Diesel, Vader or Batista, but he never really put on a classic with the true giants, like Yokozuna, Kamala or the Great Khali. Hey, if you’re gonna be considered the best ever, you shouldn’t have any weaknesses. So let’s put him in there with the most underrated pound-for-pound wrestler of them all, The Big Show, and see if HBK can get over the hump, so to speak.

1. The Undertaker – Shawn Michaels should absolutely have to face the man who retired him in the first place if he wants to come back. Their last match worked so well at the time, and still holds up today, because of the consequences of the result and how it has stuck. So you want to bring Michaels back, make it a WrestleMania, Hell in a Cell, 1-hour Ironman Match with the Undertaker, and if he wins then he can come back and wrestle all those dudes you want to see him in there with, like Styles, Rollins or Nakamura, but make him earn it first.

YOUR TURN KNOW IT ALLS

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