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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Mr. Wrestlemania – Disc 2

March 28, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Mr. Wrestlemania – Disc 2  

I’m *very* curious to see what Shawn has to say about the clunker that is the 1996 Wrestlemania main event. Shawn wanted to go an hour without any falls. Pat Patterson apparently thought they might lose the crowd. Always listen to Pat Patterson.

 

Wrestlemania XII
March 31, 1996

Bret Hart(c) vs. Shawn Michaels [Iron Man match for the WWF Heavyweight Championship]
Jose Lothario came out to Shawn’s music and then pointed to the ceiling. Shawn zip-lined down to the crowd for his entrance.

Earl Hebner sounds like such a redneck hick. “Dis is an arn-man match. Yur gonna be wrasslin’ for sixty minutes.”

There were some INTENSE side headlocks being traded for the first seven minutes. They decided to get crazy and do a keylock for three minutes. Shawn later applied an armbar. They spilled to the floor after Bret failed to apply the sharpshooter. Shawn accidentally gave the timekeeper a superkick. Bret was back in control in the ring. Shawn hit a dropkick and then went after Bret’s left arm again. I’m sure that will go somewhere. Shawn tried to win me over by hitting a variation of the Divorce Court. Bret eventually managed to hot-shot him and then made a comeback. There was a super-labored ref bump. Shawn got a nearfall with a snap powerslam. Bret got a nearfall with a piledriver. Shawn was back in control shortly after that. Bret fell to the floor to avoid a superkick but then ate a plancha. Shawn applied a sleeper in an attempt to make Bret join the rest of the crowd in taking a nap. Bret survived and got control after dumping Shawn to the floor. Bret was working Shawn’s back over mostly for a while. I’ve never been able to express it in a way I find satisfying, but I just never dug Bret’s work on backs. It never felt focused enough to be impactful. He sent Shawn to the floor again, and that took out Lothario. Shawn got an O’Connor Roll, but Bret sent Shawn to the floor and then hit a tope suicida. Bret hit a German back in the ring. Bret worked over the back some more. He couldn’t get the figure four, but he applied a single leg for some reason. Shawn blocked the diving forearm and then made a comeback. Bret kicked out of a moonsault. Shawn dove off the top rope, but Bret caught him and applied a sharpshooter! Shawn lasted thirty seconds in order for the time limit to expire.

Bret walked out with the title. Gorilla Monsoon got into the ring. He ordered the match be continued under SUDDEN DEATH RULES.

Bret went back to working over Shawn. Shawn caught him with a superkick out of nowhere. Both men got to their feet. SUPERKICK: 1…2…3. By gawd, the boyhood dream is realized.

Unless you have a fetish for matches going a really long time no matter what happens in the ring, I do not understand the appeal of this match at all. Iron Man matches start behind the eight ball as it is because the drama of “when will the match end?” is obviously non-existent for the majority of the match. So, the wrestlers have to try to tell a compelling story for a very long time when everyone knows nothing of real significance will happen for a while.

With that challenge in mind, these two spent the first thirty minutes of the match having Shawn work over Bret’s left arm. That’s half of a very, very long match. That arm work was not paid off in the slightest. Thirty minutes of Shawn trying to hurt Bret’s arm led to absolutely nothing! That is terrible.

The second half of the match was not as bad in theory. Bret worked over Shawn’s back, and Shawn managed to survive the sharpshooter after that. The drama as the clock counted down with Shawn in the sharpshooter was definitely there, and I’ll give them some credit for that. For the major problems in the match, they at least achieved some basic level of quality that caused the fans to still care who won when push came to shove at the end. The superkick finish in overtime felt a bit anti-climatic after the previous hour, but it was not the end of the world.

I don’t think this was an atrocious match overall, but the storytelling was so bad for so long that they basically could not come close making up for it.

Match Rating: **

 

Shawn offers no insight into why he “lost his smile” in 1997. Weak weak weak weak. They quickly transition to Wrestlemania XIV. Shawn says he has little to no memory of this time period. Shawn talks about the big DX workout segment where he got hit with a battery (I think?). He talks about returning to his limo and popping pills/drinking liquor before going back out there. Shawn and Vince apparently had the same mentality at the time of just needing to get Shawn to the ring. Shawn says he definitely has professional regrets about how this all went down.

 

Wrestlemania XIV
March 29, 1998

Shawn Michaels(c) (w/ Triple H & Chyna) vs. Steve Austin [WWF Heavyweight Championship]
Mike Tyson was the “Special Enforcer.” He was accompanied to the ring by the goons.

“This is for you, Earl.” Shawn was a fantastic dick heel. Austin took it to Shawn early. HHH got involved. Tyson got in his face. The referee kicked out HHH and Chyna. Shawn and Austin started brawling near the entrance setup. Shawn was taking some dumb bumps in the ring considering his back was fucked. Shawn avoided a stunner, but Austin was in full control. They did some weak brawling on the floor. Shawn was in control for a while. He targeted the left leg. The match started out hotter than I remember, but it’s fallen off completely by this point. Ref bump. Austin made a comeback. Austin avoided two superkicks and hit a stunner. The ref was still out so Tyson inexplicably made the count: 1…2…3

Shawn was upset after the match. He got in Tyson’s face and tried to punch him. Tyson took him down with one punch instead.

Ooof, this match was rough to watch but not necessarily for the reasons you would think. Shawn didn’t look his best. However, I didn’t notice anything glaring that made it seem like he was physically incapable of having a good match. He just didn’t seem wholly invested or committed to the match, and by golly, did the match ever suffer as a result.

Match Rating: *3/4

 

Shawn tells an amusing story of the post-Summerslam 2002 superkick to Jericho not really supposed to mean anything. He gets to the back, and Vince/Jericho both said, “Did you feel that?!?!” That strikes me as a “mad scientist” moment from Vince. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit though.

 

Wrestlemania XIX
March 30, 2003

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho

Shawn had the early advantage. Jericho looked to be getting control, but Shawn came right back and hit a pescado. Jericho finally got control after applying the Walls on the floor. He proceeded to target Shawn’s back. Shawn hit a big DDT and then made his comeback. Shawn got busted open somehow. Jericho did the flying forearm/kip up spot. Shawn responded with a kip up of his own. Shawn no selling a back injury is the real Wrestlemania tradition. They did the moonsault spot from the end of the Iron Man match for a nearfall. Jericho came back and got a nearfall with the Lionsault. Jericho got the Walls. Shawn got to the ropes and then reversed a second attempt into a small package. Jericho went back after the back. He then gave Shawn a superkick: 1…2…NO! They slugged it out. Shawn teased an attempt at the Walls but then just sent Jericho into a ringpost. He later hit the diving elbow, but Jericho avoided the superkick. Walls of Jericho! Shawn made the ropes and then caught Jericho with a superkick: 1…2…NO! Jericho sent him hard into a ringpost, but Shawn then avoided a back suplex before catching Jericho with a roll-up: 1…2…3!

Shawn went for a handshake after. Jericho gave him a hug and then a kick to the balls in return.

This is still a pretty fun match. Shawn moved around with the grace of his younger self and that made for an interesting contrast with the more limited (at least in the grace department) Jericho. Oddly enough, their athletic differences kind of fit the tone of the match. Jericho was working like this was the most important match of his life, and Shawn was working like it was just another day at the office. You can interpret that as a negative on Shawn if you want, but it ended up working for the match.

Match Rating: ***1/2

 

For perfectly reasonable reasons, they ignore the 2004 Wrestlemania match. Shawn talks about the expectations factor with the Kurt Angle match in 2005. This is also where the “Mr. Wrestlemania” tag happened. Shawn talks about going over his allotted time in most Wrestlemania matches and this match was notably not the exception to that rule. He did mention that he would at least apologize to Taker if Taker ever came on after him. (I think JBL and Lance Storm somehow got into a fight about this subject, no? Regardless, JBL and Cena’s match got cut down and ended up really sucking.) Shawn finished up by saying he thinks they exceeded expectations.

 

Wrestlemania XXI
April 3, 2005

Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle

Much like the Bret Iron Man match, Shawn controlled the match on the mat early on. Insert conspiracy theories about Shawn’s ego right here. Angle finally cut Shawn off on the floor after hitting the Olympic Slam into a ringpost. Angle worked him over for a while. Shawn tried to fight back a few times. He finally managed to dump Angle to the floor and then hit the shittiest plancha. Angle tried to German Shawn from the apron to the floor. That spot seems dumb because you know WWE would never let anyone do a German from the apron to the floor from that angle. Shawn hit a desperate kick to the balls and then springboarded onto Angle while he was laid out on the table. This desperate sequence from Shawn would be so much more meaningful if Kurt dominated the match up until this point. They almost got counted out. Angle was bleeding from the mouth. It was an awesome visual. Shawn started to make a comeback. Angle reversed a superkick into an ankle lock. Shawn got to the ropes. They did some cool reversals. Angle hit the Olympic Slam: 1…2…NO! Angle went for the moonsault, but Shawn avoided it. Shawn went to the top rope, but Angle hit super Olympic Slam: 1…2…NO! Angle started yelling at Shawn and got met with a superkick. Shawn was struggling to his feet, and Angle then got the ankle lock out of nowhere. Shawn desperately tried to escape, but Angle held on with all of his strength. He eventually had it grapevined. Shawn lasted so long that it verged on parody. He finally tapped out.

While I enjoyed this quite a bit and consider it to be great, I watched the whole thing annoyed that Angle didn’t dominate the opening portion of the match instead of Shawn. It just rings false for Shawn to dominate someone like Kurt Angle on the mat. Angle is also way better at doing just that, and the sequence would have been more compelling. On top of that, Shawn’s sequence of desperate maneuvers (the shitty plancha, the low blow, and the springboard dive) would have been all the more meaningful/impactful if he had mostly been getting his ass handed to him before that point in the match. That major conceptual flub is what holds this match from world class status to me. I still think the match was great though.

Once Angle took over, the match picked up big time. Shawn’s comeback did not really get over, but things picked up again once they went to the reversals. You can call it “finisher spam” or “overkill” for sure. I think they executed it all pretty damn well though.

Match Rating: ****

 

Watch free Shawn Michaels matches:

Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair

Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho [Last Man Standing]

Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. John Cena & The Undertaker vs. The Big Show & Chris Jericho

Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena vs. Kurt Angle [Great match]

Shawn Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin [One of my personal favorite Shawn matches]

Shawn Michaels vs. Batista

Shawn Michaels & John Cena vs. The Undertaker & Batista [This is fun. Recommended.]

Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart [Title vs. Title]

Shawn Michaels, Goldberg, & RVD vs. Randy Orton, Batista, & Kane

Shawn Michaels vs. Rob Van Dam

Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho

Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty vs. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard

Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, John Cena, & Triple H vs. CM Punk, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, & Ted DiBiase

Shawn Michaels vs. Vader

Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty vs. Los Conquistadors

Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. Hawk & Animal

Shawn Michaels vs. Crush

Shawn Michaels & Hulk Hogan vs. Daivari & Muhammad Hassan

Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. The Miz & John Morrison

Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, & Triple H vs. Edge, Randy Orton, & Kenny

9.0
The final score: review Amazing
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article topics :

Shawn Michaels, WrestleMania, TJ Hawke