411 Ranks Shawn Michaels’ WrestleMania Matches (17-15)

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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Shawn is fresh off tossing Marty through the barbershop window, and was starting his push as a singles wrestler. Monsoon and Heenan are already putting Shawn over as the next man inline for an IC Title shot. The bell rings way before Shawn is ready and we get 90 seconds before any contact is made. Tito ducks a clothesline and drops Shawn with a cross body. Tito works a side headlock, but Shawn breaks with rights and lefts. Shawn grabs the top rope to keep from taking a shot to the mouth, so Tito clotheslines him over the top and to the floor. Shawn jaws with the crowd, and Tito pulls him back inside with another side headlock. Shawn breaks by backing Tito into the corner and delivering some shoulders to the midsection. They exchange some punches, and it results in Tito going back to the side headlock. That work some near falls off that before Shawn tries to break, but Tito rolls through and keeps the hold. This gives Heenan the chance to tell the story where he made a guy give up during instructions. Have I mentioned that I love Bobby Heenan? Shawn finally finds an effective way of breaking the side headlock: simply tossing Tito over the top rope to the floor. Shawn hits a botched backbreaker and that gets a 2 count. He goes to a reverse chinlock and that kind of gets the crowd behind Tito. He is able to break but runs right into what we be know as Sweet Chin Music today. Shawn doesn’t go for the cover as that wasn’t his finished at the time. Tito fires back with the flying jalapeno and that sends Michaels to the floor. Tito slingshots back into the ring on to Shawn (called the flying burrito by Heenan). Tito hits the extra paste picante (again called by Heenan) and that also sends Shawn to the floor. Tito tries to suplex him back in the ring, but Shawn grabs the top rope and is able to fall back on Tito for the pin at 10:39.

– Robert Leighty Jr.

17. WrestleMania 8 – Shawn Michaels vs. Tito Santana – 40 points

Dino Zee: The idea that this match was ranked last is, in my opinion, criminal. That this match was considered less important than the time the Twin Towers squashed The Rockers, or the time The Rockers lost a countout to The Orient Express, or less of a match than his WrestleMania IX encounter with Tatanka is silly. To me.

WrestleMania VIII is one of my favorite WrestleManias due to all the childhood nostalgia I associate with the show, along with great matches like Hart/Piper and Savage/Flair, as well as fun stuff like the 8 Man Tag. However, the match that starts the show off is another solid outing, with the added bonus of watching as a rocket is fitted, and then placed on an aspiring superstar, from the second he makes his entrance until he leaves the ring victorious.

And make no mistake, Shawn Michaels vs. El Matador (Tito Santana, duh) is a bona-fide star-prepping match. Michaels is given the opportunity to kick off the show against an opponent in Tito who has a good reputation with the crowd and, despite his age, can absolutely still put on a match that will entertain the fans. He’s only a couple months into his single heel role after breaking up The Rockers, and has color commentary Bobby Heenan as his number one cheerleader. Seriously, Heenan is whistling along to Michaels’ theme, he’s calling him a future Intercontinental Champion… it’s so obvious that the sky is the limit for this guy, and with hindsight, it’s even more fun. Plus, we get the immortal “Arriba McIntyre” joke from Heenan as El Matador makes his entrance.

The match itself, unsurprisingly enough, is solid if unspectacular. There are some great mat wrestling sequences at the start to set up the idea that, yes, this young kid from the tag team may actually be able to hang with a former Intercontinental Champion. There are some great moments of underhanded tactics used by Michaels and his manager, Sensational Sherri. Heenan is gushing at all moments over either Michaels’ greatness, or Sheri’s body.

Sure, it may not have the historical significance of that time The Rockers beat Haku and The Barbarian, but it’s still a pretty important match, all things considered. There *is* a long headlock sequence in the match that may not be for everyone, but I felt like this was all done to show that the tag team wrestler known for his high-flying moves was actually competent in wrestling, and was able to go move for move with someone as talented as Tito. On top of that, we were able to learn that Bobby Heenan once beat a guy with a side headlock, in an incredible feat.

Michaels would win with an assist from Sherri, and roughly six months later, would prove Heenan right as he won the Intercontinental Championship. Pay no attention to the ranking of this match, as clearly a huge mistake was made. This is a fun match, and a great look into what’s to come for HBK.

Tony Acero: Remember the string of matches Orton and Sheamus had that really upset everyone watching? It was the story of two capable wrestlers who, on their own, really were pretty amazing in the ring, and the expectation of greatness when pitting the two together was relatively high. In the similar vein, the idea of Shawn Michaels and Tito Santana in a match together sounds pretty good on paper, but for whatever reason, they just made the audience feel a way that could only be described as “rest-hold.” This would be Michaels first official singles match on a WrestleMania card, but definitely not the first in the string of great matches that he would soon be known for. Some say Mr. WrestleMania didn’t appear to the world until WrestleMania X, and most of them would be right, because this was somewhat plodding and slow match with an awkward ending that didn’t gel well with me. The truth is, the match was technically sound for the most part, but it seemingly fell apart after just a few minutes, and never really recovered.

The bell rings rather quickly as all four men are still in the ring. Shawn and Marty bail to make the fat men chase them around the ring (good strategy there) and back inside the chase goes. Bossman starts the match with Shawn and quickly Shawn gets overpowered. Bossman catches him and sets him on the top rope just so he can slap Shawn in the face. Awesome! Michaels comes off top with a drop kick to the back of the Bossman’s head, as he is distracted with Marty. Michaels sucker punches Akeem while he stands on the apron. This brings Akeem in the ring, while Michaels does the moonwalk. The Rockers take turns with arm wringers on Akeem and then go cheap shot Bossman on the apron. Shawn uses his quickness to avoid a splash, and tags Marty in. He continues the eternal arm wringer on Akeem. Gorilla mentions a leg might be better to take out instead of an arm just as I was thinking the same thing. Marty gets cute and gets squashed between the Towers. Now, the pace slows, as Akeem and the Bossman methodically destroy Marty. An avalanche by Bossman in the corner is followed by Akeem squashing Bossman onto Marty. Shawn finally gets the hot tag and the Rockers bounce Akeem all over the ring from one corner to another. Shawn then gets killed with a super stiff clothesline. Shawn sells it like death, as he should. Bossman misses a splash off the top rope, and a cover only gets 2 for Shawn. Rockers hit an ugly double dropkick from the top rope that gets a 2 count. There timing was way off on that one. The Bossman catches a leaping Shawn off the top rope in a primitive version of a power bomb. Lots of oohs and aahs from the crowd on that one. Akeem tags in and hits Air Africa (generic fat man splash) for the pin.

– Robert Leighty Jr.

16. WrestleMania 5 – The Rockers vs. The Twin Towers – 43 points

Steve Cook: There are a lot of things going against this match.

1. The participants. You got The Rockers on one side of the ring. Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty. They like to fly around and do a lot of innovative double teams. They prepare for matches by playing with action figures and trying to do what they do. On the other side of the ring are the Twin Towers. Big Bossman & Akeem. They like to stand around and squash people. They prepare for matches by going to the buffet. (Bossman was a pretty good weight for most of his career before and after, but he’d really let himself go at this point. Probably the traveling with Akeem that did it to him.) This was a styles clash of gigantic proportions that wouldn’t allow Michaels & Jannetty to do what they did best.

2. The event. Holy cow was this show overbooked. Most early WrestleManias suffered from the ailment of having way too many matches booked for not enough time, and WrestleMania V definitely fit into that category. Fourteen matches booked for a four hour show. Insane. Only two of these matches went over ten minutes, and only one match from this show is remembered by anybody today. (This is not that match.)

3. The venue. I hated Donald Trump at least two decades before everybody else did because he gave us this awful venue for two WrestleManias. I’m sure Trump Plaza was a huge casino, the best casino ever if you ask him, but as a wrestling venue it was the drizzling shits. This crowd couldn’t give a rat’s ass about anybody other than Hulk Hogan, and maybe Randy Savage if he was wrestling Hulk Hogan.

Shawn Michaels was not put in a position to succeed in his first WrestleMania, and he didn’t. In a perfect world, Michaels & Jannetty would have been put with the Brain Busters to have the kind of kickass match they’d had all over the circuit, and Strike Force could have jobbed to the Twin Towers so Martel could turn on Santana & blame the loss on him. But as I’ve said in < a href=http://411wrestling.com/wrestling/john-cena-and-aj-styles-should-meet-at-wrestlemania/>previous columns, WWE has a tendency to not have its best match-ups at WrestleMania.

Justin Watry: It is only fitting that the Shawn Michaels/WrestleMania V story begins with an omen for the future. The introduction to a backstage interview was “with Shawn Michaels and The Rockers.” Yep, that was the call. If that didn’t tell you how his career would go opposite Marty Jannetty, nothing would. Good promo from the duo, obviously moreso from HBK. I’m not sure it really mattered because this was done quite often in the old days, but The Twin Towers were already in the ring when we returned to ringside. Akeem and Big Bossman for those unaware. Interesting little tidbit that The Rockers were mentioned being tag team specialists during their entrance. Yeah, I’d say that one Shawn Michaes became more. That was the set up. Here is the match breakdown: WWE only gave these four men about eight minutes. However, it was more than enough to tell the story it wanted to. Shawn started the match. Clearly the more popular of The Rockers, as fans seemed to gravitate towards him more than Marty. After showing off some of his flashy moves, the tag was made…and guess what? Make a prediction as to what happened next. Marty got beat up. Yep. The moral of this story is that Shawn is the star, and Marty is not. After awhile of power dominance from The Twin Towers, Shawn got the inevitable ‘hot tag’ and despite his best efforts and a cheering crowd, he lost. The big men beat the under dogs. Fair enough. Even in defeat, the WM legacy of Shawn Michaels was clear. He was popular, had promo skills, the in-ring ability to back it up and was somebody to watch out for…

The eventual Faces of Fear don’t even get a proper entrance, and get the jobber treatment of already being in the ring. That doesn’t seem to bode well for their chances. Shawn starts things with Haku, and he gets caught early. He gets the pace a little faster, but gets caught in a bearhug. He is able to quicken the pace again and drops Haku with a shoulder. They exchange arm wringers before the Rockers get a double hiptoss. They make the mistake of ignoring Barbarian and he clotheslines both men. The 360 sell from the Rockers is a thing of beauty as it made Barbarian look like a killer. Marty and Barbarian have a go, and it’s all Barbarian early. Lots of clubbering, but some timely double teaming regains the advantage for the Rockers. That ends quickly when Marty tries to stand toe to toe with Haku. The Rockers try to double team again, but the ref cuts off Shawn, and that gives the Barbarian the chance to drop Marty on the top rope throat first while he was on Haku’s shoulders. That was a nice little touch with the ref actually doing his job and it coming back to bite the faces in the ass. Marty is your face in peril, and gets the holy hell beat out of him in the corner. Marty hits a move here and there, but constantly gets cuts off when he tries to make the tag. Beautiful backbreaker and then another by Haku. In a weird moment Haku tags out and the Barbarian goes for the cover. That seemed kind of stupid. A clothesline again from the Barbarian and again Marty does a complete flip to oversell the move. The crowd starts rallying behind Marty as he is getting his shit squeezed with a bearhug. A massive Weasel chant, but that doesn’t really seem to help Marty. He tries a cross body from the middle rope, but gets caught with a powerslam. That actually gets a face pop from the males in the crowd. Very much like a Jeff Hardy or Cena match today. Barbarian misses the top rope headbutt and we get the hot tag to Shawn. He pounds away on Haku in the corner and dives onto the Barbarian. A neckbreaker on Haku gets a two count, but a thumb in the eye stops that. Shawn gets an assistant from Marty on a sunset flip and that gets a two count. The Rockers hit a double drop kick that sends the Barbarian to the floor. They each head to the top and Marty hits a dropkick to drop Haku and Shawn follows with a cross body to get the pin @ 10:33.

– Robert Leighty Jr.

15. WrestleMania 7 – The Rockers vs. Haku & Barbarian – 52 points

Jack Stevenson: For all the wonderful things he achieved over the years, Shawn Michaels’ spell with Marty Jannetty might be my favorite of his whole career. I’m a huge fan of classic tag wrestling, and there were few teams who brought as much energy and vibrancy to the sturdy old tag formula as the Rockers. It’s a pity really that we don’t have a great Rockers match to discuss in this feature, but in my opinion (if not that of the collective 411 staff), this battle with Haku and the Barbarian was their best work together on the grandest stage of them all. It certainly helps that The Faces of Fear were a really decent big man duo by the standards of the time, and make for effective foils for the Rockers’ high flying moves. There’s this great spot where the Barbarian wipes out both Michaels and Jannetty simultaneously with a clothesline, sending the Rockers spiraling haplessly through the air. It really looks this giant wildman has just committed a double homicide. Marty Jannetty becomes the face in peril, and while the heat segment is hardly a thrill a minute, both Haku and the Barbarian have some fun bits and pieces of offense. There’s a particularly cool double team where The Barbarian gets Jannetty up in a powerbomb position, and then drops him across the top rope while Haku joins in with a facebuster. Inevitably, Marty makes the hot tag to Shawn Michaels, which is when the main flaw with the match becomes apparent. At this point you just want the Rockers to absolutely unload on their foes with all their high-tech moves, but actually this finishing stretch is really short compared to the Faces of Fear comparatively tame period in control. It makes the match feel frustratingly lopsided. Still, we do get some neat double teams from Shawn and Marty, and they finish in fine fashion, with Marty decking Haku with a missile dropkick, and Shawn following up with a high cross body for a three count. While not especially memorable in any way, this was at the very least further above average than anything else Shawn would do at these early WrestleManias. As the 90s wore on, the quality of his output would obviously increase massively, but I would definitely trade in the Ironman match with Bret for a 15 minute Rockers-Brainbusters match on WrestleMania V.

Scott Rutherford: It seems almost unfair to have the Rockers tag team matches in this countdown largely because the Rockers had no real blow away tag team match at WrestleMania but this was as close as they came. Both Marty and Shawn were feeling it here and they managed to pull out a match that hovers around ***1/2 against a couple of guys not known for having great matches in Haku and Barbarian. I did re-watch this match in preparation of writing this and it’s interesting to note that they managed to put out their best WM work at a time when they as a team were having issues back stage and were starting down the path of teasing their eventual break-up. Historically this match falls under the “Unsung” or “Under appreciated” banner likely because outside of this night, it really meant nothing and didn’t lead to anything else. The match itself is a great little guy vs. big guy match that was smartly booked to make all participants look good. You really can’t say Shawn carried this match either as all four were up for it and offered up a surprisingly hot opener and certainly the best match on the show outside of the Warrior/Savage match. Contextually however, in the greater picture of Shawn’s career, this match it a nice factual curiosity. This would be the Rockers last match at WM as a team and by WM8 Shawn is entrenched in his heel role and at the start of his rocket push. It would also be Bret Harts last Hart Foundation match and would find himself Intercontinental Champion by Summerslam thus starting the road the WM11 and one of the most talked about real life rivalries in the history of wrestling.

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