The Shimmy 03.28.10: Desert of Imperfection

Graphic By Meehan

On February 3, 2008 football fans from around the world entered University of Phoenix Stadium excited to witness history. Millions of Americans at glued to their television sets that evening, anticipating the kind of once in a lifetime sports moment that you brag about to the grandchildren. The reason for this palpable excitement? The New England Patriots. The unstoppable New England Patriots. Coached by Bill Belichik and led by pretty-boy quarterback extraordinaire Tom Brady, the Patriots had already earned Hall of Fame stripes and dynasty credentials with three Super Bowls previously in the decade, all within a four year period at that. But this year was special. All the accolades of previous years could not match the magic of that 2007 team. Heading into that day the team had amassed an unprecedented 18-0 record and there was only one stop left to make to flip that to a historic 19-0: Super Bowl XLII.

“19-0” became the new sports talk boilerplate, an air of inevitability surrounding the outcome of the big game. Interested in some fine reading? Just weeks before the game even took place you could preorder your copy of the official “19-0” book from Amazon. Perhaps things would have been murkier if the Patriots had shown any real cracks in the armor, but this team set records. The 1972 Miami Dolphins, who played in fewer games, went undefeated as well but they didn’t win quite like this. Tom Brady and Randy Moss scored at will throughout the season, at best infuriating and at worst embarrassing opposing teams. Even the close victories were won with a stern, unflinching confidence. The Patriots’ success even caused a usually humble Brady, after hearing Plaxico Burress’ prediction of the Patriots scoring 17 points in the Super Bowl, to sarcastically quip “We’re only going to score 17 points? OK. Is Plax playing defense?”

Their hitlist was impressive as well. Hated rival Colts? Out. Division foe Miami? Dusted. Perennial contender Pittsburgh? Dismantled. Former Kryptonite San Diego? Bested. Ironically the team that had the best shot at dethroning the would-be champs, the New York Giants would also be the team the Patriots would see in the NFL Championship Game. Even then, despite a bit of a scare, the Patriots triumphed, beating back Big Blue on no less than three television networks.

There was no real question about it. Sure there was always a chance, but come on, how realistic was that? The undefeated streak was destined to continue.

Flash forward three years and those that enter University of Phoenix Stadium as well as millions of television viewers across the world will once again be waiting for the continuation of an incredible undefeated streak. They will also be anxious, although perhaps with heavy hearts, to see history made as well. This will be a different field of battle than Super Bowl XLII. The streak on the line this time belongs not to a GQ cover model but to an intimidating, deathly inspired warrior, known to professional wrestling fans worldwide as the Undertaker. The potential history rests on the head of his opponent on that evening, a man known for being one of the best big game performers of all time, Shawn Michaels. Just as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers understandably took a backseat to the epic Patriots-Giants showdown, the rest of the card for WrestleMania XXVI will justifiably play second fiddle to this clash of two sports-entertainment icons.

In the world of his profession the Undertaker’s streak is almost more impressive than that of Belichik and company. Sitting at a haunting 17-0 the Deadman is one win short of the would-be Super Bowl champs. The difference is that the Undertaker did not just go on a string of wins; for his line of work it would be comparable to winning not 17 straight in-season games but 17 straight Super Bowls. He faced his fair share of Colts, Steelers, and Chargers as well, defeating an impressive list of talent including Triple H, Batista, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, along with Hall of Famers Ric Flair and Jimmy Snuka.

There is only one problem with this Patriots-Undertaker analogy: the Patriots lost. Despite all the pundits, all the experts, the seemingly inevitable ending never came to pass. The New York football Giants somehow solved the puzzle that could not be solved for 18 previous games, even by themselves. The upset of upsets happened and history was pushed off course. 19-0 was dead. Long live 18-1. And one. Those two words would haunt the Patriots, a two word reminder that as great as they were they just weren’t that great. To an objective person their accomplishments would still seem incredible, and yet everything would be tarnished by those two magic words. Even some of their early championships lost a little of their luster with the failure to deliver in the ultimate showdown. Is it fair? Perhaps not. But they still live with the thoughts of “and one” to this day.

And that brings us to the “Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels. A proud Texan, it may be bold to compare him to those New York Giants, but they share almost as many characteristics as their undefeated counterparts. Like the Giants, this will be HBK’s second chance at the Deadman. The Giants came up just short of upending the Patriots in the final game of the regular season, a matchup that garnered an unprecedented amount of attention due to the stakes. Likewise it was one year ago in Houston at the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania that Michaels first tried his hand at breaking the streak. While he came close on a number of occasions, causing the crowd of 70,000 to either rise to their feet in excitement or gasp in horror frequently, he just couldn’t put the match away. The Undertaker proved why he was undefeated at the show of shows, and like the New England Patriots on that January evening walked away with the victory.

Many people claim that it is that previous defeat that helped the Giants win when it mattered the most, when the stakes were raised. It is often speculated that they discovered the blueprint to the Patriots’ success, allowing them to even the odds for the Super Bowl showdown. Is it possible that Shawn Michaels may have discovered the Undertaker’s blueprint one year ago? His confidence would seem to indicate so. Last year a desperate Michaels implored the referee to count faster as his opponent lay outside the ring, perfectly content to get the big victory by count out. And yet this year it was Michaels that suggested that the match could not be ended by a count out or a disqualification. Did he glean anything from his experience last year or was he motivating himself to remain aggressive, to stick on the throat of the Deadman instead of winning by way of a technicality? Thinking back to that last regular season game between the Patriots and the Giants and the possibility of a cheap win for the Giants was there; with a playoff spot wrapped up New England really didn’t need to play their starters or even play that hard. Perhaps that is why the Giants were able to keep it so close. Instead the G-men pushed the unbeaten team thereby making it a true fight, eliminating what might have amounted to a football count out.

One also needs to examine the stakes that rest of the rematch as well. In order to secure a return engagement against the Undertaker this year Shawn Michaels needed to put the most important thing in his professional world, his career, on the line. A chance to show that he could in fact defeat the Phenom at the grandest stage of them all was apparently worth going all in for, even if it meant he could suffer not only a crushing blow to the psyche by losing again but a crushing blow to his livelihood as well. In many ways that New York Giants team was in a similar position. Prior to the season Giants head coach Tom Coughlin had been under fire for his seemingly overdone disciplinary measures and it would take a strong post-season effort to retain him in his position. Michael Strahan was lured out of possible retirement, much in the same way Michaels left his gig as a chef last summer, for the mission of winning a Super Bowl. While Strahan did not superkick a little girl on his way back to the game, there was a bit of strained public image thanks to his blow off of training camp. And while his job was not necessarily in jeopardy, Eli Manning had been viewed as a poor leader, unfit to lead anyone into battle, and many were skeptical of his ability to win a championship. While walking away empty handed would not have landed Eli in the unemployment line it would have likely damaged his overall stock and perhaps even worse his confidence as a player. As Michaels plainly showed to Triple H in that kitchen in August, one of the worst possible things to be acquired by a performer is doubt.

It is that doubt that led to Michaels doing just about anything to earn this rematch with Undertaker. At every turn he was thwarted, getting turned down by the Undertaker, getting eliminated from the Royal Rumble, and being denied by Teddy Long. It would take something drastic, something the rest of the viewing audience may not have approved of to get the job done. At Elimination Chamber, as Undertaker defended his World Heavyweight Championship within the structure the PPV was named for, Michaels snuck into the ring from below (a stark contrast to his heavenly descent from WrestleMania 25) and cost the Deadman his title. The Undertaker would not be going to WrestleMania as champion and it was all because of Shawn Michaels. One man’s need for success snuffed out the other’s shining moment.

While the New York Giants did not find themselves inside the Elimination Chamber to get the opportunity they wanted they did have to travel to the frozen tundra of Lambau Field. Standing in their way of a Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots was the legendary Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. For weeks people had talked about the possibility of seeing the legend battle the undefeated juggernaut in what surely would have been the biggest game of all time (one need to only think back to the Undertaker-John Cena speculation from a few months back to see another potential WrestleMania matchup denied to us by Shawn Michaels’ actions at Elimination Chamber). Instead the Giants snatched that scenario away, quite literally, intercepting Favre’s last pass as a Packer, starting a chain reaction that would blow up the legacy of an icon. I am sure the Giants could care little as they got exactly what they wanted and all they had to do was capitalize.

And capitalize they did. Their defense stayed on top of Tom Brady the entire game, suffocating the star QB in a move that was the football equivalent of expertly working over a body part. And had it happened in a wrestling ring instead of a football field Eli Manning’s hectic escape from pressure and David Tyree’s miracle catch would have been considered “WrestleMania moments.” In the end there was no amount of hype, no previous success, no supposedly inevitability that could save the Patriots from the real inevitability: “and one.”

It’s funny to think that the Patriots were not the only mighty battleship to be sunk inside of University of Phoenix Stadium. It’s in this same stadium for the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl that mighty Oklahoma Sooners were felled by the plucky and unique Boise State Broncos in one of the greatest college football games of all time, a game that almost resembled a professional wrestling drama more than a BCS bowl game. One year later the Sooners would try to recapture their mystique by beating West Virginia, the champions of the oft-criticized Big East. Unfortunately for Sooner nation their boys would return home empty handed for the second year in a row, the spell of the university with no campus cast on them.

The stadium was also the place where the Arizona Cardinals, long one of the laughingstocks of the NFL, won the NFC Championship and won a Super Bowl date of their own. Again the story played out much like a PPV build, with Coach Ken Whisenhunt leading his team of underdogs against the storied franchise that once spurned him, the Pittsburgh Steelers. With the underdogs in town the usually babyface Steelers became the heels for the evening, and while the Cards did not win the championship they did give the eventual champions everything they could handle, winning the respect of their opponents as well as the fans. Could it have been the magical touch of the Arizona desert that and the new red-seated stadium that spun the seeds of sports-entertainment drama into their story?

And just what will become of Shawn Michaels and Undertaker? On March 28, 2010 these two legends of the squared circle will meet in an epic Streak vs. Career rematch. It will have been 818 days since the New England Patriots defended their own streak against the New York Giants in the very same building. It may be symbolic that WrestleMania is happening in Phoenix, a city named for the mythical bird that rises from the ashes; will Shawn Michaels rise from the ashes of last year’s defeat and not only end the streak but save his career? Or can the darkness of the Undertaker extinguish the fire of the phoenix and snuff out the light of Shawn Michaels once and for all?

Come Sunday evening we will have our answer. Perhaps the legendary career of Shawn Michaels will come to an end in a sight likely more emotional than the exit of Michaels’ idol Ric Flair two years ago in Orlando. Or perhaps Shawn Michaels will make a departure from his usual D-Generation X vernacular and revel in the utterance of two different words, the words that could come to define the legacies of himself, the Undertaker, and possibly even WrestleMania itself:

“And one.”