The Shimmy 5.28.07: The Shawn Michaels Report Card- The Return! (Part One)
Posted by Andy Clark on 05.28.2007
Shawn Michaels will be out of action in WWE until at least November. Where can you get your HBK fix until then? Why The Shimmy of course!
Happy Memorial Day everyone. Is everybody ready for summer? Better yet, is everybody ready for a busy week of wrestling? We have eleven hours of wrestling heading our way this week, including the return on Saturday Night's Main Event and yet another WWE PPV. Perhaps one of the biggest stories in recent weeks is the loss of Shawn Michaels to that lingering knee problem. He was supposed to get that taken care of over a year ago and now it has come back to bite him. Still, it's amazing to think that by now he has actually been back in wrestling longer then he was initially out with his back injury. It's crazy to think about just how many awesome matches HBK has given us since his return. In this Report Card I'll focus on those matches and we can see just how many classics the Heartbreak Kid has left us with over the past five years.
Unsanctioned Street Fight: Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H (SummerSlam 2002)
Coming into this match nobody really knew what to expect. Just how much could Shawn Michaels do? How much punishment could he take? And would we see any more of him after this match? Michaels managed to answer all those questions by putting on one hell of a performance. Triple H just about obliterated HBK's back and he kept coming back for more. For a guy that hadn't been in a ring in four years this was insanely impressive. This would have been a serious Match of the Year contender if 2002 wasn't so jam packed with great matches.
My opinion on this match keeps changing. At first I was disappointed as I didn't feel like the Elimination Chamber was as brutal as it was hyped, especially coming off of a gory Hell in a Cell Match. However, looking back it was an innovative match and was a decent debut for the gimmick. The real story here was Shawn Michaels winning a World Championship for the first time in four years. It's a shame Michaels had that lame ass haircut (which he even mentions in his autobiography) as it takes away from the visual of him with the big gold belt.
I'm sure I'm in the vast minority on this one, but I really didn't dig this match. Which is disappointing, too, because the gimmick behind it is a damn good one, one that could have ended up being so much better. At this point I don't think anybody wanted to see Triple H back with the belt, and I think there were some bitter feelings left over from getting screwed out of HBK-RVD a few weeks earlier. This certainly wasn't a bad match but one of the weaker Triple H-HBK matches. Oh, and the "will he be Shawn Michaels or The Showstopper" storyline was really dumb.
My Grade: C+
2003 Royal Rumble Match (Royal Rumble 2003)
This is one of my favorite Rumble matches, but unfortunately it doesn't remain as great over time. Michaels is barely in this match but he ends up playing a crucial role in it. This match would be the springboard for the Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho feud.
My Grade: B+
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho (WrestleMania XIX)
From the Chris Jericho Report Card: This is an excellent match, in my opinion one of the greatest of all time. Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels told a story in this match and they both proved why they are two of the greatest sports-entertainers (not just wrestlers) ever. This match was epic and I think that of all of the matches on the WrestleMania card this one benefited from the SAFECO Field aura the most.
My Grade: A+
Six Man Tag Team Match: Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, & Booker T vs. Triple H, Chris Jericho, & Ric Flair (Backlash 2003)
I just watched this match again a few weeks ago and it was a lot better then I remembered. This is a pretty fast paced, action packed match, which is good for what it was. If you're going to scrap a PPV title match in favor of a Six Man Tag, you better make sure it's entertaining. Triple H and Nash were the two key figures here, but everyone else played their parts well.
My Grade: B
Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair (Bad Blood 2003)
If you would have told me in 2000 that Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair would put together a great PPV match in 2003 I would have called you a liar. This is just short of being the Match of the Night due to the surprisingly good Triple H-Kevin Nash Hell in a Cell main event. These two men proved why they are considered two of the greatest of all time (perhaps THE greatest of all time) by going out there and having a great, technical match. Some people may not like the Randy Orton run-in, but it helped re-establish Evolution after Orton and Batista were both hit with injuries shortly after the group's formation.
I love this match because everybody in this match had issues, either at the time or in their history. Michaels' main feud at the time was with Randy Orton but he had also rekindled his feud with Chris Jericho, plus he had his past history with Triple H. Throw in the dream match aspect of a showdown with Goldberg and the fact that Nash was his tag team partner at the time and HBK is one of the most compelling people in the match. Unlike his previous Elimination Chamber experience Michaels didn't walk away with the belt, but he still had a strong showing until Goldberg destroyed him.
My Grade: B+
Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton (Unforgiven 2003)
Due to Hurricane Isabel I was unable to watch this PPV and therefore cannot comment on the match. Moving along…
My Grade: N/A
Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff, Classic Survivor Series Elimination Match: Shawn Michaels, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, & Dudley Boyz vs. Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Christian, Mark Henry, & Scott Steiner (Survivor Series 2003)
This is a great Classic Survivor Series Match. Shawn Michaels stole the show with his performance here and he's the main reason this match is remembered so fondly. Unfortunately he couldn't pull out the victory, but Austin would be back in a matter of weeks so it all worked out in the end.
My Grade: A+
Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Armageddon 2003)
From the Batista Report Card: Batista would have to take a considerable amount of time off following the infamous tag match between Batista & Orton and the Dudley Boyz where Batista, Orton, and Bubba Ray all managed to get injured. I believe Batista even reinjured himself while rehabbing pushing his return back even longer. This match came about after Batista cost Shawn Michaels the final fall in the Survivor Series Elimination Match with Stone Cold Steve Austin's job on the line. This was without a doubt Batista's best match to date, although with HBK in there it really shouldn't be that surprising. This was probably my favorite match of the PPV.
Shawn Michaels and Triple H's second feud was quite possibly even better (at least match wise) than their first. Coming off an incredible one-on-one confrontation on the last Raw of 2003, it would be hard to live up to expectations here. Of course, when you're dealing with performers the caliber of Triple H and Shawn Michaels that's exactly the kind of pressure that creates great matches. This was probably one of the best Last Man Standing Matches (despite the overused double KO) and it really made you want to see Michaels get one more shot at Triple H. I think the presentation of this match really helped make HBK's inclusion in the WrestleMania main event more agreeable to the fans.
And here we go, one of the greatest matches (perhaps THE greatest match) of the modern era. The storytelling and action in this match is second to none. It was pretty much two different matches going on in there. You had Benoit's quest for Triple H's gold that HBK was interfering with, and you had HBK and Triple H trying to settle their rivalry once and for all only to have to deal with Benoit as well. These three gelled together so well that we even got to see a rematch (a rarity for multiman matches) the next month.
Could the rematch live up to the original? Oh hell yeah! This had the extra bonus of taking place in Benoit's hometown of Edmonton which gave it just as much of a big match feel as the WrestleMania encounter. The best spot in the match was Michaels putting Benoit in the Sharpshooter only for Earl Hebner to come down to replace the downed referee. This got great heat, and say what you will about needing to move on from Montreal, but Michaels has been great at playing a special role in Canada. Amazing match, one that often gets overlooked due to the WrestleMania match and the great Orton-Foley Hardcore Match on the same show.
My Grade: A+
Hell in a Cell Match: Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H (Bad Blood 2004)
After six months of feuding with each other and knocking one another out of the title picture, Triple H and Shawn Michaels could only resolve their issues in one way: Hell in a Cell. Much like their 3 Stages of Hell Match, I think this was rather disappointing. It had potential, but by and large it just wasn't as good as it should have been. I think one of the main reasons was length. I believe the match almost went an hour, which was probably about twenty minutes longer then it needed to be. A lot of people also had a bad taste in their mouths at the time because this match went on last instead of the Benoit-Kane World Title Match. In retrospect, when looking at the feuds this obviously deserved the top spot, but in 2004 that was a big deal.
My Grade: C+
Before we get Matt Adamson's 500 Good Words I would like to share a bit of information with you. This Tuesday, May 29 Matt and 411's Ryan Byers will be appearing on Rumble Radio on WXAV 88.3 FM in Chicago. They will be part of a radio documentary of SHIMMER from 7-9 pm Central Time. The show will also be broadcast online at WXAV.com. This is great for Matt, Ryan, 411, and SHIMMER so check it out this Tuesday. And now for our regularly scheduled broadcast.
500 Good Words w/ Matt Adamson
Champion vs. Champion (Part 8)
Yes, the time as come to finally put this puppy behind me. Last week I went into the Invasion and the subsequent unification of the WCW and WWF titles into one title. The unified title wouldn't last long as just five months after the brand split the WWE decided that each brand should have its own champion. They started by crowning HHH as the first ever World Heavyweight Champion under the RAW brand. It would lead to a great deal of controversy as many didn't want to consider somebody a champion who was simply handed the championship. Raw and Smackdown would go their separate ways in PPV by June of 2003. This trend would continue as they would be brand exclusive outside of WrestleMania, Survivor Series, SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble. If a guy was to wrestle on a Smackdown show, he was going to have to be a part of the Smackdown roster and if he was going to be on a RAW show, he was going to have to be a RAW wrestler. The only exception to this rule came around WrestleMania time. Then everything changed.
In June of 2005, WWE put on a show featuring former ECW talent in an ECW type show called ECW One Night Stand. Intended to be a one show deal to promote a DVD documentary, they put everything they could into the show and as a result, it was huge. It was so huge in fact that not only were they going to bring it back the following year, but they were going to capitalize off the name of ECW and start a new brand under that name. Thus ended brand exclusivity as the WWE used RAW and Smackdown wrestlers on ECW shows in order to boost ratings and draw interest in the product. When they saw how successful it was on TV shows, they ran ECW wrestlers on RAW and Smackdown shows. By the time the summer was over, it wasn't uncommon to see RAW, ECW and Smackdown wrestlers on all three shows intermingling like some sort of diversity party.
The last champion vs. champion match happened a mere five months after the rebirth of ECW and the end of brand exclusivity. This match would be unique in that it wasn't simple a champion vs. champion match, but a champion vs. champion vs. champion match. That's right; ECW had them a champion in The Big Show who had won it from the first (revived) ECW champion, Rob Van Dam. The match would take place in November 2006 at the RAW Pay Per View titled Cyber Sunday. It would be a huge match as it was the first time since the brand split that all major titles were on the line in one match. King Booker (Smackdown) vs. John Cena (RAW) vs. The Big Show (ECW) would happen on that night. The gimmick of that match is that fans would vote to determine who's title would be up for grabs in the match. The fans voted that the World Heavyweight Title, held by Smackdown's King Booker would be that title. In the end Booker won the match and the title in what could be the last champion vs. champion match. An argument can be made that it wasn't as only one title was up for grabs.
Well that's it, I'm done. Finished with this two month long series on champion vs. champion match and I'm glad. It was good while it lasted, but eight parts is some serious business. I believe the whole thing topped out at around 5000 words. Well, next week it'll be a surprise for a change as I'm up for writing about anything but champion vs. champion matches. Maybe I'll write a little bit about TNA for a change. I don't think I have yet. Until next time.
The Shimmy Likes It Raw!
What's on tap for tonight's show?
Anything special for the Memorial Day edition of Raw? Sometimes these can be big shows, but with SNME and One Night Stand this weekend I doubt we'll get anything major.
Well that does it for this week. I'll be back next week with more of the Shawn Michaels Report Card. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.
