Has The Show Truly Stopped For Shawn Michaels (Part 1)?: By Matthew Evans (08/05/10)

On March 28, 2010 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Phoenix, Arizona, Shawn Michaels (considered by many to be the greatest in-ring performer of his or any generation) competed in what could very-well have been his last match.

Losing an entertaining headline bout to The Undertaker via an extra-powerful jumping “Tombstone” pile-driver, Michaels bowed out gracefully following an incredible 25-year career that had been filled with controversy, incredible highs, heart-breaking lows and some truly tremendous matches and moments for wrestling fans of all generations to remember him by.

Shawn’s last hurrah on that night was relatively low-key. However, the following night on Raw, he was given the time and the creative freedom to speak from the heart, admit to his headline-grabbing backstage dealings with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and long-time rival (on-screen and off, although they famously “made peace” with each other earlier this year) Bret Hart and thank the fans and all who worked within WWE for their support over the years.

This moving segment also featured The Undertaker, who came out and tipped his hat to Shawn in a show of respect. HHH (Shawn’s long-time friend and “DX” associate) was also there and hugged Michaels on the stage.

Throughout his “farewell”, Michaels insisted that this really was “it” for his career. However, we’ve heard statements like this so many times from wrestlers and wrestling promoters that the term “retirement” is practically now seen as a running joke in the business.

For example, in the pre-Internet era (and before the lid was fully blown off wrestling), I’m sure many people (especially the young fans, who were the main target audience for the WWF at the time) believed that when Randy Savage lost a “Career Match” to The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 7, “The Macho One” would never set foot in a WWF ring again. (After all, that was the stipulation and Savage had indeed lost).

However, Macho Man reunited with Elizabeth, married her at SummerSlam 91’ and settled into his new role of colour commentator on WWF Superstars (he also competed in ANOTHER “last match” against Rick “The Model” Martel in a Coliseum Video “exclusive” bout after he had turned face at WM). This was fair enough (not many people would have been aware of the aforementioned Martel match anyway), but then Savage was later allowed to return to action as a competitor to get revenge on Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who had gate-crashed the “Macho Wedding” with a king cobra and a few months later had allowed said-snake to sink its (non-venomous) fangs into Macho’s arm in a shocking angle on WWF TV. Surely if the WWF was doing this “by the book” and honouring its own stipulations, then Roberts would have been suspended and Savage would not have been allowed to become an active competitor again under any circumstances.

The Macho Man situation is the earliest example of “phoney retirements” I can recall and as you probably know, there have been many others over the years (for example, veteran Terry Funk has “retired” so many times that even he has lost track of it all!), including Ric Flair’s “last match” at WrestleMania XXV (ironically against Shawn Michaels). Of course, Flair himself has gone through his share of “last matches”, although most of them have deliberately been done as story lines and nothing more (it became so common that fans eventually decided that Flair would never retire).

The question is, if Shawn Michaels is serious about his retirement, can he stick to it? Remember that “The Heart-Break Kid” also hanged up his boots in 1998 following a serious back injury. This appeared to be the end of the road for him then, but against the odds, he battled back and returned to the ring in 2002 because he still felt he had a lot to offer in the ring (and he was right). There was also the infamous “I’ve Lost My Smile” moment on Raw February 1997 (which will be discussed further later on part 2 of this 3-part column), which led to the WWF playing the “Tell Me A Lie” music video paying tribute to Michaels and his career. So after all this, can we really take his word for it?

I still say that we should have a “wait and see” attitude. I will go into this more later on, but for now let’s look back on Shawn Michaels’ amazing WWE career.

Shawn Michaels made his WWF in 1987 after an impressive run in the AWA (American Wrestling Association, run by Verne Gagne). He was part of the “Midnight Rockers” tag-team with Marty Jannetty and together, they held the AWA World Tag-Team Championship.

Re-dubbed “The Rockers”, Michaels and Jannetty’s run didn’t last long (they were fired after just two weeks, following an incident with other wrestlers at a bar. Michaels later put it down to a misunderstanding and from his account, it appears that some older veterans in the lock-room had it “out” for him and Jannetty and were determined to “test” them). However, they returned in 1988 and soon became one of the top tag-teams in the company.

The Rockers were called “tag-team specialists” by the late commentator Gorilla Monsoon. They were a high-flying, exciting tandem that did things that had never been seen in mainstream wrestling before. Incredibly, they never became WWF Tag-Team Champions (they actually beat The Hart Foundation for the gold at a house show, but because the ring broke, the match was never broadcast on television and their victory was stricken from the record books), but they were always prominent figures on TV and PPV due to their popularity with the fans and their reliability in the ring.

Of course, as with most tag-teams, the time eventually came for The Rockers to go their separate ways. Michaels had always been seen as the more charismatic member of the outfit and was seen as being the better candidate for a run as a mid-card heel. However, credit to WWE, they didn’t rush into things in regards to the split. In fact, they showed patience and let it build slowly over a few months.

There had been “rumours” in the WWF Magazine (which at the time never gave fans an “behind the scenes” info as we were still in a kayfabe era, it was merely a way of the company “stirring the pot” for a future story line, but without actually going through with it yet) that Michaels and Jannetty hadn’t quite been seeing eye-to-eye and this was partly demonstrated at the 5th Annual Survivor Series in November 1991 when Michaels berated Jannetty following a miscommunication in their traditional “Survivor Series” 4-On-4 Elimination Match which led to Shawn getting eliminated. Their relationship also seemed to be on shaky ground when Jannetty showed up for Michaels’ singles match against “The Real World’s Champion” Ric Flair (Flair had recently left WCW for the WWF, and had taken the WCW belt with him) and helped his partner back into the ring after he got knocked out on the floor (Jannetty’s intentions were sound, but by rolling Shawn back into the ring, he actually allowed Flair to get the pin and win the match).

With all this on the back-burner, The Rockers made an appearance on Brutus Beefcake’s “Barber Shop” (interview segment) in January 1992 to “bury the hatchet.” Marty Jannetty admitted fault and said it was time for them to now work together and be the best that they could be. He turned his back on his partner and gave him the opportunity to join him or “walk away.” Michaels chose to join (or at least, he did initially).

Just when it appeared that The Rockers were officially reunited, Shawn turned Jannetty around and super-kicked him in the face. As a stunned crowd looked on, Michaels then grabbed his tag partner and threw him head-first through the “Barber Shop” window (the glass was real, which was why Jannetty got busted open on impact).

As the crowd booed and jeered loudly, Michaels stood defiant and tore up a WWE Magazine article on the team, saying sarcastically, “Is There A Problem With The Rockers? I Don’t Think So!”

From that moment, Shawn Michaels changed his attitude, his look and his style. He was dubbed “The Boy Toy” and took on Sensational Sherri as his manager. He was pompous, arrogant and obnoxious, the sort of wrestler everyone loves to hate. But he was damn good at it, and while he ascended as a star in his own right, poor Jannetty descended into obscurity, save for a few fleeting appearances over the years to start and revive a rivalry with his former tag-team partner.

To be continued....

Previously posted on Smash Wrestling:

http://www.firetank.com/smashwrestling/