Has The Show Truly Stopped For Shawn Michaels (Part 2)?: By Matthew Evans (09/05/10)

With The Rockers now history, Shawn Michaels concentrated on a solo career and had a successful singles run in 1992. At WrestleMania 8, Michaels defeated legend Tito “El Matador” Santana in a good opening match and at the “European Rampage” show in Sheffield, England, he took WWF Champion Randy “Macho Man” Savage to the limit in a rarely-acknowledged “forgotten gem” of a bout. (The match went to a cheap DQ finish, but it was a great effort nonetheless).

At SummerSlam 92’ at Wembley Stadium in London, England, Michaels took on Rick “The Model” Martel in a rare “heel VS heel” match where both men fought for the affections of Sensational Sherri (who was still associated with Shawn, but apparently had eyes for The Model as well). Hilariously, Sherri insisted that neither man hit the other “in the face” (of course, it didn’t take long for this little “proviso” to be thrown out of the window).

Like the “Rampage” match with Savage, there was a cheap finish (both men got counted out when Sherri “fainted” and caused them to squabble over her outside the ring), but the sold-out crowd at Wembley Stadium was sent home happy when Martel gave them some added comedy when he threw a bucket of water over Sherri to “revive” her (Michaels also got a soaking).

After being humiliated at SummerSlam, Michaels made a serious statement in October when he beat The British Bulldog to become the new WWF Intercontinental Champion (apparently, Shawn had been slated to win that very title from Bret Hart at SummerSlam, until the WWF decided to move it to the UK and have Bulldog promoted as the “star attraction”, putting him in Michaels’ place and having him beat his brother-in-law “The Hitman” for the gold).

The following month at the 6th Annual Survivor Series, Michaels received top billing, as one half of the main event with Bret Hart (who was the new WWF Champion after beating Ric Flair at a house show event. [Flair saw his main event spot slipping away and left the WWF in January 1993 to go back to WCW]). Although Shawn lost the match, both he and “The Hitman” proved that they were capable of justifying being the headline guys, especially following the sudden departure of The Ultimate Warrior (who probably would have been given another WWF Title run had he not parted ways with the company prior to Survivor Series).

In January 1993, Marty Jannetty returned to the WWF to naturally get revenge on his former tag partner. Unfortunately, Sensational Sherri (still managing Michaels and serving as his on-screen “squeeze”) got caught in the cross-fire and had Shawn’s famous long mirror smashed over her head by Jannetty (Marty had been aiming for Shawn and did not intend to “KO” Sherri). Leading in to the Michaels/ Jannetty showdown at Royal Rumble, the WWF commentators debated on-screen as to what Sherri’s agenda would be at the PPV.

Sherri decided on a “neutral” corner while The Rockers fought it out in an exciting match for the WWF Intercontinental Title. Of course, there was controversy with the finish of the bout. Sherri accidentally decked Jannetty with her shoe and Shawn ended up retaining his title.

With the Shawn/ Sherri relationship now officially history, Michaels had a new valet for his match with undefeated “Native American” Tatanka at WrestleMania IX. She was called Luna Vachon and she was wild and unorthodox. It was inevitable that she and Sherri would not be able to co-exist at ringside (Sherri was there to support Tatanka).

Even though Tatanka had got the better of Michaels in a non-title singles match and a 6-man tag, he could not wrestle the IC gold away from “The Heart-Break Kid” at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Michaels retained the gold (he lost via count-out, but as we all know, WWE championships can only change hands via pin fall or submission) following a great curtain-raiser, which saw Luna jump Sherri after the match and later assault her in the backstage area.

By hook or by crook, Michaels continued to hold on to his Intercontinental Title. Although he briefly lost it to Marty Jannetty (back again for another short-lived run), he won it back soon after.

At King Of The Ring in June, he retained his strap in a good bout against Crush and at that same PPV, he officially unveiled his new associate, a bodyguard called Diesel (Kevin Nash, following a humiliating run in WCW as “Oz” and “Vinnie Vegas”).

Diesel was there for the “muscle”; he was Shawn’s “insurance policy” of sorts. He was instrumental in Michaels retaining the gold over the next few months, particularly at SummerSlam when his interference caused Mr Perfect to get counted out in his IC Title Match against Shawn.

At the Survivor Series in November, Shawn Michaels was the late substitution for Jerry “The King” Lawler in the 8-man tag-team elimination match that pitted Shawn and his “Knights” against Bret Hart and his brothers (Bruce, Keith & Owen). This match had been built around the rivalry between Lawler and Hart (they had fought in a match together at SummerSlam, where Lawler used Doink The Clown to weaken Bret in an “impromptu” match), which meant that Michaels’ association with the “Knights” made no sense (Michaels ended up being the last guy left on the team, and deliberately got himself counted out when he was left in a 3-On-1 situation with the Hart brothers).

Prior to Survivor Series, Michaels had taken a hiatus from the WWF, during which time he was stripped of the WWF IC belt for in story line parlance “not defending it enough” (some people have suggested over the years that Shawn had refused to drop the title, hence the reason for being stripped, although this has never been confirmed and is merely speculation).

In his absence, Razor Ramon (Scott Hall, who joined the WWF in 1992 after working for WCW as the “Diamond Studd”), won a Battle Royal to earn a place in a singles match to decide the new IC Champion. Ramon then defeated Rick Martel in said match to win the vacated strap.

Regardless of how it had come about initially, this situation gave the WWF a ready-made story line when Michaels returned. Wisely, they ran with the idea that Shawn still considered himself to be the “real” WWF Intercontinental Champion, carrying around a duplicate belt on TV.

Meanwhile, Razor was considered the “official” champion, but when things showed no sign of settling down, it was decided that the only way to determine the “undisputed” Intercontinental Champion was to stage a Ladder Match at WrestleMania X, with both IC belts suspended above the ring.

Shawn Michaels had previously competed in a Ladder Match with Bret Hart in 1992, however this wasn’t broadcast on TV and was only witnessed by the live audience and home video viewers. (It should also be noted Stampede Wrestling in Canada had held Ladder Matches prior to the aforementioned WWF one in 1992. However, as far as mainstream viewing goes, Michaels VS Ramon at WM X was the first time the majority of fans had seen a Ladder Match).

With both title belts hanging above the ring, Michaels and Ramon put on a display unlike anything seen in a WWF ring (or any wrestling ring, for that matter) before. Despite the involvement of a real, sturdy aluminium ladder, this was by no means a violent outing. It was more spectacle-based than anything, as Michaels’ combined his superb athleticism with the use of a gimmick that has since gone on to be associated with some of the greatest matches in wrestling history.

That’s not to take anything away from Razor Ramon. He took real risks in there as well and helped make the whole thing work. But despite coming out on the losing end, it was Michaels who emerged as the real star of the match (it was him who took the biggest and most spectacular bumps). As far as Ladder matches go, this was considered to be the “original” and the “standard bearer” (and in the eyes of many, it’s never been topped).

Having officially lost his IC belt to Ramon, Michaels later rebounded when he and Diesel defeated The Headshrinkers (Samu & Fatu) for the WWF Tag-Team Championship, just 24-hours before SummerSlam 1994. Unfortunately, Michaels slipped up at the PPV when he accidentally cost Diesel the IC Title in a match against “The Bad Guy.”

The loss put the wheels in motion for the inevitable Shawn/ Diesel split, which transpired later that year when “Big Daddy Cool” became a fan-favourite and beat Bob Backlund for the WWF Title at a house show.

After winning the 1995 Royal Rumble (albeit under controversial circumstances; Michaels had apparently been eliminated by The British Bulldog, but it later emerged that only one of his feet had actually touched the floor. Michaels then knocked Bulldog off the turnbuckle while he was celebrating and officially won the Rumble), Shawn went on to face Diesel in a somewhat disappointing WWF Title Match at WrestleMania 11. Despite having the returning “Sycho” Sid in his corner, Michaels lost the match following Diesel’s devastating “Jack-Knife” power-bomb finisher.

After being double-crossed by Sid on Raw the following night, Michaels officially became a fan-favourite and had another (somewhat different, but nonetheless exciting) Ladder Match with Razor Ramon at SummerSlam. This time, Shawn came out on top and retained the IC belt (he had defeated Jeff Jarrett for the gold at “In Your House” the previous month).

Two months later, Michaels was legitimately beaten up outside a bar in New York. The WWF acknowledged the incident on television and had Shawn vacate his IC Title. They also (controversially) ran an angle where Shawn “lost consciousness” during a match with Owen Hart and had to be placed on a stretcher and taken out of the arena.

The theme of the story line was that Shawn’s career could be over, but “against the odds” he returned and won the 1996 Royal Rumble to once again earn a place in the main event at WrestleMania.

His opponent at WM was Bret “Hitman” Hart. Bret was now into his third reign as WWF Champion, after defeating Diesel for the title at Survivor Series in November 95’. Hart and Michaels were considered to be the very best the WWF had to offer in 1996 (to this day, they’re still considered by many to be two of the greatest of all time) and were the faces of the WWF’s “New Generation” campaign (The Federation had lost many of their big name stars to WCW by this point and were eager for people to identify them with “real wrestling” and “real athletes”, as opposed to WCW, whose stars they dismissed as being “over the hill” in a series of unfunny “Billionaire Ted” skits). They would be competing in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match, something that had never been seen on WWF PPV (and like the Ladder Match, was again something that the majority of the audience was not familiar with).

The rules of the match stated that whoever had the most decisions when the hour was up, would be crowned the WWF Champion. Michaels (with his trainer Jose Lothario in his corner) and Hart worked superbly together and did innovative exciting things in the ring. However, the match was severely hampered by the fact that for 60-minutes, neither man got a decision, plus the majority of the match was fought on the mat (which caused the live audience to lose interest).

When the match was declared a “draw”, President Gorilla Monsoon declared that the bout should continue until there was a decisive winner. In “sudden-death overtime” it didn’t take Shawn Michaels long to capitalise on a weakened Bret Hart and super-kick his way into the WWF history books by becoming the “Iron Man” and winning his first WWF World Championship.

Indeed, “The Heart-Break Kid” was living his dream and was on top of the world. He could arguably now be called the “greatest” but his road to true “immortality” would be filled with more “road blocks” and controversy than anyone could imagine.

To be continued....

Previously posted on Smash Wrestling:

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