Superstar Sleeze

Savage was excellent in this. Vince was so proud and happy to defeat the US Government.

WWF Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels - WWF WrestleMania X Ladder Match Vince must love this match because there are so many iconic moments in this match, Shawn going around the ladder wagging his finger, Razor strutting underneath the ladder, the splash from the top of the ladder (camera shot is great), riding the ladder down from the turnbuckle and of course the amazing finish. That's really the thing that traditional WWF did so much better than any other wrestling company in history is creating long lasting memories from singular spots. What buoys this match from relying on simple nostalgia and is the awesome violence incorporating the ladder and the smart, compact layout. From the opening salvo of the baseball slide of Shawn Michaels sending the ladder into Razor Ramon, they use the ladder in almost every single spot in new violent, vicious way. I am a mark for throwing heavy objects on people. I forgot Shawn chucked that ladder at Razor, he really got him good. Shawn was great really beating the shit out of Razor with the ladder. Shawn goes up for the title belts (Shawn was claimant to Intercontinental Championship because he was stripped but never beaten) and Razor pulls down his trunk, but Shawn kicks him off and hits an elbow. You know you have a match with a lot of great spots when this is not fondly remembered. Probably because the spot right after this one is the iconic splash from the ladder onto Razor. UN-BE-LIVE-A-BLE! Vince really liked saying that a lot on commentary. I liked the transition to Razor being in control because it was a series of ladder shots that were required to dig him out of a hole. He had to push Shawn off the ladder, whip him into the ladder (wicked bump over the turnbuckles to the floor), ladder shots and the catapult. I think what this match does really well that it is hard for most wrestling matches to do without coming across as cheap is building drama without a traditional comeback. A traditional comeback builds drama through the fire of the babyface overcoming the odds of the heat segment and then there is a couple twists and turns before the finish. Razor did not make a fiery comeback. The drama was that getting up that damn ladder was so damn difficult. Even though you would think a ladder match would be one of unlike sport matches, it feels like the drama of real sports. Shawn was not especially nefarious in this match and Razor was just in an early hole. As he dug himself out, it was not this comeback that whips you into a frenzy, but rather you are intrigued how somebody will actually be able to win this match. One of the spots that really wowed me that, I had totally forgotten was Razor suplexing Shawn off the top of the ladder. That has to be my new favorite spot of the match. Insane bump and just awesome looking made better by the ladder giving way under Razor. Shawn is able to dropkick the ladder. Shawn was really damn good on offense here with Sweet Chin Music, a really nice piledriver (he should have the used the piledriver more) and in that other iconic moments rides the ladder down on Razor. I forgot how quickly they go into the finish with Razor shouldertackling the ladder and Shawn getting tied up in the ropes. Shawn was fucking awesome in the ropes, wriggling to get free, he actually gets free and then his arm gets caught. It is great because it provides so much entertainment to the slow climb and Razor's victory. In my book, it goes down as one of the all-time great finishes. So conspicuous by its absence is the beginning. I will say that having Diesel ejected early was very smart and that Razor was a bumping machine in the beginning (the concrete bump was great to set up getting the ladder). That being said, I did not like this early. This seemed like the prototype for today's problem in wrestling, registering the move, but not selling the move. Razor threw some FANTASTIC punches. Like I forgot how good Hall's right hand was. Shawn took some great bumps registered it wit the spit take, but in five seconds was hitting the a neckbreaker. Or Razor taking the concrete bump but getting up fast enough so he can take control of the ladder to set up the baseball slide. They were wrestling way too fast and that's today's problem. Once the ladder got involved, I thought this was amazing. They did a really good job incorporating the ladder in almost every spot in interesting and logical ways. I thought they did a great job building drama down the stretch. I absolutely love that finish. This WWF classic remains timeless. ****1/2

When it was first announced Kenzo was going to join WWE in like 2005, I mistakenly got really excited it would be Kensuke Sasaki. Then I saw him and I was like damn wrong guy. That's my Kenzo Suzuki story.

Put me in the camp that thinks the Summerslam 1992 match is better. WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs British Bulldog - In Your House V Between September 1995-June 1996, there were ten PPVs, Bulldog main evented half of them. Pretty crazy stat that often goes over looked, This match has a pretty huge reputation, not quite as big as Summerslam in WWF lore, but in terms of match ratings. This is either my third or fourth time watching it, I come away with the same thoughts each time. This first half is boring and the second half is badass. First half is Bret formula to a tee with an unmotivated Davey Boy. Bret's bulldog and piledriver look nice, but Bulldog was chinlock city. On top of that no struggle, just moving spot to spot. Just too neat. Once Davey Boy crotched Bret Hart on the top rope when Hitman was trying to do a superplex the match picked up in a big way. Bret slams his head into the edge of the steel steps in order to blade, but make seem like it was hardway (I think that was his intent) as I imagine Vince was not thrilled about this. Bullodg kicked some ass here. Piledriver and delayed vertical suplex all great blood rushing to the head spots. Loved the press slam. I think he jammed his knee pretty good on the diving headbutt. Bret sprinkling in some hope spots helped give some struggle. I liked Bret diving out onto Bulldog. Then trying the Vaderomb on the outside to be caught with the POWERSLAM on the floor. That was big. Bulldog really wants to hurt him and exposes the concrete, but Bret crotches him on the railing (receipt), clothesline city. Great clothesline really! He finally gets to hit his superplex that is how this all started! I really think that should have been the finish. They do some rollups to try to recreate the Wembley magic, but it is off and La Magistral feels abrupt. Tale of two halves, first half is formulaic and second half is bloody and dramatic. Finish is too abrupt also. No way is this better than Summerslam 92. ***3/4

WWF Intercontinental Champion Owen Hart vs Steve Austin - WWF Summerslam 1997 Austin says he will kiss Owen's ass if he loses. Great energy right out of the gate from Austin. The Thesz Press was super hot here. Loved Owen Hart trying to destroy Austin's middle finger slamming into steps, stomping and biting it. Best part of the match for me. Austin makes comeback, but neckbreaker starts neck work. Really great throws from Owen here as they are doing a good job bringing the energy up and coming back down into holds. The Piledriver spot was actually a cutoff spot for an Austin hope spot. Scary moment for sure. Because this happened well before the comeback, I consider this incomplete and impossible to rate. I am surprised it made the Top 500 given its incompleteness.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Shawn Michaels vs Diesel - WWF Good Friends, Better Enemies No Holds Barred When you have a newly crowned white meat babyface, you gotta test his mettle in a brawl against big, bad, tough muthafucka. This is Booking 101 and with the past history these two shared took the normal story and made it even better. One of those matches I have seen 8 million times, but I have always enjoyed and it has been about five years since I last seen it. This is probably the best Nash has ever looked on top in a match. The Bret match have him playing along to the Bret Show, here he show he can hold his own on offense. Shawn with scowl on his face ready for war was great. I forgot how pissed he looked. Great exchange of punches to start. We see Shawn star off red hot but that is quickly quashed by a big kneelift. So he turns to speed where a dropkick sets up a reverse crossbody from the top rope to the floor. Nice big spot to kick the match off! He grabs the boot of a Spanish Announcer which gets over the gimmick early and shows he needs to weapons to beat this monster. I have said before sometime Nash feels like the world's smallest seven footer. He just does not project size in his matches. Here Shawn does a great job making him look huge with how desperate he is on offense and way he sells. Nash whips him hard into the ropes and then sends him flying off the apron to take a nasty Pillman bump. Great start to heat segment. Nash was slow and methodical but in a vicious, sadistic way. I liked him choking out the ref to get the belt. The whipping and hanging, followed by the chair shots were brutal. Nice hope spot with Nash hitting the chair on the ring rope and it ricocheting up. Nash stymies Michaels again with a low blow. Love when Goliath hits David in the balls. Nash is kicking Shawn's ass. Here comes the big spot. The MONSTER POWERBOMB THROUGH THE TABLE!!! Nash celebrate prematurely by putting the belt around his own waist. Shawn gets up in drmataic fashion and in an iconic spot also sprays his face with fire extinguisher. He fights back ferociously! NIP UP! Diesel cuts off, but Shawn roars back by countering the Jacknife and then hitting the elbow. Sweet Chin Music and Diesel dives through with a clothesline. IN what I think is the most famous spot of the match, Diesel goes into the crowd and tears off Mad Dog Vachon's prosthetic foot. Still mind-blowing. Now the Heartbreak Kid goes low and calls his shot ala Babe Ruth before hitting a home run with Mad Dog's foot and Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music to retain. A very important match in Shawn's title reign to really establish credibility. With Bret on sabbatical and Diesel & Razor leaving, it really was just him and Taker. That is a lot of pressure. I actually think the heat segment was too much to be honest. Diesel crushed Shawn. Shawn died on me. Not enough hope spots or struggle. This in turn hurts the credibility of the comeback. Kip up usually does not bother me, but here it did. On its own, the finish stretch was fantastic. More struggle in the heat segment or something to make Diesel sell a little more would have taken this up a notch. Still a badass match, Diesel was awesome as a monster and Shawn did come off as an asskicker. ****1/4

WWF European Champion British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels - WWF One Night Only 1997 Lets talk about the match first and then I will get to all the backstage stuff. Incredible match, one of my all-time favorites, I have this at number three in WWF 1997 in a loaded year for the promotion. The heat for this is nuclear. Bulldog is insanely over and Shawn Michaels is at the height of dickish heel superpowers. Shawn makes out with about 5 young girls at ringside. What a fucking asshole! This only gets him more heat from the men. You think Cena is bad. This is the sharpest male vs female divide I have ever heard. Shawn flirts with the line, but never crosses it as he bumps like a madman for the Bulldog. This has to go down as one of the all-time greatest shines. Shawn is flipping over himself getting the Bulldog over as one man runaway freight train of power and speed. I always think of the back drop over the top rope tumble spill onto the floor bump. The clothesline bump into railing was nasty. I loved him trying to climb the ropes in the collar-elbow tie up to try to gain a leverage advantage only to be thrown off. The Press Slam spot with the ref running to stop Bulldog from throwing him into the crowd was great as Bulldog just dropped him. Michaels poking Bulldog in the eyes only to eat a powerbomb when he tried for the hurricanarana left me pumping my fists. The delayed vertical suplex had me cheering on the Bulldog. Then the insurance policy, Rick Rude comes out. He flips Bulldog over on an O'Connor Roll, then fucks with him while he is running the ropes and finally Michaels gets the advantage. Rude liberally helps out. Michaels was having an all-time great heel run, but the one thing that would always keep him from being the best heel ever is that he just does not have much in the way of offense to sustain a heat segment. I am as big of a Shawn Michaels fan as there is (without being worked by the WWE political machine), but I am not delusional, it is his biggest flaw. They keep it simple focus on Bulldog's selling and the other key is they keep it short. The short arm scissors into the a powerbomb (play off their 92 IC Title switch, which JR reminded us of) was a great spot as knocking their heads to level the playing field. Here comes HHH & Chyna. If the heat was nuclear before, this is fucking Hydrogen Bomb level shit that is about to happen. Two top rope elbows from Michaels and he looks to set up Sweet Chin Music. Smith deadweights him. This is my biggest problem with moves which require your opponent to stand up, just don't stand up OR hit the move when your opponent you know is STANDING. This whole waiting thing is my least favorite thing in wrestling. But I digress. He props him up in the corner and Bulldog misses and hoists him up on his shoulder. He is going to plant him in the ground, but Rude has his leg. Confrontation ensues and it is chaos. Outside the ring, Bulldog looks like he will hit the Running Powerslam on the floor, but his leg slips off the platform wrenching his right leg which has a kneebrace on it. At this point, you can just feel everything boiling. SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Rude & HHH ram the railing into the knee as the fans are just trying to fight against them by holding the railing back. THAT IS PRO WRESTLING! That spot gets me every single time. So powerful. Pedigree on the floor. Triple H is such a fucking leech. HBK removes the knee brace and tosses to Davey Boy's wife and terminally ill sister. Fucking douche. Michaels applies the Figure-4. HHH & Chyna are holding on to him stretching him to apply extra leverage, but when Davey Boy is about to turn him, Rude cleans his clock with a right hand The British Bulldog passes out from the pain. Michaels gets his vanity trophy and sticks it to the Hart Family. The crowd is at a near riot. PELTING THEM with garbage. Michaels is goading the Hart Family and Diana. Diana comes in and chokes Shawn with the knee brace when he re-applied the figure-4. FINALLY The Harts come out to save Davey Boy, but don't get in any licks. Yes, by far the most frustrating thing about this is that Bret & Owen don't even get their hands on HHH & Shawn. That is bullshit. Like give the Harts a bone, you just screwed them out of a meaningless title because you can and did it in front of a man's dying sister and in his home country where they go like once a year. The match is fucking awesome. The shine rules. Smith is a powerhouse and Shawn is a bumping freak. Shawn's heat segment is weak, but it is also short. The finish is insanely powerful and heated. Yes some of that heat comes from the backstage antics so it is hard to decouple the two, but for my money this is an all-time classic. Davey Boy is well-protected in this match. It takes Rude to turn the tide initially and once Davey Boy overcomes that, HHH & Chyna interfere. So it is four on one plus a bad slip cost Davey Boy the match. So it is not like he was buried. What Shawn did was pretty bullshit. If you are judging just what was on screen this is amazing pro wrestling. So I will rate it as such. ****1/2

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Undertaker - WWF One Night Only 1997 Just by Bret Hart kicking Undertaker's knee, there is a massive reaction. That embodies pro wrestling to me. It is not about the crazy flips or modified suplexes. It is about caring about your favorite wrestler and telling a story where you are building to an outcome. In the pre-match promo, Bret Hart is getting a decidedly mixed reaction. Bret is talking about his fans worldwide and Vince is just a total douche on commentary pointing out that Bret is being booed heavily by the live audience. Bret is kinda taken aback. Vince really ramps up the dickishness "Does it matter to you how the fans feel? Does it make if they like you?". Bret who is clearly uncomfortable and feels backed into corner just says "It does." Forget the Screwjob, I wanted Bret to haul off and punch Vince right there. That promo happens before the Vader/Owen match. In a really cool moment, Owen stops by the commentary table to tell Vince to stop fucking with his brother. I really loved that. Takes a lot of guts to stand up to your boss like that, but Vince was being an unprofessional prick and Owen called him out on it. Unlike Vince's interpretation, Bret was very over with live crowd once he made his entrance. I would say it was like 60/40 Bret for the most part. I thought both segments of fans were really loud and that added a lot to this match. In America, Bret would clearly be the heel, but you could argue this face vs face in the UK, but regardless Bret Hart plays the heel to perfection in this match. Undertaker gives the best selling performance of his career, which something we would not see again for about ten years. Bret tries to fire away with heavy bombs early on, which goes about as well as you would expect. So he gets desperate and takes off the turnbuckle pad while the Undertaker intimidates the ref, which plays off the Ground Zero match with Shawn where he just waylaid ref after ref in that match. This also play off how early in the show Triple H did the Flair spot with the ref where HHH cowered from the ref. Now the ref is cowering from the Undertaker makes that spot mean more. There are some nice spots early like Undertaker misses an elbow, does his Zombie situp and Bret does a sliding clothesline to knock him down. Undertaker has a hard time catching Bret and drives him into the concrete only to get him back up and put him into the ring post. Bret is actually really good at arena brawling. Him and Undertaker brawl up the rampway and Taker is in total control. Taker sets too early on a back drop and Bret nails a DDT. Bret ramps up the heelishness here rubbing his face on ropes then choking him with his boot. Taker whips his hard forcing Bret to take the Bret Bump into the exposed turnbuckle! Undertaker is actually pretty good working over Bret's chest with the Heart Punch then surfboard. Here is where we get the first inkling of Bret's strategy. He gets backed into a corner and starts kicking the knee. The crowd comes alive for this simple move. Undertaker cuts Bret off twice. However, when Taker goes running into the turnbuckle, his knee hits (should have done the exposed steel, minor point). Bret is a shark that smells blood in the water. he absolutely decimates Taker's leg, who sells so well throughout the match. Stumbling and bumbling. He is fighting so hard throughout, which is forcing Bret to use eye rakes to keep him down. I love that struggle. The high five to the fan before the figure-4 around the ringpost is great. Bret applies the figure-4 in the middle of the ring and it is a beauty. JR & Lawler do a great job describing the figure-4. Taker reverses the pressure and both men sell their legs really well. Bret kicks Undertaker's legs out form under him. The reaction for that is deafening. Boos and cheers! That is pro wrestling! Here we go Five Moves of Doom time. Taker gets his boot up on the second rope elbow and they clothesline each other. The leveling the playing field spot going into the finish run. Taker gets up first to cheers and boos. He goes to legdrop Bret in between his legs, but gets caught! Bret is typing up the legs for the Sharpshooter! Not his best ever, which could explain why Taker was able to break it by powering out. Bret does the only reasonable thing and tries again. He gets GOZZLED! He avoids the chokeslam, but eats the big boot and leg drop, BRUTHA! Bret sensing he might be losing his grasp on the championship, grabs the ring bell, Taker knocks it out of his hand. Now Taker wants to use it and the ref grabs it, Bret chop blocks the knee! Huge reaction again! Love this crowd! Weird spot as Bret is going to do a seat drop on the knee that we have all seen a million times, but this time somehow a cameraman gets in the way and Bret ends up outside the ring. Bret takes that nasty bump where he slides underneath the bottom turnbuckle and hits his back against the steel post. Bret Hart is pretty good at this pro wrestling thing. They do a Tombstone reversal spot where Bret ends up getting his head caught in the ropes ala Mick Foley. Undertaker wont let up and gets disqualified. I had seen the match before could not remember the finish and figured it was something cheap. It is a very precarious situation, but yeah it just does not feel like a greta finish. I don't know what I would have done as I agree it should been cheap. After the failed attempt with the turnbuckle, Bret stayed focused on the knee. There were multiple times when he could have departed from the knee, but he stayed on it. It was the touchstone of the match. Undertaker was there with him every step of the way selling it. It is pretty incredible both men worked this fantastic of a match without using many of their signature moves. Part of that is that Bret has one of the deepest arsenals in the game. I would say like the Summerslam match, this match is a little long. They could have tightened up the beginning and probably tacked on a better finish run. Once Bret goes after the knee, this is pure gold until the anti-climatic finish, but sometimes the journey is the destination. ****1/2

Vader vs Owen Hart - WWF One Night Only 1997 Never seen this before, it was a real humdinger of a match. Two of my all time favorites locking it up and putting a really good, old school David vs Goliath match. Owen was a heel for such a long time in WWF this goes a long way to show how great of a babyface he could have been. I don't know if this is the best WWF Vader match as I liked the Final Four and Shamrock match pretty good, but this is pretty excellent. Owen plays the pinball off Vader early. That Vader Body Attack just smokes Owen, great spot. Owen gets a frakensteiner that does knock Vader for a loop. For a second, it does look like Owen may have something going with the hit & run offense to set up the Sharpshooter (attempted twice). That dies a death when Owen goes for a crucifix pin and just gets SQUASHED. Vader kicks Owen's shit in. Splashes, punches, gnarly submissions. It is Vader on offense, it is not peak WCW stuff, but it is still great. Owen keeps going for bodyslams which perplexes me and the announcers. Vader is looking for the powerbomb, but Owen nails the Enziguiri of Doom! Vader sells this perfectly and Owen desperately applies the Sharpshooter, but Vader makes it to the ropes. BODYSLAM~! They paid it off! I marked out! Love shit like that! Missile Dropkick and OWEN IS FEELING IT!!! He goes up top again, but Vader catches with a MASSIVE Powerslam! Vader wins 1-2-3! I like the twist on the usual Vader finish, which is him taking the move for the loss, here he uses it for the win. I thought this was a great David vs Goliath match. Not in the same league as the Sting matches, but cool getting to see Owen as a babyface and Vader wrestling like he did in WCW. ****

Shawn Michaels vs Mankind - WWF RAW 8/11/97 This RAW features one of my all-time favorite Shawn promo segments where he retorts to chants of "Shawn is gay" with "Ask your sister or your momma how gay I am!". Between that, his shots at Vince & Slaughter, his brashness towards Bret and Undertaker and just being a general dick, he could do no wrong on the mic. Shawn was God in 1997 in my book. I could have sworn I seen this before, maybe they have another RAW match in September or October, BUT this was FREAKING AWESOME!!! WOW! Mark out city throughout. I was laughing at Jim Ross shilling Hardcore Heaven this Sunday on PPV featuring Lawler vs Dreamer and Vince being all uncomfortable. Shawn and Mankind just go balls to the wall here and have this sick, violent, chaotic brawl. Shawn is throwing nasty punches, over head elbows, eye gouges. This was a nasty Shawn Michaels. Mankind always is one to take a licking and here he was not afraid to dish one. Shawn had great counters for the Mandible Claw first was to go low with a ballshot, the second was to head outside and bash the back of Foley's head into the steel ring spot. There was the trash can in the beginning. That stiff right by Foley to Shawn on the baseball slide. The hotshot into the steel by Foley. Michaels insane elbow from the apron to Mankind on the uncleared announce table. Michales gets cut on the arm. Michaels rips off Foley's mask and mocks him with it. Michaels and Foley are both throwing themselves into these bumps. I think what I like most about this is how organic it feels. They tease HHH & Chyna as the insurance policy, but it is Rick Rude. Mankind gets a Double arm DDT for a nearfall before Rude SMASHES him in the head with a chair and Sweet Chin Music gives Michaels the victory. Awesome out of nowhere brawl!!! ****1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Sid Vicious - WWF RAW 2/17/97 Im a huge Sid mark and I think problem was he was always presented wrong. Too often he treated just like any other wrestler tat should register and sell; give back n forth with his opponent and follow shine-heat-comeback. Sid should have been like Brock nowadays or Braun Strowman. Absolute force someone that you had to completely change your gameplan up for. I can see why people praise this match because Bret does drag a traditionally good wrestling match out of Sid, but he is still forcing Sid to work his style. He does not change up. He is doing Russian Legsweeps and backbreakers like Sid is anyone else. He works the leg well and that's where the match gets its rep from. It makes Sid feels like anyone else. The thing is Sid is clumsy and is stiff like a board. So you aren't playing to Sid's strengths. Sid legdrops a lot. The middle rope one and I was worried he was going to break his leg. What the fuck is up with Austin? For a guy obsessed with Bret Hart he keeps fucking up Sid. Bret applies Sharpshooter and Austin cracks him with the chair. POWERBOMB! SID WINS! Legwork was good and the finish advanced the story. Still not much struggle Bret was just forcing Sid to do his spots. ***

Owen Hart vs British Bulldog - WWF RAW 3/3/97 WWF European Championship Vince is really pushing the first new championship in twenty years and this would be an excellent scientific contest, but that it could devolve into a brawl if tempers flare. Neither really happens. I think it is a great match and very entertaining nonetheless. A match is a bit hard to describe with it being heel vs heel (my least favorite type or match) even with Davey Boy playing de facto face. It was not very scientific outside the usual Stampede chain wrestling sequence at the beginning. I thought they did a good job playing up how well they knew each other with Bulldog avoiding the monkey flip with a cartwheel or Owen avoIding the delayed vertical only for Bulldog to avoid the enziguiri. Loved the flashy Owen arm wringer escape leading to Tthe powerbomb and then catapult was excellent! I remember thinking this match was amazing like match of the decade contender for the WWF. Bulldog does his front handspring and holds the ropes open for Owen. A couple minutes later Owen sends Bulldog to the floor and then he does a front handspring and holds the rope open for Bulldog. Owen feigns a knee injury to sucker Bulldog in and start attacking the knee so Bulldog gets pissed and starts shoving Owen. I thought this was going to bust the match wide open, but it just leads to the heat segment via the spinwheel kick. Owen's transition are too normal in the matches I watch. Honky saying this is not the over 40 crowd made me laugh. Owen starts going after the lower back of the Bulldog and the classic Owen Wooo gets some boos. Owen does have an affinity for the chinlock and camel clutch, which more often than not does not feel like it is adding much to the match. Bulldog takes a powder after a kneelift, gets a sunset flip, chinlock leads us to the commercial break. Back from the break, big belly to belly by Owen, Vince is saying we are giving you action as Owen applies a camel clutch. Electric chair by Bulldog, but Owen is relentless cutting Bulldog off. Loved the superplex spot where Bulldog shifts his weight in mid-air. Bulldog really throws himself into that first clothesline. Here comes Davey Boy! Wish he was more fired up! Nice Bret Bump by Owen, press slam into crotching him on top rope. Great spot! PERFECT GERMAN SUPLEX BY OWEN! That was awesome. See how he just blew off the crotching on tope rope. That's why the match just is not hitting that next level for me. I liked Owen hanging on for dear life to top rope to prevent the running powerslam and when he lets go, Bulldog falls backwards and Owen ends up on top. Great enziguiri into Sharpshooter with rope break was a good setup for Owen's big nearfall. Loved the Tombstone reversal into the Running Powerslam! Should have been the finish. Owen Victory Roll reversed into a Bulldog rollup for the win. They embrace afterwards. I really wanted to like this match as a match of decade contender because I have soft spot for both these guys. I can see the argument that this a spotfest as the match really did not have a hook or a sense of struggle. They just sort of hit moves on each other. The moves were really well done and the match never really dragged. The beginning with the symmetry and Owen feigning knee injury was interesting. Owen's heat segment did not do much for me, felt very standard. There was issues with selling throughout and the moves did not seem to have much in the way of consequence. It is a really good series of moves, but not a great match. ***3/4

WWF World Tag Team Champions Owen Hart & British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels & Steve Austin - WWF RAW 5/26/97 Shawn Michaels was insanely good in this match. There's a bump he takes off a Bulldog shoulder tackle that is just awesome. Like if everybody took a bump off a shoulder tackle like that shoulder tackles would still be over. In his face in peril segment, he was killing it selling. His movement looked so crisp. I have noticed from other reviews this is a pretty popular opinion so I am going to add this British Bulldog also looked really good in this match. He never ceases to impress me as an athlete. He had very little psychology and was very reliant on who he was in the ring with to construct the match, but he had all the physical tools. I thought he was bumping well and his offense looked great. If we are being totally honest, Austin kinda underwhelmed here. Pop for his entrance was not huge. Michaels started the match red hot with a dive to floor kinda of a dick thing to do when you know your partner cant do it so that kinda showed Austin up. Austin started hot against Owen with lots of energy, but never really did much more. Owen used a nice eye rake on Michaels to get a tag out to Bulldog, which when the aforementioned shoulder tackle occurred. Michaels resorted to a blatant Three Stooges eye poke that I marked out for to bring Austin in. Austin was fine here and in his short ace in peril. Once Michaels tagged back in, Bulldog was bumping for him like mad I started rocking again. Bulldog does the press slam crotch on top rope, which always looks insane. Owen follows up by slamming his back into post. Running powerslam! Austin saves! Owen works a clinic with Shawn (I have watched five Shawn vs Owen matches today. They have great chemistry). They do all the tag staples like the false hot tag and constant cheating. Shawn is working hope spots like sunset flip. Taking crazy back bumps into turnbuckles. It was a short, but very effective heat segment. Owen goes for superplex, but Shawn shoves him off and hits a crossbody. Nice hope spot. Owen misses a charge in corner. HOT TAG TO STONE COLD! Crowd is rocking now! Austin opens a can, but no Stunner, Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music and Austin covers for the three, the tag titles and a nice pop! Hart Foundation attacks Shawn leaving Austin alone with an injured Bret! He almost gets a Sharpshooter before the Hart Foundation hurry to save their fallen leader. Austin and Michaels do the tag team partners who hate each other bit. Fantastic sprint tag team match. Hot shine, bit of a lull (maybe 1, 2 minutes) and then an excellent Shawn Michaels FIP and great finish. Layout was formula, but the Shawn performance was not. No nip up, no typical comeback, some really interesting stuff from him, Bulldog & Owen were on fire too. A little short and just missing that something extraordinary to push it to a MOTYC status. Shawn and Bulldog killed it on this night. ****1/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF RAW 12/29/97 This is not a new hot take by any stretch of the imagination, but it really should have been HBK/Owen for title at Rumble even if HBK goes over. Then you could have Owen go over HBK at Summerslam. Remember no casket match means no back injury, which is really crazy to think about. Shawn Michaels in the Attitude Era proper would have changed a lot of things. Does The Rock get over or does the Kliq try to bury him? How does Austin contend with Kliq politics? How about Shawn vs all the WCW guys in that 99-01 stretch? Awesome, heated brawl. So much has changed since their 96 encounter in how RAW feels and in their characters. Owen is a great pissed off, avenging babyface. I have said before Shawn in this time period is probably my favorite heel of all time. He was on fire in and out of the ring. He took one nutty bump over the rope and stooge his ass for Owen. He made Owen look like a million bucks. Loved the Chyna trip to set up the heat segment. Then on offense don't know if Shawn has ever looked better, the punches, the piledriver, the DDT! Owen mounts his comeback outta the DDT and Owen is just rattling off his badass offense the suplexes and spinwheel kick. Sweet Chin Music vs Enziguiri, BAM Enziguiri of Death! Sharpshooter, but that damn Triple H blasts him in the head with a crutch triggering the DQ and the heel beatdown to send RAW off the air. Hot TV main event sprint, a little short would have been awesome with just five more minutes. Owen looked great here as a bayface, but I thought Shawn both bumping and on offense stole the show. Just an amazing douche heel at this point. Awesome heat! ***3/4

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF RAW 8/12/96 From the RAW right before Summerslam 96 where Owen's stablemate & friend, Vader would be challenging Shawn. There are also callbacks to the Enizguiri of Death! Typically great match from these two. They mix it up with some spots never seen in this series before. Like Shawn sweeping the leg on the enziguiri attempt and the dropdown on the spin wheel kick. Liked Shawn's shine a lot, energizing, fresh and logical. Owen uses the belly to belly as his transition. Typically strong Owen offense including a nice missile dropkick and his spinwheel kick. Thought Shawn could have gotten in more hope spots. Shawn ducks on Enziguiri attempt and this starts his comeback. Liked the use of powerslam to set up the elbow drop. Vader comes out to cause some chaos. The first Sweet Chin Music is blown. Owen feeds him a second and looks a bit better. Great post-match angle where Vader decimates Shawn. Between this and his victory at International Incident they did build Vader as a monster. Does not have concussion angle of 95 match or fun factor of IYH match, but still very good. ***1/2

Hey yo Stro, loosen up, dude. Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF in Your House VI Love this match! Wicked fun! Reminds me of 80s Southern wrestling with the fun antics up front leading to a serious heat section. The Shawn going to high five the fans, only for Owen to do everyone booing him and Shawn hitting the reverse crossbody to the floor is one of my all time favorite sequences. Not to be outdone, love the hair pulling shit they work. The transition is Owen's belly to belly. There were times when I thought Owen was working a little slow like the camel clutch, but overall I thought his offense looked great and Shawn was selling well. The powerslam to the floor and the missile dropkick was a great one-two punch. Owen even gets the Sharpshooter. The real drama kicks in when he hits the Enziguiri of Death! Awesome, awesome sell by Shawn stumbling and collapsing through the ropes. Owen throws him back in 1-2-NO! I smell a comeback and its red hot. Loved the Enziguiri vs Sweet Chin Music duel and BANG! Shawn hits it! He is going to Mania. One of the most fun Shawn Michaels matches of the era, nice to let your hair down every once and a while and just have some fun. This was that old Southern feel with the heels looking like idiots, but then getting their heat with some classic Shawn selling with the interesting hook of Shawn's concussion history and Owen having the enziguiri in his back pocket to the great finish. This one always puts a smile on my face. ****

Shawn Michaels vs Owen Hart - WWF RAW 11/20/95 Right on the heels of the Diesel quasi-shoot promo where he outed Vince as the boss, WWF runs another huge angle with Shawn's collapse in the ring based off the Syracuse Incident. The match itself before the monster angle was really damn good. Shawn vs Owen is always a damn good time. Really liked Shawn's shine lots of movement and energy and playing to the crowd. Owen was great bumping for him. Owen catching with a clothesline over the top rope and then blasting him with a baseball slide was great. Is Owen the king of the baseball slide? Owen's heat segment on Shawn is awesome! German suplex, backbreaker, spinwheel kick among other things. Owen was in such a groove and Shawn is great at selling peppering in hope spots like a backslide. Owen goes for a superplex, but Shawn shifts his weight. Great spot! Shawn runs through his comeback in grand fashion. He really had the crowd behind him. He goes for Sweet Chin Music, but Owen hits the Enziguiri of Death and Shawn goes down in a heap. I thought that was end, but there's more. Shawn actually gets up and fights off Owen's Sharpshooter and manages to clothesline him out and skin the cat back in. So he gets a big pop for that and then gets woozy and collapses! That was an even better way to handle the angle. If they just did the enziguiri everyone would have thought it was a part of the story. By having him fight off Owen and then collapse, they really blurred the lines. Great execution from Shawn's selling to Owen, Cornette, Vince and Lawler's reactions. All time great angle that really bolsters an already very good match. ***3/4

Stumbled on this promo before the Shawn vs Owen match. Really great by Nash, lots of conviction and emotion. He sounded like Nash. Unlike some of the stilted Diesel promos where he seemed to be putting on a lower voice than he really has and tried to emote a badass vibe. Here he was a pissed off ex-champ and he rocked it. I wouldn't say this was as shooty as some thing later on. But it feels like the first of its kind in WWF. I think this is a reaction to reality-based angles in WCW and ECW. Showed WWF not only could hang with those promotions but be ahead of them in some ways by bitching about the promoter and how they were being handled by Vince. Good explanation of a heel turn but also with some shades of grey. Well-done. This seems like turning point for the WWF. Diesel title reign was rock bottom for WWF. It would take until 1997 and the Bret/Austin double turn to make WWF red hot, but this started the gradual upward trend.

Camp Cornette (Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Yokozuna) vs Diesel, Shawn Michaels, & Undertaker - WWF RAW 10/09/95 WWF 1995 Main Event scene EXPLODES! It is pretty incredible that for the last third of 1995, Jim Cornette was the leader of the number one heel stable and Bulldog was the number one heel basically. Shawn is IC champion here this right before him getting his ass handed to him by the Marines. The babyface shine is fun. Shawn and Owen have such a great dynamic with each other. Its a shame they did not get a PPV main event in 1996 or in late 97 or early 98. I liked them sending Owen & Bulldog into Yoko and then the double big boot to Yoko. Diesel/Davey Boy don't have much chemistry which is unfortunate because they are main eventing the next PPV. Undertaker and Yoko was kinda fun. Yoko threw Shawn Michaels down! Good transition to heat. The heat segment is the real treat here. Owen and Bulldog pick Shawn apart with some really great Hart offense. Davey Boy looked great with his press slam and delayed vertical suplex. Shawn was great at selling. Owen misses top rope splash. Shawn tags in Diesel and in shocking fashion, Bulldog actually gets one over on the WWF champion thanks to some assistance from Owen. Running Powerslam, Taker saves but Yoko drops the leg and gets Bulldog the win. Wow! I guess they wanted to put some heat on Bulldog. Fun match with Owen and Bulldog working great against Shawn. Good stuff. ***

Owen Hart vs Davey Boy Smith - WWF RAW 06/05/95 KOTR Qualifying Match Love their 1997 RAW match, never seen this before. Just a great pro wrestling match. Love the ups and downs of the shine. They move in and out of armbar so well. Davey Boy uses that as a base, but they have a lot of motion like monkey flips, press slam and hitting the post. Owen bumps so well so add excitement to the match. Builds perfectly to the Bulldog's delayed vertical. Great climax to the shine. Before you know Owen moves to his heat with a keelift, great sense of timing. Go to ad break and come to find there is a 15 minute time limit so that telegraphs the finish. Owen's spinwheel kick and then raising his arms with a Woooo is how I remember Owen. Bulldog makes his comeback outta chinlock. Nice catapult, Fisherman suplex, upside down surdboard, cool set up into Bulldogs powerslam. Owen get his foot on ropes. Great series of nearfalls adds to the drama as Gorilla counts down the time limit. Real time time calls to audience would have helped. Nice, tight wrestling match that built well to time limit draw, both wrestlers came out looking good. ***1/2

Owen Hart vs Razor Ramon - WWF King of the Ring 1994 On paper, this seems like it would be at least a good match. But it is not. It is very meandering at the beginning. There is no rhythm. They are just throwing stuff out there. Then Owen hits a spinwheel kick and his heat segment is short and weak (rope burn and ab stretch). Then Razor starts his comeback but there is no real fire. Super back suplex wakes the crowd up. Backdrops Razor out on Razor's edge attempt. Anvil attacks Razor revealing he was on Owen's side all along. Macho Man posits that Anvil wanted Bret to retain the title so Owen could win the title from Bret. I just wanted to memorialize this somewhere, as we all know Lawler/Piper main evented this show. Gorilla Freakin Monsoon shouting out about the "New Generation being alive and well" while Roddy Frekaing Piper is making his entrance against Jerry Freakin Lawler was hilarious. The New Generation references were more annoying than Art asking how much everyone weighed.

Owen Hart vs 1-2-3 Kid - WWF King of the Ring 1994 One of my all-time favorite matches, just an incredible sprint. You see Double J hits three piledrivers on the Kid after their match. Shows the difference between 1981 Georgia (Gordy three piledrivers on DiBiase) and now Kid is out here. Owen WIPES THE KID OUT WITH BASEBALL SLIDE! Best Baseball Slide Ever! Owen's suicide dive through middle rope is outta control. They set the tone early on that they were going to kick ass. Kid gets some hope spots like reverse cross body and nice spinwheel kick. The execution is so good here. Kid's big hope spot is Northern Lights Suplex and the ref counts three, but Owen's foot hooked the rope. Awesome spot! Kid somersaults over the top rope to the floor. Great! Kid looks to pull off the upset, but Owen catches him with a Deadlift German! Sweet! Nice Belly to Belly, Kid tries to use his speed, but Owen catches him with the MUTHA OF ALL POWERBOMBS! Sharpshooter ad it is academic. Incredible sprint. Owen and Kid looked awesome here! Just nonstop action! ****

WWF World Champion Bret Hart vs Diesel -WWF King of the Ring 1994 Trying to clean up some blind spots in the WWF. All Bret/Diesel matches have the same core backbone but they get better with more fleshing out and Diesel getting better. This seems like the more natural dynamic with Diesel as heel but Bret is so good at face vs face matches that this match is the least of the three. The hook of the match was who would be in Brets corner to counteract Shawn Michaels. HBK is such a great douche in prematch promo. I love how Bret has to create openings to get his shine going with Diesel missing big boots and a knee in the corner. His shine is more heel in peril working the leg but it is over and the figure-4 is highlight. The posting gets a pop but Shawn decks him with a surprisingly hard clothesline. The Shawn/Anvil chase is a real highlight very entertaining. I like that it takes quite a bit for Diesel to earn his heat segment. Elongated transitions are the best. The missed pescado and he crashed and burn puts Diesel in drivers seat. Diesel's heat segment goes too long in my opinion. Bret does his best to throw himself into his bumps. Shawn tries to help by removing the turnbuckle pad but he who sets up the spot takes it trumps him. Bret sends him into exposed steel and FIVE MOVES OF DOOM~! Bret clobbers Shawn on apron and Shawn takes a great bump. Bret eats a huge big boot, great spot and wrinkle. Diesel is slow to capitalize and Bret trips him up into a unique Sharpshooter but Nash is too close to the ropes. At some point, I forget when, Diesel does a great job stumbling around for Bret punches. Finish is HBK clobbers Bret with title but ref is distracted. Diesel hits the Jackknife. Anvil interferes to trigger DQ. Finish was weak. The explanation I assume is that Anvil wants the title on Bret for Owen. Just a very good match nothing extraordinary. ***1/2

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel vs Bret Hart - WWF Royal Rumble 1995 All hail Bret Hart, king of the babyface vs babyface match. Bret would have been an excellent understated travelling NWA World Champion. Bret is the challenger so he is ultra-aggressive but he runs into the Mack Truck that is Diesel. I really enjoy Big Sexy as a character and a shoot interview, but in the ring he underwhelms 95% of the time due to his inability to bump, stiffness (in like an awkward not flexible way), his lack of aggression. Nash is a pretty big dude, but more often than not he does not feel big. Bret made him feel big. Bret prompts a shoving war by taking him into the ropes. Then loses a battle of fists. He goes for a crossbody and gets caught thrown to the mat. Nash feels like a force. From the outset, Bret has the subtle heel touches not to heel Diesel. The first really overt one is picking the leg and dragging him to the post and wrapping it around the steel. Really solid leg work and loved the figure-4 repeatedly. It just makes sense. Nash's selling leaves a lot to be desired. LOVED Bret's dive through the ropes tackling Diesel. Awesome spot that added some spontaneity to the match. Diesel reverses a whip into the steps. Nash runs his usual corner offense, sidewalk slam. Teases jackknife and goes with Argentine Backbreaker nice hope spot from Bret, but eats Big Boot. Bret catches Diesel charging, but I love this little touch that Bret needs to go to the middle rope to get a clothesline to knock Diesel off his feet because earlier in the match the clothesline was ineffective. Here is the wrist tape spot, which would be done better at Survivor Series with the cord. This sets up the Five Moves of Doom section of the match. Love that Bret goes for another dive to the outside, but gets caught and rammed hard into the post. Bret was really good at setting up repeat spots in this match. Diesel hits the jackknife. Then I remember I have seen this match before because all of sudden it occurred to me Shawn Michaels was going to interfere, but they were not going to call DQ. Weird. Michaels attacks the bad wheel of Diesel, Bret reapplies the figure-4 and Bret goes back to work even slamming a chair over it. Still no DQ? Alright this ref is being consistent. Bret finally goes for the Sharpshooter, but now Owen interferes. Ref is adamant that there must be a winner. Owen exposes the turnbuckle pad and rams Bret into it. I watched this match last night and am doing this all on memory. At some point, in Bret's third heat segment (second on the leg), he takes a really unique Bret Bump where he charges in and Diesel moves slightly and Bret hits the pads hard and really sells well. So the exposed turnbuckle shot to the chest by Owen is an escalation based on that. Now the match turns into a knock down drag out affair with fists flying. I thought Diesel's selling was a lot better here really milking it before he finally left his feet. We get the Bret playing possum spot getting inside cradle. The O'Connor Roll takes out ref and here comes the heel locker room, HBK, Double J, Backlund and Owen to finally draw a the No Contest. It is a real testament to Bret's vision on laying out a match that I was able to wake up this morning and write this review with no notes. But when you tell a coherent story that goes from A->B-> C. It is not that hard to remember! I really want to highlight that this was very well done in regards to momentum shifts. Bret establishes he cant win a battles of fistcuffs and power with Diesel. He must take him off his feet. He has a challenger's mentality so he is very aggressive with the pescado. But on the outside he loses the advantage. He then takes to the air to get him off his feet, but he needs to use a trick to really cement his advantage. That ultra-aggressive mentality almost costs him the match when Diesel catches him rams him into the post and then hits the Powerbomb. Michaels saves re-setting up the leg work. Bret takes that really cool Bret Bump, but is able to recover to try to apply Sharpshooter and now Owen comes in. They have a heat finish, a fun Bret possum spot and schmozz. It highlights Bret Hart as a master of Realpolitik and Diesel as a force. I think Nash just adds almost zero to this match like this is a really obvious carry job. The Survivor Series match is way better, but I think this should be commended for Bret's ability to string a bunch of memorable spots along in a really logical fashion. This may sound weird, but I think I found the match I would show non-wrestling fans because the story is clear and there is no misstep to the narrative and the spots are memorable, but also not super great so they wont get false expectations and/or not a appreciate a master piece. Great entry level wrestling match and I guess when you are working with Nash that's what happens. ****

My friend just got back into wrestling in the past couple years. Asked about some all-time great WWF/WWE matches. So I put together a list of all matches ever promoted by a McMahon that I have given 4.5+ too. And Big Dave, we know only one thing is worthy of ****** and that is Maryse because Maryse is so hot. http://ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com/2017/01/best-wwf-wwe-matches-of-all-time.html