[1996-09-30-WWF-Raw] Vader & Jim Cornette vs Shawn Michaels & Jose Lothario

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Sadly, it's painfully obvious how much momentum Shawn has lost by this point. He's still over, but has lost a lot of heat from earlier in the year, and now, it's obvious they're pondering a move in a different direction as they make references to the schedule starting to do him in on commentary. Shawn and Vader seem to have lost some of the chemistry they had at Summerslam too.

[El-P]

Lothario was an albatros for Shawn. I wasn't a fan of this incarnation of babyface champ Shawn Michaels anyway, but having this old guy nobody knew (in the WWF audience) by his side made him even more uncool. Vader was doomed by the shitty SummerSlam booking.

[FLIK]

but having this old guy nobody knew (in the WWF audience) by his side made him even more uncool.

Didn't mind it at the time, i'd only been a fan for 5 years at this stage so it didn't matter much either way that he wasn't a WWF guy. The basic story - guy going for the world title gets really serious and goes back to train with his mentor for the fight of his life is a pretty cool one.

 

Liked the Vader/Shawn stuff in this match (which is 99% of it) myself, makes me wish they'd had a longer feud. Seen this a bunch of times in the past but had forgotten the finish, surprised Vader got a fairly clean win over him.

[El-P]

but having this old guy nobody knew (in the WWF audience) by his side made him even more uncool.

Didn't mind it at the time, i'd only been a fan for 5 years at this stage so it didn't matter much either way that he wasn't a WWF guy. The basic story - guy going for the world title gets really serious and goes back to train with his mentor for the fight of his life is a pretty cool one.

In theory yes it is but in execution, it didn't fit Michaels at all. And really, Lothario brought nothing to the table on any level. Really, the only highlight of the whole deal was Sid busting him with a camera at Survivor Series.

[PeteF3]

Not a good match, with Vader being treated as just another guy, even with the relatively clean victory. Cornette and Lothario aren't even used well in a non-wrestler sense. All the talk of Michaels' killer schedule brings to mind the talk of the "intense pressure" the Ultimate Warrior was facing from Slaughter and Randy Savage in early 1991.

[soup23]

I've been a big Shawn fan this year but this was his worst performance yet and the luster was really lost throughout this match. Cornette and Lothario are practically non factors and don't have any fun interactions with each other. Vader does get the win but it feels too late to salvage all of this. *1/2

[Exposer]

I enjoyed this. Good match. Shawn & Vader have good chemistry. We got a brief Jose-Corny showdown which is fun. Shawn takes a massive clothesline from Vader off a dodged sweet chin music. Vader gets another clean victory on Shawn, much the same way he did at International Incident. This doesn't go anywhere sadly. Sid comes out & saves Shawn from a beat down leading to Goldust showing up. Shawn recovers & the baby faces start fighting with the heels as the show goes off the air. This seemed to be the end of the Shawn-Vader feud. Vader was mishandled in the WWF. The Shawn feud was a good idea, but he probably should have won the title.