[1993-05-02-WWF-Providence, RI] Shawn Michaels vs Mr Perfect

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

What a shitty match! Overbooked beyond belief, especially considering they were only going 20 minutes. First, Shawn threatens to walk out and they announce he will lose the match and the belt if he doesn't return. Then, there's a ref bump and almost Shawn pin, but the Smoking Gunns come out to protest. Then, the match gets restarted on the condition that there are two refs -- one on the inside and one outside. Then, Perfect gets the pin, but Shawn has his foot on the rope. The outside ref saw it, and the inside ref didn't, so they restart again. Then, they go to a 20-minute draw.

 

Bu even without that, this just isn't very good. All the wrestling stuff that is here is just cheap heat pandering, like pulling Shawn's trunks down. And Shawn probably goes to Perfect's eyes at least five times.

 

You'd think these two could have a good match in 1993, but you'd be wrong.

[MJH]

They only seemed to work well together with Perfect as heel.

[KB8]

It was hilariously overbooked, especially with the Smoking Gunns hitting the scene, but I found this alright in a weird sort of way. I mean, I wouldn't call it a "good match", but they did some things I really dug, like the spot where Perfect had Shawn in a leg lock (might've been the figure-four, actually) and Shawn sits up, gets slapped back down, sits up again, gets slapped back down again, then pops up and pokes Perfect in the eye before getting slapped a third time. The spot where Shawn gets his tights pulled down and starts hobbling around with the top layer at his knees while Perfect punches him around was goofy as Hell, but I thought Shawn actually taking the top layer off and choking Perfect with them was awesome and something I've never seen before.

 

I didn't hate this.

[Kevin Ridge]

I liked this more than you guys though I'd view it as passable instead of downright hating it. I think it was better than their Summerslam match. For whatever reason they just make bad opponents for each other. Michaels is trying to out do Perfect on the overselling. This series is good evidence of Hennig being much better in AWA than WWF. Agreed that it was totally overbooked with the random stuff going on in the end. Twenty minute time limit is pretty dumb too for a IC title match. I must have really disliked the Summerslam match to get through this.

[PeteF3]

This wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good and it was filled with so many unnecessary elements that have already been touched on. And again there's more "let's not break a nail" WWF house show work through most of this, especially during the opening which is about as loose as any match you'll see on these Yearbooks. Actually this was on its way to being terrible, but a fairly hot closing stretch was enough to launch it into mediocrity for me. Perfect outworked Shawn here, for what that's worth. He provided a bit of fun work on Shawn's leg and was carrying things toward the end as well. Even Shawn's normally reliable Sweet Chin Music looked bad.

[WingedEagle]

Call me crazy but I enjoyed the booking antics with the Gunns out to tattle after a belt shot, and Perfect getting a win only to have it overturned. That being said, this still wasn't good because it was unnecessarily long and most of the time between all the shenanigans was pure filler and shortcuts. Maybe it works at 8-12 minutes, but not at this length.

 

**1/2

[soup23]

Way too much going on and some generic action before that. I guess 13 year old Justin Rozzero enjoyed it as the Providence crowd seemed to be with the performers overall but this just felt slow and mundane compared to everything else we are seeing on the set so far this year. Also a ridiculous finish with run ins galore. **

[Robert S]

It's pretty strange for a 93 WWF houseshow match to be booked like a Attitude era PPV main event. I mean the walk-out-fake-finish was a staple in WWF at this time but the rest?

[garretta]

Put in the context of much harder-hitting and more extreme matches from all over the world, matches like this are bound to suffer. But if you go against the concept of the Yearbooks a bit and simply compare it to other WWF matches so far this year, this was very good bordering on excellent. Even with the overbooking, I liked it better than the Jannetty title change, which seemed more about the pop for Marty winning out of nowhere.

 

I thought Curt brought his working clothes; he used moves like the Indian deathlock that I've never seen him use in the WWF before, and I marked out for him actually using the Ax, which he should have been doing all along even if they gave it another name. His work on Shawn's legs was very good, and he seemed to have more energy than most guys do in house shows like this.

 

Shawn's a lot like Honky during this reign; he only engages with his opponents when given no other choice, and although we know he can wrestle from what we see later in his career, he's not supposed to do it much at this time. In other words, the opponent does all the work and he sneaks out with the belt in the end. By that standard, he was on the money too, although they need to avoid overdoing the "take my belt and go home" stuff. Not even Honky, the epitome of the cowardly champion, did that (at least not on TV) but Shawn did it here, in the Duggan ​Raw ​match that didn't make the set (according to Vince), and in the Jannetty title change. Fans are going to stop buying him trying and failing to run out in order to save the belt if they're not careful; they either need to not use the finish or let him get away with it once to prove that it's a possibility.

 

I liked the Gunns run-in, but the two referee stuff needed to be saved for a rematch. The problem was, Vince knew that Shawn was dropping the belt, so there wouldn't be ​a rematch. Thus, he needed to do what he'd normally do over a two-match sequence in one night. Nice to see Danny Davis as the second ref after Jimmy Hart treated him so roughly at Mania IX.

 

As I said above, compared to other WWF matches from around this time, this match was very good. It may even be the second-best house show handheld from the WWF this year behind the Bret-Flair ironman match. In the context of what else we're seeing on this set, though, it's deeply flawed, and they most likely won't get a do-over, since Shawn's not IC champion anymore.