[1997-02-13-WWF-Raw Thursday] Shawn Michaels loses his smile

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Well, this is a legendary segment. Shawn is scheduled to drop the WWF title to Bret at Wrestlemania XIII and decides to forfeit the title and have knee surgery instead. To show you how off track Shawn was at this point, he's being drowned out by a "We Want Sid" chant during what was designed to be a pretty emotional segment, a type of fan rebellion that wasn't all that common yet.

 

One thing that is forgotten in the middle of all of this is that Shawn does a pretty strong interview and that had the crowd been with him, this would be remembered as a classic segment. I don't know that the fans knew the politics behind this, but I do think people saw through this as a self-serving, phony gesture, which is why Shawn didn't have the crowd.

[shawmic]

Shawn was actually suppose to lose the title to Sid on this show. At one point he was going to lose it to Bret at WM but they changed that a few weeks earlier to make Bret/Shawn a hair vs. hair ladder match and Sid/Taker the title match at WM (at least according to Bret's book).

[Robert S]

I don't know that the fans knew the politics behind this, but I do think people saw through this as a self-serving, phony gesture, which is why Shawn didn't have the crowd.

I did not know anything about backstage politics at all back then but even I thought it was strange that this was the fifth WWF belt that Shawn did not lose in the ring (his 2nd and 3rd IC title, both tag titles with Nash plus this). Two more were coming up in the following year.

[Childs]

Taken out of context, this was a hell of a segment, with Michaels channeling what seemed like real emotion to discuss some fairly nuanced ideas about his position. Of course, you can't really watch it out of context.

[Zenjo]

Shut the **** up you lying, whining, self-serving, pathetic, disingenuous ******. Could Shawn have been any more of a ***** at this time?

[soup23]

Tough for me to watch this in a vacumn like the Clash 10 heel turn. I hear the context of what Shawn is saying and its good but knowing what we know, I just cant buy it and him hugging Vince and JR downing on about this the toughest night he has ever had in this sport was too much. I like JR but anyone criticizing the "greatest night in the history of our sport" and TOny should look at some of Ross' calls around this time especially this one when you knew he thought Shawn was full of shit. All good buildup they have done for Shawn vs. Bret is squashed.

[Kevin Ridge]

Shawn feels like we have done this before. Yep, you refused to drop the IC title to Shane Douglas. This segment really comes off pathetic for Shawn. Big Sid chant. Nothing really showed that Shawn couldn't go out and wrestle. Especially when you think about him going out there for WrestleMania XIV after his back issues. What a phony.

[stomperspc]

I don't know that the fans knew the politics behind this, but I do think people saw through this as a self-serving, phony gesture, which is why Shawn didn't have the crowd.

I had never seen this before and obviously knew the politics behind it, but I did think Shawn came off as phony in this and like he was ducking a fight so I could see the live crowd getting the same vibe. When do you ever see the promotion's babyface champion voluntarily surrender his title claiming injury (but showing little signs of it) with no real angle around it? I think the crowd saw how odd the entire thing was and saw through it.

 

No matter how good the actual promo was it was such an odd segment by standard pro wrestling segments that I think it was destined to be met with that sort of reaction.

[ajtroma]

He could cry on cue. Give him that.

[BackToBionic]

I would have been 13 at this time. I didn't have a computer and had never heard of Dave Meltzer. But I had a memory and could put 2 and 2 together. It made Shawn look like such a "wuss" (I probably used another word at the time). And Lawler, Ross, even McMahon fellating him during all this nonsense made them look so disingenuous as well. I haaaaaated Shawn in 96, the "edgy" thing was actually kind of making me like him somewhat but after this he never could've won me over. I can appreciate that he can put on a good match and that he has changed and that's all great, but stuff like this ruled me out of ever being a Shawn "fan".

[PeteF3]

This crowd is NOT appreciative of Vince's intro, and the reaction to Shawn's entrance could charitably be described as "mixed." Even Lawler is being instructed to praise Shawn for "doing the right thing," which is just fucking absurd. Shawn is better at this than Beefcake, but this still smacks of the desperate and phony-sounding sob story that Brutus told when announcing his comeback on Monday Night Raw, which was another intended-to-be-gutwrenching segments that the crowd totally didn't buy. Still, the Lowell crowd stops short of telling Shawn to kill himself. I wonder what Bret Hart thought of Vince talking about Shawn being the fightingest WWF champion ever. Shawn gives the boilerplate John Cena "fans can do whatever they want" promo, except Cena doesn't have a history of public temper tantrums.

 

Of course it's impossible to separate this from the context, but I didn't find this interview to be any good at all. I know it's supposed to be emotional and thus not "clean," but this promo is a rambling, bllthering mess and nobody, including me watching this now much less then, is buying that this guy's knee is suddenly in a career-threatening state.

[Exposer]

One of the most famous segments in WWE history. It's actually pretty compelling to watch. The "We Want Sid!" chants during Shawn's emotional speech. The crying women. Shawn's tears. It's a pretty great segment in how it's put together, but it all still comes across as phony. There's no way Shawn's knee was that fucked up. I burst out laughing at the conclusion when JR said "Goodbye, Shawn. Godspeed." Totally over-the-top. Fascinating watch though & one of the more shocking moments of WWF at the time.

[KB8]

I know it's hard to judge this as a regular interview or promo because it's not supposed to actually be that (and as Childs mentions it's impossible to view this out of context), but considering how full of shit he was you could probably say it was a decent promo. I mean, he had a few folk in tears there so he sure worked the hell out of them. Most people seemed to see through his shit from the start, though. It's not a perfect analogy by any stretch, not least because wrestling as a carny business is way more open with fans now, but if you're looking at a modern babyface who's routinely booed by pockets of the audience, there's almost no chance Cena does something like this and is met with "WE WANT [equivalent of Sid]" chants.