[1997-09-15-WWF-Raw] Interview: Shawn Michaels

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Clip of Owen vs Patriot with Austin ripping up the restraining order and then disappearing while the police looked for him all over the building.

 

Oh boy, the inappropriate biker shorts promo. Shawn is totally seeking heat at this point. He doesn't take responsibility for attacking Davey Boy and having these problems with Undertaker, instead blaming WWF management for putting him in no-win situations. He is getting rewarded for giving the people the best match of the night at Ground Zero by being stuck in a cell with the Undertaker. Everyone thinks it will be Shawn's demise, but that's simply not going to happen. But if he goes down, he's taking everyone with me. Lots of repeated lines from earlier promos, but still good stuff.

 

Undertaker interrupts and does a promo behind a cage.This feud isn't as hot as I remembered it being. Things were on a better track when Austin and the Hart Foundation were the engine.

[PeteF3]

Was Undertaker's promo from the video wall? I think this was the pre-taped Raw where Shawn went off-script and started repeatedly daring Undertaker to come to ringside if he was so bad, knowing that Undertaker wasn't actually in the building or wasn't supposed to come out, and was probably delivering this promo on tape. This resulted in a segment that had to be chopped to pieces and rebuilt because it made obviously made UT look foolish. That may explain why this would have felt "off." Says a lot about how secure Shawn felt his spot was--showing up the Undertaker that blatantly is something that I don't think had been attempted before or since.

 

EDIT: Maybe it was the 9/8 interview. It was somewhere around here.

[ajtroma]

Yeah, PeteF3 has this that one. As 1997 progresses, the DX stuff becomes even more immature, dickish and in my view, just lame. I was with Cornette on all this bullshit even back then (and I was 20 at the time).

 

Sadly, things would get worse (way worse) before getting better and then plummeting back into the shitpot of today's current horrendous wrestling scene.

[Kevin Ridge]

Nice shorts Shawn. He has set his focus on the European title?! Okay. He gave the fans the best match at Ground Zero against Undertaker. That match didn’t impress me much. It might not have had much competition though. Taker seems like the last guy Shawn would like to be provoking.

[soup23]

Muncie, Indiana is a weird venue. Shawn has ditched the Gap catalog look for the biker shorts. I do agree to a slight extent that Raw was probably at its best around April/May with all the Hart Foundation forming stuff but it still has had plenty of highlights and I have liked this feud overall. I think my biggest issue has been the shoving down of Bret as WWF champion screwing around with The Patriot. This promo again is used as a set up for the Cell match with some One NIght Only hype mixed in.

[PeteF3]

Michaels announces his intentions to be the WWF's first Grand Slam champion, and yeah, even before UT shows up, this promo is clearly edited. Of course this was the first taped Raw after months of being live every week, so maybe that was just the nature of the beast. What is WITH wrestlers across multiple companies constantly saying "powers to be"?

[Exposer]

Yeah, there's editing after Shawn's first few comments. I liked his reasoning for going after Davey Boy. He wants to be the first person to win all four belts in the WWF. Makes sense. He blames the WWF for everything again & starts telling lies about how he & Taker had the match of the night at Ground Zero. I didn't see any other matches from that show, but I didn't like that one. Shawn looks completely ridiculous with the shorts during all of this. What a moron. He sticks to the same deal about if he's going to go down, he's bringing everyone with him. Taker shows up on the tron behind a cage & cuts a promo about how he can still taste his blood, Rest in Peace, etc. Solid build for Hell in a Cell. I think Ground Zero hurt this feud because the match was so overbooked. It hurt the heat. Plus, Austin running around like a maniac was by far the most interesting thing going on. People were always waiting for what Austin would do next & this feud wasn't quite delivering enough interesting parts to match that. I'm still enjoying this feud, but it's a step down from the amazing spring & summer.