[1997-12-07-WWF-D-Generation X] Shawn Michaels vs Ken Shamrock

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. Hunter is interfering quite a bit. He and Chyna run in when Shamrock locks in the anklelock, which is a CHEAP finish or a pay-per-view main event. But maybe they felt like the post-match interview was enough to make up for it, as OWEN HART shows up and attacks Michaels before taking off and the crowd is HOT for him. They really could have had something special here. Shawn gets a badly bloodied nose when he bumps to the table, which I can see Shawn using as an excuse not to work with him. I never thought it made sense in kayfabe for the company to build a PPV theme around a top heel group that they supposedly were very annoyed by.

[Kevin Ridge]

JR wants does a pre match interview with Shawn and wants to know why he doesn't respect Shamrock. Michaels calls Ross a "tub of goo" a couple times. JR thanks him for his time. Fink mentions a one hour time limit which I thought they stopped using years ago. Triple H gets beat up on the outside by Shamrock but Chyna takes out Shamrock by both running him into the ring post and then bodyslamming him. Ross spends a lot of time running down Michaels character. Standing two feet away, Earl Hebner complete ignores Michaels doing an eye poke. Then Shamrock almost breaks his neck just running the ropes! Ah, that was just left off what we see on edited version. Shamrock goes for the anklelock and DX interferes immediately. Lack of crowd heat for whole match as nobody seemed to believe Ken would win. Owen attacks Michaels! I think Owen was trying to stick both thumbs up Michaels' nose.

[Kevin Ridge]

double post

[JazeUSA]

lol @ HBK, this is the match where he shouts the spots very loudly at Shamrock multiple times where everyone can hear him to make him look like a fool for blowing a spot in a previous contest, Michaels was lucky Shamrock was a professional & didn't legit snap some stuff up!

[DR Ackermann]

Michaels sucked here. I watched the full match and he wouldn't sell. Shamrock looked like he was trying harder. This match dragged but the first few minutes were really good before Michaels took control and then it just got really generic and Michaels refused to give Shamrock's offense its due.

[soup23]

Clips we see arent very inspiring and the DQ finish is literally one of the cheapest and uncreative ones I have seen in PPV history. The owen return was cool and Owen really lays it in but everything feels still like a mess here and this is the epitome of a throwaway PPV.

[bradhindsight]

Shamrock is really blown up by the end of this one and while a very cheap and uncreative finish, I always thought it really put over the ankle lock. I mean, as soon as he gets it on Shawn, they storm the ring. So there was that.

 

And of course the real hot ending with Owen's return is really cool.

[PeteF3]

Owen's return is the big story here, but having watched this for the very first time it already feels like he's being downplayed, as he runs away through the crowd and Shawn and Hunter still get to celebrate in the ring as the show goes off the air. Owen's beatdown is very good and realistic-looking, with some Lawler/Snowman-esque going after Shawn's eyes, and if they were going to go with a copout DQ finish to start with, then this show really should have ended on a cliffhanger with the beatdown ongoing.

[Exposer]

Pretty decent match. Shawn bumps big early & makes Shamrock look good at the start. I never understand how Earl Hebner can have casual conversations with heels as the seconds beat up the baby face on the floor for what seems like forever. Maybe he's kayfabe in DX's pocket based on Montreal. Shawn works over Shamrock's back for a few minutes, but it's not much. Shawn audibly calls spots for the entire match which gets annoying quickly. Shamrock hits the belly-to-belly & gets in the ankle lock, but Hunter & Chyna run in. The match is thrown out & Shamrock wins by DQ. Owen shows up & knocks Shawn off the apron through the Spanish announce table! Good lord, Owen is wailing away at Shawn's face. I'm sure it was meant to feel real, but some of it might have been. Owen was beating the hell out of Shawn. Owen could have been made here. This could have been his big break.

[cactus]

Judging by Shawn's horrid pre-match promo, he looks pilled-up to the gills. I thought this looked promising to begin with. Shamrock's ankle lock is treated as a huge deal. HBK comes into this not treating Shamrock seriously and is able to hang with him during the early exchanges, but one Shamrock kick to the chest is enough to knock Shawn out of the ring and HBK starts to doubt himself and he has to rethink his strategy. Shawn excels at being the chickenshit heel in retreat and this was no different, it's just that this match takes a huge nosedive once Chyna and Triple H interfere and Shawn takes control. Talk about a dull control segment. Michaels felt completely directionless working on top and they suck the life out of the building when HBK locks on a lengthy chinlock to allow Shamrock to capture his breath after getting blown up. The loud-spot calling didn't help matters either. We get a few half-way decent hope spots that wake the crowd back up, but its not long before this one abruptly ends once Shamrock locks on the ankle lock and the rest of DX swarm the ring and cause the disqualification. Shamrock shits the bed during the biggest match of his career up to this point and HBK didn't exactly set the world on fire either. Owen Hart ends up making his return after being MIA since Montreal.  If they had just went off air after the DQ finish, fans would have pelted garbage into the ring, so it's a good thing that Owen makes his return here. ★★