[1995-08-14-WWF-Monday Night RAW] Shawn Michaels vs Jerry Lawler

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels vs Jerry Lawler - WWF RAW 8/14/95

The main event of the penultimate RAW before the Monday Night Wars begin. Shawn Michaels the Main Eventer is fully crafted before our eyes. The Jeff Jarrett IYH 2 match is the birthplace in my opinion (perhaps it is on a RAW against King Kong Bundy or IRS when Michaels return from the Sid attack/betrayal, but I have no desire to watch those matches). The Kip Up is here, Top Rope Elbow Drop and it is called Sweet Chin Music and all the fanfare around is there. If you compare this to the Bulldog match in March of 1995 (5 months earlier), Michaels is still a heel and he has Sid as his bodyguard. He feels like an Upper Midcarder on the cusp on breaking out. I have never thought about it this way, but his breakout match is that Jarrett match. It is funny to see his next big match is against fellow Memphis legend, Jerry Lawler. You can see that Shawn Michaels would have fit like a glove in Memphis. He is just so campy and he can do the dog and pony shit so well. He has always been able to see the Rougeaus match from Paris and London. He cut his teeth against Buddy Rose for goodness sake. Shawn brings that camp and playfulness that WWF sorely needs. That being said, I say this as a Shawn defender for the most part, he was pretty damn uncool in his promos. The bad Dad jokes are so weird when youre supposed to be this ultra-cool playboy rockstar. He looks bitchin' as fuck, but he sounds corny as fuck. 

Last week, Diesel wrestled Sir Mo, (Mabel's tag team partner) and in the process Mabel beat up Shawn Michaels. Even though this was brought multiple times, Shawn basically said he was not going to sell the attack during his promo and followed through on that. This RAW also had the infamous Lawler/Yankem vignette (which made me cringe and it was as bad as I expected) so Lawler is still full steam ahead on trying to get vengeance on the Hitman. Lawler is a great character to have on teh roster. He get heat but you can beat him like a drum and keep getting heat. He is a great mouthpiece for all random heels. 

Really fun shine as expected, Shawn baseball slides through the legs and trips the King. Single leg pick up. I LOVE trips! I love when babyfaces use trips to show up a heel. Lawler says here is a "Whopper" in response to the "Burger King" chants and BIG SWING AND A MISS! Shawn clobbers Lawler. Piledriver! Nah! Nah! Shawn splays! Big Punch. Excellent Memphis bullshit. Thankfully for Lawler, Sid comes out distracts Shawn and Lawler clocks Shawn and sends him careening to the floor on a hard Irish Whip. Back from commercial, this is the best Lawler heat segment I have seen in WWF. He kicks some ass, gets his fist drop and DDT. He actually looks competent, which is not always the case in the Bret matches. He misses a splash from the top. KIP UP~! Look how Lawler sells the KIP UP~! This is a missing ingredient for Shawn that pre-Summer 1995 that he was missing. Shawn hits the top rope elbow. It was a middle rope elbow against Bulldog. Again, a big change that helps legitimize Shawn. I need to either read my review or watch the Jarrett match because I wonder if all this here. SWEET CHIN MUSIC! It is called as such and he gets sold as such! Sid attacks here. Razor saves. Razor shoves Shawn to get more of Sid. Diesel tries to calm down his fellow Kliq boys. 

Interesting booking at the end, Shawn/Sid is a natural big time match because of the Sid turn and now that Diesel is finished with Sid it makes sense for Sid to come down the ladder and wrestle Michaels. It is interesting that rather than have that at Summerslam they wanted that to be big first RAW Main Event against Nitro. They always say that Shawn/Razor II they wanted the "better" match for Summerslam, BUT I wondered if they wanted the "BIGGER" match for the first RAW. Just food for thought. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Perfect TV wrestling. #2 babyface just having a fun, popcorn match against the sleazy, scuzzy heel. Whats not to love! *** 1/2