Heartbreak & Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story
Disc Three
Released: November 27, 2007

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Jeff Jarrett (w/The Roadie) vs. Shawn Michaels – (In Your House #2, 7/23/95)
  

I definitely remember watching/listening to this match on scramble vision live and was one excited nine year-old. Roadie comes out before Jarrett’s introduction to give him back any heel heat he might have lost from his performance. During HBK’s pre-match “stripping of the chaps”, Lawler reminds us that Nashville used to hate guys with long hair. Really? I would have thought mullets was Tennessee’s *thing*. To start, Michaels punches Jarrett from one side of the ring to the other. Shawn taunts Jarrett and then they lock up again where Jarrett fires off an armdrag. We see the Jarrett strut. Shawn whips Jarrett across the ring only for Jarrett to flip over him out of the corner and punch him out the floor. More strutting and taunting from Jarrett. Back in, Jarrett flips over HBK out of a hiptoss and takes a poke to the eyes. Shawn does the same thing, but sees a strike coming and fires back on Jarrett. Now HBK flips out of the corner and Cactus Clotheslines Jarrett to the floor. HBK skins-the-cat back in and mocks the Jarrett strut while Roadie checks on his champ. Jarrett begins to stall Memphis style and breaks several ten-counts at nine. HBK finally comes out and nails him from behind. Back in, Jarrett nails Shawn coming down on him from the top and hits the Bossman straddle. Jarrett whiffs on a dropkick and some apron interference from Roadie gets stopped with an eye poke. Jarrett charges at Shawn and gets thrown out on top of Roadie! HBK leaps down on them both and heads back into the ring for a baseball slide into Jarrett. He’s back in and begs off into the corner. Jarrett thinks he’s avoided a crossbody out of the corner, but Shawn’s still in the corner and nails Jarrett once he turns around with a sunset flip. Jarrett blocks the rollup and then backdrops Michaels over the top rope to the floor below. Holy crap. Jarrett follows him out and sends Shawn into the steel steps. Back in, Jarrett delivers a gourdbuster and applies an ab stretch. Roadie gives him a little leverage help until he gets caught and Shawn fights back with a hiptoss. HBK telegraphs a backdrop and receives a leaping DDT for his mistake. Cover, 1-2-NO! Roadie chokes Shawn in the ropes. He gets a little too involved though as Shawn pulls Roadie forward and moves out of the way to cause Jarrett to wipe out Roadie with a Bossman straddle. O’Connor roll from Shawn gets 1-2-NO! From there, Jarrett reverses a corner whip on Shawn to send him in for his crazy bump that lands him on the floor. I’m surprised he didn’t take some time off with a back injury after this match. Jarrett teases a dive off the top onto Shawn, but Hebner takes him back into the ring so Roadie can hit Shawn with a clothesline off the ropes. Back in the ring, Jarrett and Roadie celebrate a countout victory over Shawn Michaels. Before it even happens, of course. Shawn just makes it back in before the ten-count. Shawn rolls through a flying bodypress from Jarrett gets 1-2-NO! Jarrett somewhat botches a crucifix into a sunset flip, but recovers nicely. Shawn breaks that up with a right hand to set up a nearfall sequence. Jarrett connects with the dropkick after all for another two-count. Shawn runs the ropes, but right into a sleeper. He goes down to the mat, but fights up to his feet and counters with a back suplex. Both men are down! Michaels is the first one to start moving and crawls over to Jarrett for 1-2-NO! More rope running as HBK catches Jarrett with a Tito Santana forearm. KIP UP! Shawn connects with another flying forearm and hits a flying double sledge for 1-2-NO! Flying Elbow Drop is delivered. Cover 1-2-NO! Shawn slides underneath a boot in the corner and crotches Jarrett on the ringpost. Back in, HBK heads up top again, but Roadie shakes the ropes to crotch Shawn. Jarrett follows him up for a superplex! It’s time for the FIGURE-FOUR! Nope, Shawn counters with an inside cradle for 1-2-NO! Jarrett catches Shawn with a shinbreaker to set up another FIGURE-FOUR attempt, but Shawn kicks him off into the ref. Now everybody’s down! Jarrett comes off the top rope for another Flying Bodypress as Roadie wakes up Hebner for 1-2-NO! Now Jarrett gives Roadie the signal to trip up Shawn off the Irish whip. Roadie turns his back on the action and doesn’t see HBK reverse the whip on Jarrett. Roadie grabs Jarrett’s foot by accident! Jarrett yells something at Roadie and then turns around into SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Shawn wins the IC title for the third time. (20:02) Fantastic match, but of course Shawn made sure to make Shawn look better than his opponent. On the other hand, Jarrett did do a good job keeping up with Shawn Michaels’ pinball style wrestling though. ****¼

• WWF Champion Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario) vs. Davey Boy Smith (w/Jim Cornette & Diana Smith) – Special Referee: Mr. Perfect – (King of the Ring 1996)
  

Owen standing up on top of the announce table and cheering for Davey Boy Smith during his entrance with his Slammy award in-hand is pro. Before the match begins, WWF President Gorilla Monsoon changes the rules and makes Earl Hebner the referee inside the ring leaving Mr. Perfect to be the ref outside of the ring. The whole point of Perfect being the ref was because Hebner got tossed aside last time these two met, but because Perfect was found in the Cornette dressing room, Monsoon had to change the rules to make the fight fair. Makes sense. Shawn controls with a headlock to start. Davey Boy fights out and tosses Shawn, but he skins-the-cat and brings DBS out to the floor with a headscissors. From there, HBK jumps off the apron and hurracanranas Davey Boy down. Cornette tries to attack him with his racket, but Shawn grabs it away from him and gives him a spanking. Back in, now Smith controls with a headlock. Shawn slips out of a press slam and grabs an armbar. Davey Boy Smith stands up out of the armbar and grabs the ropes to get the leverage needed to pin HBK for 1-2-NO! Perfect takes his time, but makes it over to Davey Boy to knock his hand off the ropes. Davey Boy steps on HBK’s face to break the hold. Shawn tries to flip over DBS out of the corner, but he sees it coming. Shawn ducks a clothesline and goes right back to an armbar. Davey Boy reverses into a hammerlock. Shawn flips out of a back suplex and grabs a sleeper. Davey Boy whips HBK into the corner a few times and grabs a chinlock. Shawn fights out and nails DBS with an Armbreaker DDT. Davey Boy comes back and presses Shawn up only to back into the ropes and dump Shawn all the way to the floor. Incredible. Lothario complains to Perfect what just happen while Davey Boy delivers an hourglass suplex on the floor. Bulldog presses HBK over his head and tosses him back inside for 1-2-NO! DBS grabs a chinlock. HBK escapes, but Davey Boy reverses a corner whip to send him in for the Ray Stevens bump, causing Shawn to stagger back around into a clothesline. From there, Smith applies a surfboard! Shawn won’t give up, so Davey Boy drops his shoulders down to the mat for 1-2-NO! Bulldog reapplies the chinlock. Shawn fights out and hits a crossbody block for two. He jumps up right into another clothesline. More of the chinlock. Shawn gets two off a crucifix. They trade running powerslam attempts. When Shawn shoves off Davey’s powerslam, he goes for Sweet Chin Music. DBS grabs hold of the ropes to avoid the superkick and then blasts Shawn with another clothesline! Piledriver sets up a flying headbutt, but Shawn moves out of the way. Shawn gets crotched up top for a superplex, earning DBS another nearfall. HBK falls back on Davey Boy during a back superplex for 1-2-NO! Double-KO ensues from there. Shawn tries another rana, but Smith counters into a sitout powerbomb for 1-2-NO! Shawn reverses a corner whip to send Davey Boy flipping into the corner. He follows up with the Flying Forearm, kips up, and hits the Flying Elbow Drop. SWEET CHIN MUSIC connects! Perfect stops the ref before he counts and then counts with him for 1-2-3! Well, Owen jumps up from the announce table and pulls Perfect out at the count of two, but nobody cares because Hebner counted three. (26:23) Afterwards, a two-on-one attack occurs. Ahmed saves HBK, Vader runs down to help and destroy them both, then Warrior comes out and destroys the entire Camp Cornette to set up the next PPV main event. These two appeared to have all the necessary tools for a ****+ match, but could never pull it off for me. Maybe I’m just not as big of a fan of Davey Boy Smith’s singles work as other people seem to be. ***½

• World Heavyweight Champion Triple H (w/Ric Flair) vs. Shawn Michaels – (Raw, 12/29/03)

Oh man, I remember FLIPPING OUT for this match live. By the way, they are in Shawn’s hometown of San Antonio. Hammerlocks and headlocks to start. HHH tries to throw Shawn out to quit all that, but HBK skins-the-cat and headscissors Triple H to the floor. HBK struts to piss off Flair and knocks him off the apron so he can nail them both with a springboard crossbody. Back in, Shawn cranks on an armbar. HHH sticks his leg through the ropes for the break, so HBK kicks the middle rope into Triple H’s balls. Back to the armbar. HHH fights out, but Shawn fires back with chops and tosses him out the Harley Race way to the floor. Back inside, Shawn continues to ROCK and ROLL all over HHH. He grabs a sleeper and HHH tries to suplex him out? Shawn lands on his feet and school boys Hunter for two. HHH takes Shawn down into a headlock? HBK counters with a headscissors that leads into the backslide for two. Finally, Michaels makes the mistake of charging HHH in the corner as he takes a CRAZY backdrop all the way to the floor! Commercials! And we return to see Triple H in control. He lands a backbreaker and starts dropping elbows on the lower back. As Shawn starts to fight back, HHH throws him out and sends him into the steps. Back in, Triple H torture Shawn with an ab stretch. He even grabs a hand from Ric Flair, but eventually Shawn hiptosses out. Shawn chops Triple H back, but runs into the High Knee. Evidently HHH hit Shawn SO HARD, that he hurt himself. That gets two. Shawn avoids a backbreaker and hits a shinbreaker to set up the figure-four! WOOOOO! Flair goes ballistic and HHH really sells this like death. Just when it appears HHH might give it up, Flair reaches in behind the ref’s back and rakes HBK across the eyes to get him to break the hold. Shawn gets dumped so HHH can regroup, but then he comes off the top into the PEDIGREE! Oh, but Shawn backdrops out. As they get to their feet, they start chopping one another. Michaels does the Sting bit where he’s so groggy, that he bounces off the ropes and falls head first into HHH’s genitals. Shawn makes his comeback with atomic drops and hits the Flying Forearm followed by the Flying Elbow Drop! He tunes up the band, but Flair gets on the apron to distract HBK long enough to stop the momentum. HHH comes charging, but Shawn ducks and Hebner gets wiped out. Shawn tries for SWEET CHIN MUSIC, but HHH catches the boot and spins him around for a DDT. With everybody down, Flair tosses HHH the world title belt. HHH smashes HBK with it and gets rid of the evidence for 1-2-NO! HBK counters the PEDIGREE, but gets kicked off into Hebner again as he goes crashing out on the floor. Out comes Eric Bischoff to take over the referee duties. Meanwhile, HHH unties the top turnbuckle. Too bad his plan backfires on him as Shawn smashes Helmsley’s face into it. Triple H is BLEEDING on TV! As Shawn covers, Bischoff counters 1-2-NO! HBK delivers some ten-count corner punches and an atomic drop by HHH fails. Shawn delivers a right hand for 1-2-NO! Facebuster by HHH nearly ends the dreams of Shawn Michaels with a nearfall. HHH comes off the middle turnbuckle and eats a boot for two. However, he reverses a cross corner whip, but then charges into SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Shawn collapses on top of Triple H for 1-2-3! (25:49 shown) Just when it looked like Shawn Michaels had regained the world title, Bischoff announced that Shawn’s shoulders were down as well and a double-pin situation means that the champ retains. Shawn Michaels puts his hands on Bischoff and gets FIRED as a result. Anybody else feel like Shawn and Hunter were paying tribute to the Ric Flair matches of the ’80s? I sure did. As is the catch-22 of DVD releases, I think this is the type of match that’s more fun to watch when it’s live. Although Bischoff “fired” Shawn Michaels here, he would go on to wrestle HHH for the world title in a rematch at the Royal Rumble in a match that wasn’t even close to being a show stealer like this. ****½

• The Rockers vs. La Resistance – (Raw, 3/14/05)
  

It’s the Rockers reunion! This is during the very brief return of Marty Jannetty where he had this match and a great one on Smackdown with Kurt Angle, which you’ll hear JR hype during this match. They were actually going to bring him back full time because of the reactions he was getting, but he screwed it not once but TWICE and now I believe he’s banned from the WWE forever. Marty starts off with Grenier and does all the armdrag stuff that he used to do. La Resistance delivers a double hiptoss to Jannetty and then Conway gets the receipt. The Rockers kip-up after the double elbow drop and neither one pull it off perfectly, but MARTY is the one who is back on his feet ready to go quicker than Shawn. Just saying. The Rockers clean house and knock La Resistance over with STEREO PESCADOS! Back inside, Conway pulls the top rope down to let Shawn fall to the outside for a beating. La Resistance keeps Shawn on their side of town for a while. Grenier grabs a front facelock and as Shawn inches ever so closer to Marty, Conway runs over and knocks Jannetty off the apron. When Marty comes in the ring to protest, La Resistance deliver a Hart Attack to Michaels! Cover, 1-2-NO! Shawn fires back and hits the Flying Forearm on Grenier. Conway runs in and Shawn sidesteps him as La Resistance crashes into each other. Now Michaels rolls and dives into the HOT TAG TO JANNETTY! He goes slam crazy on La Resistance. Grenier tries to stop him with a press slam, but Jannetty escapes and hits the ROCKER DROPPER on him. In comes Conway, he takes SWEET CHIN MUSIC by Michaels! Meanwhile, Jannetty covers Grenier for the 1-2-3. (6:04) Dare I say it but for those six minutes, Marty looked like Shawn’s equal here. **

**EASTER EGG** Highlight “The Rockers vs. La Resistance” and press “RIGHT” three times. Marty Jannetty tells how that was a highlight of his career because he didn’t know if people would remember him or not after being off nationwide TV for seven years.

• Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle – (Vengeance 2005)

We are right in the middle of an amazing PPV streak for the WWE. From WrestleMania all the way to Unforgiven, there wasn’t a PPV you needed to turn down. Feeling out process to start. Angle for the ANKLELOCK early, but Shawn refuses to get caught up in that so soon and clotheslines Angle out. Shawn meets him on the outside where Angle tries to back him into the ringpost like he did at WrestleMania, but Shawn escapes. Too bad because now he has to take a German suplex on the SAT. Back in, that gets two. Now Angle starts to brutalize Shawn with lifters in the corner. BUCKLE BOMB! That gets two. Snap suplex by Angle gets two. Shawn punches out of a chinlock, but misses a corner charge and takes a release German. ANGLE SLAM? Nope. Shawn armdrags out, but stands up into a clothesline. Shawn fights off a belly to belly superplex, but flies down into a regular overhead belly to belly for two. Angle cranks on a chinlock and nearly puts Shawn out, but he makes it up and escapes with a back suplex. Flying forearm by Shawn! He kips up and makes his comeback. Flying Elbow Drop connects and as he gets all excited for Sweet Chin Music, Angle runs him over. ANGLE SLAM gets countered into a DDT for 1-2-NO! Shawn elbows out of a waistlock, but a wild swing sends him into the ANGLE SLAM! Cover, 1-2-NO! ANKLELOCK, but Michaels sends Angle into the ref. Shawn takes a nasty backdrop to the floor and wrenches his knee. Some fan up against the camera gets REALLY loud and cheers Shawn on. Shawn gets some assistance, but Angle pushes them away and takes him back into the ring. DOWN COME THE STRAPS! HBK attempts SWEET CHIN MUSIC out of nowhere, but Angle ducks and grabs the ANKLELOCK! After several tries from HBK, there seems to be nothing he can do that will get Angle to release the hold this time! Oh, except Shawn Michaels does manage to roll through and send Angle into the ringpost. As Angle turns back around, SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Slow cover gets 1-2-NO! Angle heads up top, which isn’t his area anyway, and leaps down into SWEET CHIN MUSIC for the 1-2-3! (26:12) So Shawn avenges his WrestleMania loss, but they would go on to have the rubber match in October to end the feud. Somewhat different than their WrestleMania match and that’s a good thing especially when it came down to learning from their past mistakes when it appeared Shawn would suffer the same fate as he did at WrestleMania like for example getting his back ran into the ringpost, which he was fend off this time. Great match and an excellent sequel to the original. ****½

• WWE Champion John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels – (Raw, 4/23/07)
  

Another WrestleMania rematch – except this one aired for free! Oh, but it’s non-title. Shawn was unhappy (as was I) with how the psychology of their WrestleMania match was completely screwed up and this was to somehow make up for it. Cena plays some head games with HBK to start attempting the STFU whenever he can get it. Shawn has enough and decides to stop trying to wrestle and turn this into a brawl. Cena proves he brawl too! So yeah, let’s go to a commercial. We return to see Cena grounding Shawn with a headlock. Shawn fights out and starts chopping, but then runs into a boot in the corner and eats a clothesline. Back to the headlock, Shawn escapes again and goes for SWEET CHIN MUSIC as Cena comes off the ropes. Cena sees it coming and puts on the brakes. HBK charges and runs into a possible FU, but Shawn grabs hold of the top rope and heads to the floor to regroup. Commercials! AND NOW WE’RE BACK! Shawn has Cena cornered and delivers some back elbows. Cena fires back and catches Shawn for a front powerslam. That gets two. Release fisherman’s suplex gets two. Throwback gets two. They exchange blows, but then Cena delivers a backdrop for two. Suplex by Cena fails as Shawn lands on his feet and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Flying Forearm has both men down. Shawn kips up and makes his comeback. Flying Elbow Drop? Yes! He tunes up the band and instead surprises Cena with a backslide instead of SWEET CHIN MUSIC for 1-2-NO! Cena misses a crossbody block and tumbles to the floor. Shawn goes to meet him with a pescado, but Cena catches him in mid-air. A snake eyes into the ringpost misses as HBK slips out and shoves Cena into the ring steps! Another commercial break! We come back to see Michaels working over Cena’s arm by running him into the ringpost. Shawn grabs a hammerlock on the mat and hooks the other arm to try and get a pinfall, but he only gains nearfalls. Cena slams out and starts unloading with running shoulderblocks. As we have come to expect, the Protobomb sets up the Five Knuckle Shuffle. The whole time Cena is selling the left arm and shaking it loose to ‘get the feeling back’ in it. They trade finisher attempts – ending with an FU from Cena! Cover, 1-2-NO! Commercials. When we return, Cena literally dumps Michaels to the floor and backs him into the ringpost. Back inside, he gets a two-count. Shawn tries to avoid a suplex and Cena pounds the back to assure Shawn that he is going to in fact pull off this suplex. Nice bit of psychology there. Anyways, the suplex gets two. Cena grabs a bearhug, but leaves himself wide open for Shawn to elbow his way out, which he does. Cena reverses a cross corner whip and sends HBK out as now he’s doing the Harley Race bump. Back in the ring, the Flying Famouser by Cena gets 1-2-NO! Cena takes a limp Shawn Michaels over to a corner for a SUPER FU, but HBK avoids that and powerbombs Cena out of the corner! As both men get to their feet, Cena tries to sneak in the STFU, but Shawn kicks him out to the apron. Once Cena stands up, Shawn charges and bumps Cena off onto the announce table. Now Shawn gets serious as he takes off the top half of the ring steps for a possible piledriver, but Cena backdrops out and crawls back into the ring. More commercials. We return to see Cena and Shawn scrambling on the announce table beating the heck out of each other. Before ref Mike Chioda DQ’s Cena, they head back into the ring for the STFU, which is the move that made him submit in their match at WrestleMania 23. Will Shawn tap?! Nope. He makes the ropes. Once again, they trade finisher attempts and this time Shawn pulls off SWEET CHIN MUSIC. Slow cover gets 1-2-NO! Cena grabs the bottom rope. Shawn corners Cena and starts to unload again, but then Cena reverses the cross corner whip. Shawn does his VINTAGE corner bump and turns around into the FU, but he LANDS ON HIS FEET after he leaves Cena’s shoulders and hits SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Unbelievable. Michaels falls on top of the champ for the 1-2-3. (37:51 shown) Now THAT’S more like it. Shawn carried Cena on an unbelievable 55 minute ride and showed him the proper way to work a match if you’re going to be a WWE champion when you don’t have relaxed rules like for example a no-disqualification match to protect you. It’s another match from this set that reminds me of a classic ’80s match that would take up the entire TV time limit of the show. ****¾

Final Thoughts: This is a *must-have* set for one of the greatest workers ever in the history of wrestling. What more do I need to say? Umm, I give this a thumbs WAY up! GET THIS DVD SET NOW.