HBK/Diesel v 1-2-3 Kid/Razor Ramon (WWF -9/28/1994)

Second.

Not 100% on whether or not it will make my list, but it is absolutely one of the best WWE TV matches of all time. For that reason alone, it deserves to be in the discussion. Huge amounts of energy and urgency you really don't see in TV matches, or even a lot of PPV matches for that matter. Great tag match and look forward to revisiting.

A truly great WWF Tag Team match, maybe the best ever in the promotion and something the whole Kliq can be proud of.

WWF World Tag Team Champions Diesel & Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid - WWF Action Zone 10/30/94



I would say this is the best WWF tag team match through at least 1999 if not the all-time greatest WWF tag team match (I feel like I am missing something obvious in the 2000s). Yes it is Kliq vs Kliq so it is dripping with effort, but I think more than that it really stands to show how well these four understood pro wrestling. There is a real deep understanding of the fundamentals here. It is cool that reading other reviews that everyone has a different MVP. For me it was Shawn, all the way. After years being in the Rockers, he was great at turning around all the shit that was done to him and throwing right back as a heel. He was doing so much great apron work in this: feeding Razor, using a blind tag to set up heat, constant cheating. It was a really masterful heel tag work performance and I thought he was the one directing traffic. When it came time to get his ass kicked, he threw himself all over the place for Razor and Kid. He was basically their tackling dummy. I think all four guys impressed, but I would go with Shawn as my MVP.



Loved the shine, love when a babyface hits his finish early, but just cant get the pin. Makes it feel like anything can happen and that they are trying to win the match. Perfect for a tag setting more than singles, because the partner saving is an easy out. Loved the Razors Edge early. 1-2-3 Kid was great at his nearfall barrage and loved Shawn randomly countering with a powerbomb. Diesel/Kid was wicked fun. I cant believe we never got an awesome Diesel/Kid or Shawn/Kid singles match those would have been bitchin'. Razor is definitely the against the grain pick for face in peril, but it works. Who is this Kevin Nash and where did he go? Nash LITERALLY flying around all over the place with a flying shouldertackle. He looked awesome in there. Shawn was throwing himself into everything. They cheated like muthafuckas and Razor sold really well. I actually liked building to the Kid as the hot tag because you know you are going to get a crazy burst of energy. Michaels superkicking Big Daddy Cool is great angle advancement. People complain about the 5 minute sell by Diesel but I rather that than him just shrugging it off, plus it gets Sweet Chin Music (about a year old if not less) over as a killer move, which Shawn needed. Plus it helps explain the finish. Shawn/Diesel beat the shit out of Razor and now Shawn is going to have get a taste of his own medicine without a partner. Kid was awesome flying around here and Razor throwing him fallaway slam style on Shawn was just badass. That or the flying shoulder tackle by Diesel was the spot of the match. Shawn using a sleeper to grind the Razor/Kid fast break to a halt was so friggin smart! Awesome, awesome psychology. Still HBK is partnerless and Kid takes advantage by slugging Michaels and then once he gets the tag hitting a top rope leg drop. GREAT FALSE FINISH! The sleeping giant is stirring and OUT OF NOWHERE just nails the running Kid with a big boot and Michaels covers to win.



From beginning to end, just friggin awesome. Babyfaces look to win early with Razor Edge and nearfalls. Razor takes heat off a cheap tag and then liberal amounts of cheat. One of the all-time great tag team stretch runs with really strong psychology. Kid was a killer hot tag. Razor worked the face in peril well. Diesel was shockingly awesome at offense in this match and then selling as he hit the big boot. I thought Shawn Michaels showed why he is one of the all-time greatest wrestlers here, awesome command of psychology from beginning to end. Serious contender for best WWF tag match of all time. ****1/2

This was The Kliq going out and tearing the house down, just four buddies having a good time, no phone cameras, no twittering, no instagramming, just living in the moment. I last watched it over a decade ago and it was one of my favourite US tags ever, and happily I can say it held up great. What a cracking wee wrestling match. We get a quick opening shine, two face in peril segments and one heel in peril segment, and that's basically your structure. Nothing complicated, just vibes. The opening is blistering as the faces get Diesel out the road and Razor hits the Razor's Edge on Michaels, who's saved only by literally being dragged out the ring mid-pin. Some of you heathens will say he should've sold it longer, but it happened early enough that I don't mind him being up and about shortly after it. Kid's peril segment was short but sweet, working some killer big man v little man stuff with Diesel, including the actual transition where Diesel countered a sunset flip with a HUGE chokeslam. Ramon's heat segment is the meat of the match and it's fantastic. If I'm being nitpicky I'd have liked for them to throw in a few more obvious hope spots, but I suppose Razor isn't quite Ricky Morton and all of the offence Diesel and Michaels threw at him made up for it. They also managed to cheat and sneak attack plenty, running some nice apron cut-offs while Michaels was buzzing about like a nuisance. Razor's punches have never looked better, the way he was really throwing them from deep, sometimes visibly exhausted, and in general this was one of his best pure babyface performances.

Speaking of great performances, how about Big fuckin Daddy Cool?! This was such a fun Diesel performance. He looked super sharp, was really good at getting into position for things - which sounds like a back-handed compliment but really isn't - hit an amazing shoulder tackle like he was channelling Hacksaw Reed, then when they started targeting Razor's lower back he hit a GREAT sidewalk slam and even GREATER elbow drop right across the spine. Seriously, this was Abdullah the Butcher level great, just absolutely kidney-busting. I even dug his wonky abdominal stretch and I appreciate how he and Michaels manipulated Chioda's positioning so they could work the classic double ab stretch (and Michaels really leaned back like he was trying to pull Razor apart). The transition sequence is good with Razor hitting a chokeslam, Kid making a phantom hot tag while the ref' is distracted, then making the actual hot tag when Michaels hits Diesel with the superkick. I loved the timing on the superkick as it happened right as the ref' was putting Kid out the ring, so I guess we can call that poetic justice. Kid is a fucking nuclear house of fire and just goes tonto with the kicks and highspots. Awesome sequence where he hits a wheel kick in the corner, whips Michaels to the opposite buckle where he takes a huge pre-HHH bump to the floor, then stumbles into a somersault dive. Michaels was great at not telegraphing it as well, just walking into it with no hands up and eating it right in the face and shoulder. This was one of the best Michaels performances ever. He ruled as the speedy bastard counterpoint to Diesel's brute force, but he never overshadowed Kid on the other side, was great at running apron shenanigans, bumped like a freak as you'd probably expect, then had a great heel in peril run after Diesel went down, just trying to hang in there for his team until the big man could get back in the fight (as silly as him being out cold for five minutes straight might've been). His desperation sleeper was the best, the way he just flung himself at Razor and hung onto him like a limpet. And in the end he succeeds in buying enough time, as Diesel wastes Kid with a big boot and Shawn manages to steals the pin. I might still pick this as the best WWE tag match ever, you know.

I voted for this at #62 this year.

Just a classic tag match which is a blast to watch. All 4 guys nail their roles. I too love the stretch where Diesel is KO'd but lying visible on the apron. Partly because, like Elliott says above, it's just funny. But also it adds a sense of urgency to the match as well. It's like a ticking clock counting down. At somepoint the giant is gonna wake up and you don't wanna be around when he does. You feel this is the only chance for the face side: can they put Michaels away before Diesel returns to the match and crushes them?

"Sleeping Giant" match should totally have become a stip actually. Maybe Onita could have used it in FMW with a big countdown timer on screen, and when it hits zero instead of the ring exploding, The Great Khali could be released from cryosleep and starts brain chopping peeps. Or something. I'd watch it.