Shawn Michaels vs Davey Boy Smith (WWF - 9/20/97)

I cant believe I didnt nominate this. One of the top ten best WWF matches from 93-97 golden era of workrate WWF wrestling. HBK was at the peak of his heel powers. I fucking love this match so much. Incredibly underrated and so much fun.

WWF European Champion British Bulldog vs Shawn Michaels - WWF One Night Only 1997

Lets talk about the match first and then I will get to all the backstage stuff. Incredible match, one of my all-time favorites, I have this at number three in WWF 1997 in a loaded year for the promotion. The heat for this is nuclear. Bulldog is insanely over and Shawn Michaels is at the height of dickish heel superpowers. Shawn makes out with about 5 young girls at ringside. What a fucking asshole! This only gets him more heat from the men. You think Cena is bad. This is the sharpest male vs female divide I have ever heard. Shawn flirts with the line, but never crosses it as he bumps like a madman for the Bulldog. This has to go down as one of the all-time greatest shines. Shawn is flipping over himself getting the Bulldog over as one man runaway freight train of power and speed. I always think of the back drop over the top rope tumble spill onto the floor bump. The clothesline bump into railing was nasty. I loved him trying to climb the ropes in the collar-elbow tie up to try to gain a leverage advantage only to be thrown off. The Press Slam spot with the ref running to stop Bulldog from throwing him into the crowd was great as Bulldog just dropped him. Michaels poking Bulldog in the eyes only to eat a powerbomb when he tried for the hurricanarana left me pumping my fists. The delayed vertical suplex had me cheering on the Bulldog. Then the insurance policy, Rick Rude comes out. He flips Bulldog over on an O'Connor Roll, then fucks with him while he is running the ropes and finally Michaels gets the advantage. Rude liberally helps out.

Michaels was having an all-time great heel run, but the one thing that would always keep him from being the best heel ever is that he just does not have much in the way of offense to sustain a heat segment. I am as big of a Shawn Michaels fan as there is (without being worked by the WWE political machine), but I am not delusional, it is his biggest flaw. They keep it simple focus on Bulldog's selling and the other key is they keep it short. The short arm scissors into the a powerbomb (play off their 92 IC Title switch, which JR reminded us of) was a great spot as knocking their heads to level the playing field. Here comes HHH & Chyna. If the heat was nuclear before, this is fucking Hydrogen Bomb level shit that is about to happen.

Two top rope elbows from Michaels and he looks to set up Sweet Chin Music. Smith deadweights him. This is my biggest problem with moves which require your opponent to stand up, just don't stand up OR hit the move when your opponent you know is STANDING. This whole waiting thing is my least favorite thing in wrestling. But I digress. He props him up in the corner and Bulldog misses and hoists him up on his shoulder. He is going to plant him in the ground, but Rude has his leg. Confrontation ensues and it is chaos. Outside the ring, Bulldog looks like he will hit the Running Powerslam on the floor, but his leg slips off the platform wrenching his right leg which has a kneebrace on it. At this point, you can just feel everything boiling. SWEET CHIN MUSIC! Rude & HHH ram the railing into the knee as the fans are just trying to fight against them by holding the railing back. THAT IS PRO WRESTLING! That spot gets me every single time. So powerful. Pedigree on the floor. Triple H is such a fucking leech. HBK removes the knee brace and tosses to Davey Boy's wife and terminally ill sister. Fucking douche. Michaels applies the Figure-4. HHH & Chyna are holding on to him stretching him to apply extra leverage, but when Davey Boy is about to turn him, Rude cleans his clock with a right hand The British Bulldog passes out from the pain. Michaels gets his vanity trophy and sticks it to the Hart Family. The crowd is at a near riot. PELTING THEM with garbage. Michaels is goading the Hart Family and Diana. Diana comes in and chokes Shawn with the knee brace when he re-applied the figure-4. FINALLY The Harts come out to save Davey Boy, but don't get in any licks.


Yes, by far the most frustrating thing about this is that Bret & Owen don't even get their hands on HHH & Shawn. That is bullshit. Like give the Harts a bone, you just screwed them out of a meaningless title because you can and did it in front of a man's dying sister and in his home country where they go like once a year.

The match is fucking awesome. The shine rules. Smith is a powerhouse and Shawn is a bumping freak. Shawn's heat segment is weak, but it is also short. The finish is insanely powerful and heated. Yes some of that heat comes from the backstage antics so it is hard to decouple the two, but for my money this is an all-time classic.

Davey Boy is well-protected in this match. It takes Rude to turn the tide initially and once Davey Boy overcomes that, HHH & Chyna interfere. So it is four on one plus a bad slip cost Davey Boy the match. So it is not like he was buried. What Shawn did was pretty bullshit. If you are judging just what was on screen this is amazing pro wrestling. So I will rate it as such. ****1/2