-WWF Championship: Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario)(champion) vs. British Bulldog (w/Jim Cornette and Diana Smith)(Guest Referee: Mr. Perfect)(King of the Ring-June 23, 1996)
Match in Five Words or Less: Michaels Turns Back The Challenge
Match Highlights: The stack would appear to be stacked against HBK in this contest as Perfect is the outside official (based on a ruling from WWF President Gorilla Monsoon), Owen Hart is the third announcer, and Jim Cornette is at ringside. Bulldog waves England’s flag before the match because… he needed even more heat? Bulldog asserts his strength advantage. Michaels works a side headlock. Bulldog sends Michaels over. Skin the cat and a headscissors. Hurancanrana and punches on the floor. Michaels nails Cornette with the racket. Bulldog’s turn to work a headlock. Shoulder tackle. Michaels leap frog goes nowhere. Out of a press slam. O’Connor rolled for two. Series of armdrags into an armbar. Bulldog grabs the middle rope. Mr. Perfect takes the arm off. Stomp by Bulldog breaks the hold. Michaels sent into the buckle. Drop toehold back into a different armbar. Hammerlock and Michaels drives his knee into the arm. Hip toss by Bulldog. Michaels kicks him off. Series of counters into a sleeper. Bulldog drives him in the corner. Hard into the buckle goes HBK. After a second hard whip, Bulldog snapmares him and grabs a chinlock. Michaels hits an elbow and hits a divorce court. Double axehandle gets two. Big kneelift . Bulldog press slams Michaels to the floor. That was a nasty bump. Vertical suplex on the floor. Perfect obviously doesn’t count Michaels out despite him being outside for way longer than ten seconds. Press slam back INTO the ring. Chinlock. Michaels whipped up and over ino the corner. Clothesline from Bulldog. Surfboard. Michaels comes down and nearly gets three. Againto the chinlock. Knee to the midsection. Back drop. Leg drop and Bulldog grabs the hold. Michaels gets a cross body. Bulldog responds with a clothesline. 1-2-NO! Headbutt. Michaels gets a crucifix. Bulldog reverses into the powerslam, but Michaels goes for the superkick. Bulldog counters with a clothesline. Piledriver but instead of covering, Bulldog climbs to the top rope. Headbutt misses badly. Hard whip by the champion. Michaels climbs up to the top. Bulldog dropkicks him. Superplex. 1-2-NO! Bulldog places Michaels on the top rope. Cross body for a two count. They hit head to head. Both men are down. Clothesline misses. Bulldog sits down on a powerbomb for a long two. Bulldog flips backward into the corner. Jumping Jesus. Flying forearm and Michaels kips up. Bodyslam but Hebner is knocked down. Elbow drop hits. Time to tune up the band. Superkick hits. Both referees come in the ring. Hebner counts three. Perfect is pulled out by Hart. Michaels retains.
Analysis: Take out some of the chinlocks and slow points, and this is pretty much a four star match. Good wrestling from two pros. Michaels carried a number of main events during 1996 and this was one of them.
Winner (s)/Time/Rating: STILL WWF Champion-Shawn Michaels/26:35/***1/2
-Lots of extracurricular activity after this match. Michaels has to fend off both Bulldog and Owen Hart. Hart hits a leg lariat. Double suplex. Ahmed Johnson comes in for the save. Press slam on Hart. Vader time. He splashes Johnson and slams him. All of Camp Cornette are working over Michaels and Johnson. Ultimate Warrior evens the odds to set up what was supposed to be a six man tag at the following Pay-Per-View. Warrior would be gone by that point and replaced by Sid. From one reliable gentlemen to another.
-Steve Austin (WWF tag team champion) vs. Shawn Michaels (WWF tag team champion)( King of the Ring-June 8, 1997)
Match in Five Words or Less: A Prelude to Greatness
Match Highlights: Austin says he wants to keep Michaels around just enough to keep the tag team titles. McMahon doesn’t understand why Austin is so popular. Wonder if that commentary went anywhere. He Harts try to go after Austin before he goes out to the ring. Shoulder tackle and a flip of the bird by Austin. Feeling out process continues as Michaels returns the bird favor. There is an issue with a young handicapped fan that’s dealt with before the match continues. Back to wrestling. Michaels works a headlock. Austin gets a back elbow before mocking Michaels’ celebration. Elbow drops. Snapmare but Michaels counters into a chinlock. Shoulder tackle by Michaels. Off the ropes. Austin hits an atomic drops and clotheslines his opponent to the floor. Hard clothesline to the floor. Vertical suplex countered into an O’Connor roll. Drop toehold into an armbar by Michaels. Austin grabs the rope and heads outside. Little bit of stalling. Austin calls Michaels chicken for not accepting his test of strength. Series of boots and he grabs a lock of his hands. Kicks from Michaels followed by a back drop. Elbow drop misses. Austin misses one of his own. Michaels reapplies the armbar. Thesz press and fists. Amazing combination of nearfalls. Knee by Austin. Punch and Michaels is deposited outside again. Austin snaps Michaels’s neck off the top rope. Forearm sends Michaels into the rail. Austin tears the mats off ringside.Michaels sent head first into the rail. Fist exchange. Michaels into the stairs. Press slam on the concrete floor. Pair of punches. Cross body and Michaels sails to the floor. Elbow form Austin and back inside. Small package gets two. Quick clothesline in response. Elbow drop off the middle rope. Chinlock. Austin applies a chinlock and puts his feet on the ropes. Keep in mind he was a babyface by this time. Battle of fisticuffs. Shoulder block from Michaels. Austin gets sent to the outside. Baseball dropkick. Austin counters out of a suplex. Flying forearm from HBK. Austin comes right up. Back drop by Michaels. Atomic drop. Whip across. Michaels posts his shoulder. Michaels whipped. Cross body but Austin ends up on top for two. Clothesline. 1-2-NO! Michaels up, over, and down. Austin sent crashing into Tim White. Austin hits a stunner. Cover but no ref. Austin wakes White up and stuns him. Michaels hits a superkick. Mike Chioda goes to check on the first official. Michaels superkicks Chioda. Michaels covers Austin. White counts 1-2-NO! Earl Hebner comes in the ring and tosses the whole match out. Austin and Michaels shove each other. Austin tries cheapshotting Michaels with the freakin title belt. Other officials come out to prevent further chaos. Austin and Michaels yell at each other all the way backstage.
Analysis: Give this sucker a finish, and you’ve got one of the best matches of 1997. Michaels really wasn’t jobbing to anyone, and Austin definitely shouldn’t have been jobbing considering his recent string of losses on Pay-Per-View, so they had no choice but to book this schmozz finish. Michaels would ultimately walk out on the promotion and forfeit his half of the belts, leading to the debut of Dude Love. This was an excellent match nonetheless, technically better than their Wrestlemania 14 match.
Winner (s)/Time/Rating: No-contest/22:29/****
-King of the Ring Final: Triple H (w/Chyna) vs. Mankind (King of the Ring-June 8, 1997)
Match in Five Words or Less: One Year Late
Match Highlights: Mankind had his neck injured by Jerry Lawler while Triple H defeated Ahmed Johnson thanks to Chyna earlier in the night. Hunter applies a headlock and focuses on the neck. Elbow and stomps from Mankind. He rakes Hunter’s face to the turnbuckle. Hunter avoids the mandible claw by heading outside. Hunter stomps Mankind out of the ring. Hunter taken outside. Hunter recovers outside. Mankind punches him and sends him to the floor again. Mankind bites and punches away. Hunter drops him on the top turnbuckle. Hunter stomps away. Hunter works over the neck as the crowd… sits. This crowd was raucous for the previous match, not so much for this one. Mankind comes back with a double dose of hot shots. Hunter falls and sends Mankind down his neck. Right hands from Mankind. Charging knee. Tree of WOAH! Headbutt. Hunter tossed to the outside. Sliding dropkick misses. Back drop of Hunter to the floor. That was dangerously close to drawing a reaction. Elbow drop off the apron. Double DDT but Chyna goes on the apron to distract the referee. Mankind only gets two. Mankind back drops out of a pedigree. Mandible claw. Chyna pulls Mankind out. Neckbreaker sends Mankind back outside. Triple H tears Mankind’s mask off. Mandible claw. Thumb to the eye from Hunter. Atomic drop and clothesline from Mankind. Clothesline sends both men over. Mankind dives and misses because Chyna moved Triple H. Mankind sent into the stairs. Triple H then places Mankind on a table and pedigrees him. Chyna breaks the scepter on Mankind’s back. Hunter knees Mankind to the floor. Crowd chants for Mankind because he’s basically done the work of three men to get this match over. Hunter puts one hand on Mankind for two. Pedigree and it’s over.
Analysis: Mick Foley and Triple H have had a number of really great matches. This is not one of them. Triple H did not get good until late 1999/2000. His matches during his period were plain brutal to watch. The only heat he drew came from Chyna. Mankind bumped himself silly in the second half of the match and made this contest watchable. Otherwise, this is completely forgettable.
Winner (s)/Time/Rating: 1997 King of the Ring-Triple H/19:26/*3/4
-Triple H beats Mankind with the crown after the match.
-King of the Ring Final: Ken Shamrock vs. The Rock(Intercontinental Champion) ( King of the Ring- June 28, 1998)
Match in Five Words or Less: Shamrock Has Done Worse
Match Highlights: Shamrock and Rock has a pretty long feud during this period, and it was competed way more evenly than modern fans might realize. Triple H is on commentary making lewd comments. Series of counters early. Side kick and Rock exits the ring quickly. Punch in the corners by Rock. Clotheslines from Shamrock. Punches back from Rocky. Shamrock into the top turnbuckle. Rock tossed over. Rock stalls. He gets into it with Hunter. Rock pie faces him. Shamrock lays into Rock and sends him into the Spanish announce table. Into the English announce table and a right hand. Low blow and right hand from Rock. Shamrock blocks a suplex and gets one of his own. Rock tosses Shamrock over and mocks away. Rock sent into the rail. He fires back with a clothesline. Right hand to the gut and swinging neckbreaker. Whip. Rock hits a DDT. To the chinlock. Back elbow. Bodyslam and the elbow pad comes off. People’s Elbow. 1-2-NO! Back to the hold. Right hands from Shamrock. Rock comes up and over for the DDT. 1-2-NO! Shamrock hits a back suplex. Elbow from Shamrock. Leg lariat. Powerslam into a two count. Fishermen’s suplex gets two. Thrust by Rock. Whip but an elbow from Shamrock. Powerslam from Rock gets another long two. Shamrock hits a northern lights suplex for two as he blocks a third DDT. Rock counters into a clothesline. Short clothesline from Shamrock. Shamrock goes for a rana. Rock drops him on the top rope. Shamrock hooks in the ankle lock. Rock taps. Shamrock is the King of the Ring.
Analysis: This was a good but not great match. Rock was very close to becoming a world class superstar. Shamrock was always limited but good enough to have solid matches. Amazing to think that in two straight years… Mankind and Rock would lose in the finals of the King of the Ring. I enjoyed the out of nowhere finish and much of the work done by both guys.
Winner (s)/Time/Rating: 1998 King of the Ring-Ken Shamrock/14:09/***
-Hell in a Cell: The Undertaker vs. Mankind (King of the Ring- June 28, 1998)
Match in Five Words or Less: Mankind Broken In Half
Match Highlights: This match is all about the two bumps and not much else. They’ve been repeated and showed over and over again. All of the other moves are superfluous. Taker tosses Mankind off the cage, chokeslams him to the floor from the cage, chokeslams him into thumb tacks and climaxes with a tombstone to get a three count. Taker showed a mean streak that would fully manifest in a heel turn toward the fall of 1998.
Analysis: Don’t kid yourself. This is not technically a great or even good match, but Mankind’s two bumps makes this required viewing for any person who is a wrestling fan. This is a living history. WWE would never allow one of their wrestlers to do something like this again, and I couldn’t blame them. It’s so remarkable to see how this match came together. Taker may have won, but Mankind established his legacy in some 16 minutes. There’s no way I could ever rate this.
Winner (s)/Time/Rating: Undertaker/16:00/N/R
Disk 2 Thoughts: There was a much better match selection on this disk. Two good matches and that Hell in a Cell match pretty much carry the day.
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