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Shawn Michaels: By A True Fan
April 13, 2005 by Jesse Lee

Ok, I'm pretty tired of hearing all this talk about Shawn Michaels using people like a stepping stone and never pushing anybody to the top. It seems to me that people are still angry about the Montreal Incident or mad that Shawn never "helps" WWE. Well hopefully, I'll be able to make you see the light. This is only my second column so I'm not as experienced as Kirsty or any other columnists, but damn it, my opinions matter too!

What brought all this arguing to my attention was while I was reading responses to a WrestleMania 21 column. Yes, people have their opinions, but I would like to get this off my chest before it explodes out from underneath me.

One of the best arguments about Shawn is that, 'he's starting to show his age and messing up in a few spots.' Well what do you want people" With wrestling getting so much bad criticism Shawn may think that the only way he can keep himself popular is by doing the same stuff he used to do! Yes, he may mess up every now and then, but should we, as a world entertained by this man, complain about it" On RAW when Shawn and Jannetty teamed up to take on La Resistance, they messed up a double nip up - I think that's what it's called-but no one at the arena seemed to care. Plus, Shawn had Marty on one side, one of the members of La Resistance corner of him, and the ropes on the other, he didn't have much room to do the nip-up. If the people at the arena didn't care, why do I see people who saw it on TV keep talking about it"

Someone mentioned that the only way Shawn can have a good match nowadays is by bleeding. That simply isn't true, the man is a true legend and recognized far and wide as such. Sure he isn't quite what he was at WrestleMania 12 or at the 1996 SummerSlam, but he's still pretty good for someone of his age to have his back broken and came back. He doesn't to go out there and do this, he only does it because wrestling defines him. I know you can come up with maybe fifty other people who've had big sacrifices and big drama stories, but you have to give Shawn his props. Wrestling since he was 18, started training at 17... Yeah, that says something about a person's spirit.

I admit, he's had a dark history backstage, like the Montreal Incident. Shawn only did what he was told to do and he publicly apologized for it. I'm sure he regrets it, but what can you do" You gotta move on with the rest of our life. I don't know anything about his backstage actions, but what I hear, he tries to give a few youngsters some tips and maybe talk about God, but only if they're interested in hearing.

As for pushing wrestlers throughout his career goes, well what do you see" Before WrestleMania 12 he wrestled against guys like Max Moon, El Matador, Rick Martel, and Mr. Perfect. Yes, Mr. Perfect was good, but after their feud, Shawn didn't bury him in ranks. When Michaels became champion at WM12 he fought Diesel, British Bulldog, Vader, Mankind, and Psycho Sid. Lets be honest, Bulldog(RIP) didn't have championship quality all over him. Vader-although good beast at the time-couldn't really get pushed well enough for the WWF fans to accept as champion. Diesel was leaving WWF and heading to WCW. Then there was Mankind who really wasn't ready, but he still wasn't buried under Shawn's boot. Sycho Sid was plain and simply boring to watch and had nothing but size to give him advantage. His height and power bomb were the only things he could do.

Now people say that Shawn has used backstage stroke to beat Jericho and Edge while many complained about him getting a clean victory over Rob Conway. Let's take a look here, Jericho lost, but yet is still one of the best wrestlers the fans can possibly think of. Edge lost the street fight and many claimed it would push Edge down. Well, after Shawn lost at WM21 and Edge became the winner of that contract ladder match, I think Edge has gotten a bigger push because of Shawn than he's ever had before in his entire wrestling career. Remember, it was "because of HBK" that Edge didn't get voted to take on Triple H at Taboo Tuesday" As for Rob Conway, come on people think. He may be a better wrestler to some of you, but he is a tag wrestler pushed way down in the ranks and Shawn is the first ever Grand Slam Champion, multi-time WWF/WWE Champion, and one of the best wrestlers in wrestling history. It's just logical that Robby gets beaten.

I'm not sure how to end this, I probably should have ended it a long time ago, but I'm so much of an HBK mark that I can go on forever talking about him. You see, it is Shawn who made me finally go, "ok, I'm going to become a professional wrestler." You may think it's corny that I'm sticking up for Shawn because of that, but in all honestly, I am one of Shawn's greatest fans; and he is perhaps my favorite wrestler of all time.

by Jesse Lee ..

Mark wrote:
Shawn Michaels is one of the best pure athletes to ever compete in professional wrestling. And he has put people over. Diesel at Wrestlemania as well as Razor Ramon in the first ladder match. Considering both were relative new-comers with much less time in the WWE than Michaels he did a huge job for both. Yeah they were friends of his later on but so what. He put over less talented wrestlers and there careers took off because of it.

dan b wrote:
u said that ur shawn said he was sorry and ur sure he regrads it but i remember him saying he just did his job and was not sorry and would do it again if he had also he rufuse to job the tittle to vader and it kind of ruined his heat and cuz of that vader never really got another shot at being the champ

MR5STARRVD wrote:
Nice column, the way I see it is your either love HBK or you hate him. He's good looking, cocky, and one of the best wrestlers ever. People don't like that, people are jealous, people don't want to hear how good someone is. I hate how people always use the Clique as a way to insult him as a way to say he didn't deserve anything he got. Well folks let me say this in the year of 1996 nobody and I mean nobody was better than the Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels. You cant honestly keep a straight face and tell me someone who deserved the belt more than him. He's one of the greatest wrestlers ever and you cant keep lying to yourself that he's not. Even his peers even the ones who hated him don't hesitate in saying he's one of the best ever, heck even Bret Hart said it.

Current day HBK, what I hate is everytime he wins a match HBK haters freak out and say he wont help the younger talent and is using his stroke. What do you want folks" Him to lose every match until he's nothing more than a jobber" Ever since the day after WM19 he's been jobbing, and jobbing and jobbing with an ocassional win here and there. But hes still putting on classic matches, WM 19, WM 20, WM 21, Raw vs HHH for the title, Raw vs Edge street fight, Team Austin, etc...

HBK haters will keep using the Clique as a way to insult him and that's fine. But remember this he has one of the worst wrestlemania records, he's been jobbing since after WM19, during his title runs 1996-98 nobody in the biz was better than he was, nobody was putting on a classic match every PPV.

Bill Tyrrell wrote:
I loved your column about HBK, I am also a huge fan of Michaels, and I personally think he is the greatest ever bar none. As far the Montreal incident, and with all do respect to Kirsty, because I know she is a huge fan of Bret as am I, but seriously people need to get over it, it was horrible what Vince did to Bret, and actually was kind of ignornant and disrespectful to one of biggest draws in wrestling, but it is over deal with it. I want to comment on the Jannetty and Michaels comeback, I personally literally jumped out of my bed when I saw them together, but it was one of the mostentertaining things I have ever seen, I remember thinking I can't believe I just saw the return of the greatest Tag Team(IMO) of all time The Rockers are finally back together, and like you said about the nip up, I still cheered, because honestly until I saw the highlights on one of their weekend shows, I didn't even notice that they screwed up. As far as Michaels not jobbing to anybody, did anybody watch Raw this past week Michaels got beat by Daivari, and though there was interference by Hassan most don't see how much Michaels is helping these two guys, and of course Hassan & Daivari aren't going to beat Michaels & Hogan at Backlash, but I guarntee it will be a great match, and Hassan & Daivari will put on a great show.

Jaboker wrote:
I fully agree with everything that you've said. I' m only 14 so I havn't seen a lot of the matches from earlier in his career but i' ve seen quite a few and out of all the ones I' ve seen i dont think anyone could watch it and say they weren't entertained. It was also Shawn that made me want to become a pro-wrestler ever since I watched my first HBK match(Wrestlemania 8 against Tatanka for the ic title)

Curtis McLean wrote:
Why can I not stand HBK" Why do I get pissed everytime he wins" Here's why! 1) HBK is getting beaten up 2) flying forearm out of nowhere 3) nip up 4) atomic drop 5) scoop slam 6) flying elbow 7) tune up the band 8) stupid superkick 9) 1, 2, 3 10) no sells the entire match by hopping around

Some times we get the other guy hit their finisher, he kicks out and hits the superkick to win, and again, no sells the match.

It's true, he does it every time, same routine and it's sickening, look at Paul London, he wins a match, HE IS STILL HURT! Same with Benoit and Jericho. Guys like HBK, Kane and Cena all don't do this (this only applies to babyfaces) HBK gets locked in an ankle lock and takes forever to tap, sure it builds it up, but not with the like 3 false taps he did, that ruined it for me, i was just sick of seeing his bald spot. The next night, he comes out limping, gets knocked down and nips up...then later sells the ankle...WTF!" He can barely walk to the ring, but he can nip up, then limp away"

I personally think his attitude on camera ruins a lot of segments, he needs to get to the point, how long did it take him to say Hulk Hogan's name on Raw" He looks like an idiot when people are talking to him trying to build heat, then says something stupid. As for putting guys over" Triple H, Nash, Hall...wow...he puts over his friends...what a class act!

Esther T. 18 wrote:
I'd like to comment to what curtis mclean wrote a few spaces up. How do you even write a comment like that. It's obvious that all you're doing is looking for a mess up somewhere. If you noticed all those mess ups you obviously aren't watching the action for real. It's wrestling entertainment, not oscar hopeful material. And for your information, Shawn M doesn't just job for his friends,which by the way is very classy, he jobs for guys that haven't been wrestling for half as long as he has. He jobbed for edge and davari. You said it yourself, he even tapped out to Kurt Angle and he's put over guys like stone cold for the title

I would think that it's alot harder to job to one of your friends.Triple H isn't half as good a wrestler as HBK but HBK has put him over a number of times.Hell if it wasn't for HBK, Triple H wouldn't have had a successful career. People might hate HBK for whatever reason and i can respect that.But for god sake, give the man credit.Look at the land mark matches he's been in. First ever ladder match against razor ramone,First ever cage match against undertaker,60 minute iron man match against bret heart and first ever elimination chamber match. Need i say more. He's charismatic, loyal and has put his body on the line to entertain people who give so much crap for 1 incident that happened 8 years ago. Just get over it. I'm sure all you haters can dig up a new reason to hate him anyway.

Ascokev wrote:
I wrote a column in the fan jam section. i think Shawn michaels is done.plain and simple. He's done everything possible except win a match on smack down.He needs to have his match with hulk Hogan and say" I think it's time for a new showstopper to come out of the dark.some one who is young, fresh, and is underestimated as I was in my young career."If he's retired for good, it needs to be some one who, once again, needs to be fresh and talented. For example, one of his students, garrison cade is getting a new gimmick as a young Shawn michaels.That match would be great.(Michaels would bleed, only because this kid would be a great match for HBK.

Christopher C. Conway wrote:
I remember when I first started watching it was early 2002 and I liked it but it really wasn't keeping me attached. Then HBK returned with the n.W.o wasn't the most thrilling but I started to take notice then the Triple H-HBK build up happened I was getting hooked and then I decided once an for all, if Summer Slam 2002 was a good pay per view I'll carry on watching WWE but if it sucked I'd stop watching that night I witnessed what it my mind is still one of the best HBK Vs Triple H street fight. The excitement I had that night hooked me. I remember all September and October of that year waiting anxiously to see him return and to see him get out of that casket on Raw was one of Raw's greatest moments.

The only thing that bugs me about HBK is that he loses TOO MUCH he's a talented guy and I know you have to push talent but I don't want HBK's legend going the same way as Flair's losing every PPV. This win with Hogan at Backlash was his first win on PPV since Septembers Unforgiven PPV over Kane.

wrote:

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