The working in that match was superb. The ending sequence required excellent timing and placement and all four guys came through. Was this considered a face vs. face match? That would have been very rare for the WWF at the time.
Going completely from memory here, but IIRC there was a Shawn-Flair match in which Flair won thanks to Marty doing something that screwed him over. Perhaps Shawn got bumped to the floor and Marty threw him back in the ring to "help" and then Shawn was immediately pinned. Something like that. I'm not sure if this was before or after that LOD match. It's obviously notable for being a dream match before anyone knew that it would be a dream match.
Last edited on Wed Oct 9th, 2019 02:25 pm by srossi
srossi wrote: Going completely from memory here, but IIRC there was a Shawn-Flair match in which Flair won thanks to Marty doing something that screwed him over. Perhaps Shawn got bumped to the floor and Marty threw him back in the ring to "help" and then Shawn was immediately pinned. Something like that. I'm not sure if this was before or after that LOD match. It's obviously notable for being a dream match before anyone knew that it would be a dream match.You are spot on. HBK got KO'ed on the floor, I think he got posted. Marty came over and picked him up and rolled him into the ring so he wouldn't get counted out, and Flair pinned him immediately. Flair was either the "Real World's Champion", had just won the WWF Title, or had just lost the belt but was not on the downhill run towards going back to WCW yet. It was Flair close to the top of his game, and it was a good match that really came off as a great match because it was on their syndicated TV. But nobody gave a shit about HBK yet.
Superstar wrote: srossi wrote: Going completely from memory here, but IIRC there was a Shawn-Flair match in which Flair won thanks to Marty doing something that screwed him over. Perhaps Shawn got bumped to the floor and Marty threw him back in the ring to "help" and then Shawn was immediately pinned. Something like that. I'm not sure if this was before or after that LOD match. It's obviously notable for being a dream match before anyone knew that it would be a dream match.You are spot on. HBK got KO'ed on the floor, I think he got posted. Marty came over and picked him up and rolled him into the ring so he wouldn't get counted out, and Flair pinned him immediately. Flair was either the "Real World's Champion", had just won the WWF Title, or had just lost the belt but was not on the downhill run towards going back to WCW yet. It was Flair close to the top of his game, and it was a good match that really came off as a great match because it was on their syndicated TV. But nobody gave a shit about HBK yet.
The match aired in Dec. 1991 so Flair was still doing the Real World Champion gimmick (using the WWF tag team design belt in your pic that they digitized for TV). Shawn went for a cross body over the top rope but hit his head on the railing.
The first hint I remember of there being trouble was during a squash match. Marty went to tag Shawn but he wasn't in the corner paying attention. He was further down on the apron distracted by something, maybe talking to a fan.
Yeah, the Michaels' turn was built up slowly from November 1991-January 1992. It was obvious if you were smart, but I could probably see where casual fans, especially teenage girls, ate up the storyline. The reason this slow turn was so good was because the taping schedule at the time. They taped 3 weeks worth of Superstars and Challenge, so they knew where they were going storyline wise. If the same story/turn would of happened in WWE today with their weekly booking, Michaels would of turned on him out of nowhere. Or after a 3 week build, the writers would drop it because it didn't pop a quarter hour in the ratings, or just simply forgotten about, or senile Vince nixing it. Yada, yada, yada.
There was another miscommunication spot at Survivor Series 91 to build up to the breakup where one was either on the giving or receiving end of a bodyslam. The other one got accidentally kicked in the face (think it was Shawn) and it led to an elimination.
Back in April of 1991, on the final NBC SNME of the original run, there was a battle royal, won by Curt Hennig, in which Michaels was made to look like a star. To me, that was the first sign he could move to the singles ranks.
KGB wrote: Back in April of 1991, on the final NBC SNME of the original run, there was a battle royal, won by Curt Hennig, in which Michaels was made to look like a star. To me, that was the first sign he could move to the singles ranks.
For me it was The Flair Match...
I thought Shawn Michaels was going to be a huge singles star in late 1986 watching the Midnight Rockers vs. Buddy Rose and Doug Somers fued. No bullshit, and I can prove it. I collected all the AWA Remco action figures and when the Midnight Rocker figures came out in 1987, I immediately bought them and booked Shawn to upset Horseman Lex Luger for the IC title. My He-Man figure was Lex . Seriously it was very obvious, at least imo, that Shawn was gonna be a huge star if you got AWA TV in 1986-1987.
. Seriously it was very obvious, at least imo, that Shawn was gonna be a huge star if you got AWA TV in 1986-1987.