HBK vs Sid,Why Was Shawn Booed?

[WWEIsLife2]

As a Wrestling Fan over the past 20 something years I have seen alot of stuff go down from Matches,Promos,Crowd Reactions,etc. One little thing that has stuck with me is the night Shawn Micheals defended the WWF Title against Psycho Sid at Survivor Series 1996 from Madison Sqaure Garden.

Of course HBK won the Title from Bret Hart at Wrestlemania that year and sucessfully Retained it time & again after that plus was the top guy in the Company at the time. However why that night when he put the Title on the line in MSG against Sid was he almost totally booed as if he was the Top Heel instead?

NYC Wrestling Fans usually have the reputation for Cheering and Booing who they choose but what made them turn against HBK on that faithful Survivor Series evening? Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on that subject.

 

[Craig-O-Mac]

Well man, as you have already stated, Survivor Series was in the New York and more specifically, the Garden. The fans do what they want and you either can like it or hate it!!

I think the reason was because it was late 1996 and the winds of change were blowing as regard 'attitude' coming in. We weren't far removed from THAT Stone Cold promo so yeah I think thats a factor. Also, Shawn was a prettyboy baby face in chaps, Sid was a bad-ass wrecking machine... which would appeal to you more?

 

[hbkhhh44]

Shawn was a white meat baby face for his first title run. He held the title for a decent amount of time prior to that match.its the cena effect was saw against jericho a long time ago, unless ur hogan its hard to dominate as a white meat baby face. I think there was a general displeasure for the product at the time and shawn ended up eating it even tho it wasn't his faults. He had decent matches with bulldog, vader, foley, diesel but the fueds themselves weren't all that great. Also bret I believe came back that night (his first match back right?) And put on a clinic with austin

 

[jaceynightheat]

Sid for a long time was getting cheers despite being a heel. That's in NWA/WCW & WWF too. I think between HBK having the belt for so long & Sid being unique for the time was the combination.

Sid did hold both World Title belts but I always feel like he wasn't used to his full potential.

 

[havenstorm]

I was a huge Sid fan when I was younger. Even against HBK. I hated when Bret screwed him out of the title at WM 13, and still not too many ppl think Taker wouldn't have kicked out of the powerbomb yet he was down for awhile when Bret interfered. I would still probably mark out if Sid came back and just powerbombed the heck out of someone even if it was someone I like. There was just something charismatic about the guy and he was almost always portrayed as a bad ass monster whether face or heel.

 

[StaRRStruck]

This is actually quite funny, I was reading HBK's book yesterday and I came across this part where he explained that he was getting booed because he was that whitemeat babyface, much like today's John Cena, the fans booed him because frankly, the Garden knows too well, and since the WWE usually went off MSG response, thus Shawn turned heel shortly after his time off.

 

[DeathClutch]

As pointed out already the New York crowd march to a different beat than the rest of us, I've always thought the fans turned on him at MSG due to the fact his title reign was so long and the crowd didn't buy him as a champion, they would rather have seen Bret with the belt who knows? maybe the fans wanted someone dominante like Sid as champion?

Either way great PPV/Match and great rematch/ppv in the Jan 97'.

 

[LODemolition]

People were tired of the boytoy b.s. and him dancing around on the announcer's table in front of Vince. Kinda gay. It was the attitude era and people wanted a badass for a champion like Sid. Especially in NYC, Shawn was going to get booed. It was no surprise.

 

[dman1373]

this was probably due to the dirt sheets. This is the time when shawn was in the dirt sheets alot for holding people back. Also the wwf were planting stories about shawn and bret. And being a straight laced face at that time was not in. Bret was starting to get booed at that time too.

 

[The Brain]

Much like Cena getting booed today people did it to rebel in a way. Wrestling was changing in 1996. It was becoming cool to be the bad guy and the fans weren’t buying into Shawn’s goody goody ways. They didn’t want a sexy boy who danced in the ring. They wanted a badass. Two things I’d like to point out. First keep in mind Sid was also face going into this match. He turned heel during the match but going into it he was a popular face. Those who still liked cheering the good guys maybe preferred Sid to Shawn. Also someone mentioned that we weren’t far removed from the Austin 3:16 promo. Remember what else was going on in wrestling around this time? The nwo. A lot of fans saw Shawn’s buddies revolutionizing the business down south by being the cool anti heroes. Meanwhile Shawn was still toeing the line and sticking by his babyface gimmick. We all know the DX HBK was in there and the fans wanted to see that HBK over the boy toy.

 

[ratedrdestiny]

I think it was a combination of things. They were in MSG. A place where aside from hogan, a clean white meat baby face generally gets booed. Also HBK and his chaps clearly looked gay and Sid was a likable heel. A big bad ass who just tore sh*t up. Who couldn't like that?

 

[Dude_Love87]

Everyone has it pretty much spot on. Sid was a bad ass..he was a dumb ass, but a bad ass. Check the promo on youtube where he goes "can we start that over" and JR says "we're live PAL" LOL anyways, in 1996 I didn't like Shawn Michaels because of WM12 maybe people were still sore over that, and his gimmick got old after awhile. The klique may have been a factor, I'm not sure if people had as much knowledge about what went on backstage as we do now, thanks to the web.

 

[theHeadliner]

The thing is, when Shawn came to the Garden before he won the belt in March the fans went crazy for him. He got a bigger pop than Bret that night. Also the night of the curtain call at MSG the fans went crazy for him too. So they did like him. Sid was also babyface going into the match, and when face vs face happened at Survivor Series, Sid was a huge badass and the fans decided to go with him, cus Michaels had the belt for so long and his good guy character was starting to get stale.

In late 1996 he had the belt for so long up to that point. Shawn was always great as the wise ass, arrogant heel and, him having the belt for so long being the goody good face with Jose Lothario wasn't cutting it anymore. The rest of the Kliq was doing the nWo thing with edginess, attitude, and realism. The WWF was struggling cus WCW took all the WWF's established stars. When HBK had the belt during 1996 Bret was off, so the only legit top guys were Shawn and Undertaker. Austin and Mankind were still new and not established yet. Bret Hart came back at Survivor Series, but he even started getting booed occasionally when he came back.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

Yeah this a good discussion and im glad I thought of it. It probably was a combo of things like being in NYC where the Fans know a whole lot,Vince starting to go in a different direction,Austin starting to get big and even he got a huge ovation that night (so did Bret),WCW breathing down the WWF's neck with the nWo also.

I think when I saw it that it was the first time I had seen/heard the Top Face getting booed and it really surprised me.