theHeadliner
Getting Noticed By Management
I want to go back to March 1996, Anaheim. The Iron Man match at Wrestlemania 12. The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels challenged Bret the Hitman Hart for the title in a most falls wins match. Michaels was known as a cocky talented wrestler who worked his way to the top of the card, but now without controversy due to the Kliq and his attitude. He and Bret never let on to each other they had any problems up until then, and they used to talk regularly. Shawn lost to Bret many times both when Bret was IC and his early run as heavyweight champ. Shawn was over, he was a gifted athlete and charismatic, and it was his time.
I never noticed this until someone pointed it out to me, but in the first 20 minutes Shawn worked the hell out of Bret's arm/shoulder with mat submission moves and other offense. After they got up, Bret no sold that whole sequence but acting fine. After Shawn gained the offensive again, he did a shoulder breaker, hammerlock slam, arm bar takedown, shoulder ram into turnbuckle, and then continued an arm/shoulder hold. After that sequence, Bret got up once again and no-sold the shoulder/arm and acted like he was fine. The way HBK was back then, something like that would definitely piss him off. In Bret's book he claims Shawn was being tricky with cheap shots, but when i watched it looked like Bret gave the first potatoes and Shawn potatoed in retaliation. Bret claims to be the best, fair, a worker's worker, a professional, but no-selling a long, serious offensive barrage on a single body part seems low. The match was a potato fest, and Bret got a bunch of cheap shots in but claims it was Michaels fault. At the end Shawn told Earl to tell Bret to get the fuck out of the ring. Bret said that set the course of things to come for them, but from everything that happened, was Shawn justified to be pissed off? The champ, the "leader" no sold Shawn on the biggest stage of them all and cheap shotted him numerous times. Knowing Shawn's state of mind back then, was his anger towards Bret in the events that followed the match justified?
I never noticed this until someone pointed it out to me, but in the first 20 minutes Shawn worked the hell out of Bret's arm/shoulder with mat submission moves and other offense. After they got up, Bret no sold that whole sequence but acting fine. After Shawn gained the offensive again, he did a shoulder breaker, hammerlock slam, arm bar takedown, shoulder ram into turnbuckle, and then continued an arm/shoulder hold. After that sequence, Bret got up once again and no-sold the shoulder/arm and acted like he was fine. The way HBK was back then, something like that would definitely piss him off. In Bret's book he claims Shawn was being tricky with cheap shots, but when i watched it looked like Bret gave the first potatoes and Shawn potatoed in retaliation. Bret claims to be the best, fair, a worker's worker, a professional, but no-selling a long, serious offensive barrage on a single body part seems low. The match was a potato fest, and Bret got a bunch of cheap shots in but claims it was Michaels fault. At the end Shawn told Earl to tell Bret to get the fuck out of the ring. Bret said that set the course of things to come for them, but from everything that happened, was Shawn justified to be pissed off? The champ, the "leader" no sold Shawn on the biggest stage of them all and cheap shotted him numerous times. Knowing Shawn's state of mind back then, was his anger towards Bret in the events that followed the match justified?