When you think of Shawn Michaels, you likely think of him as the greatest in-ring performer in the history of the wrestling business. Subjective or not, there’s truth to the argument, but at the same time, there’s also no denying that having the greatest dance partners ever certainly helped his growth as a performer.
When you think of HBK’s greatest opponents and matches, you’re probably thinking The Undertaker, Triple H, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle or even John Cena. However, one of Michaels’ unlikeliest greatest opponents, and even greatest matches during the time, happened to be none other than against Mankind.
We’re going to look at the context, analysis, impact, and aftermath of The Heartbreak Kid‘s 1996 classic against Mankind at In Your House: Mind Games. Mick Foley has admitted himself that this happens to be his favorite match. But what was it that made this contest so important, and what was it that made it so great?
To understand, you need to rewind a bit. It was 1996, and Shawn Michaels was coronated at WrestleMania 12, beating Bret “The Hitman” Hart in a 60 (+) minute Iron Man match to become WWF Champion. He was the face of the franchise, and from being a non-believer, Vince McMahon became Michaels’ biggest fan.
As a babyface champion, Michaels was having good matches, but there was something missing. Something about his character felt lacking and there was a certain conviction missing. Mind you, this was important because WCW was in an all-out war with the WWF, with the Monday Night Wars being in full swing.
Michaels had his first major title defense against a man he was all too familiar with – Diesel. He would go on to feud with The British Bulldog and even briefly with Vader, beating them en route to facing Mankind.
Mankind, on the other hand, had just debuted right after Michaels became champion at WrestleMania. He spent a good part of the year tormenting The Undertaker, a superstar who nearly no one was able to stand toe-to-toe with. However, much to many people’s surprise, Mankind was truly presented as an equal of The Phenom.
His feud with The Undertaker was entertaining throughout, and more often than not, Mankind would get the better of him. Eventually, the stage was set for Michaels to defend his WWF Championship against the unlikeliest of opponents in Mankind. When you think of both of their styles, it might be easy to assume that they wouldn’t have matched. However, this was far from what happened.
This might very well be the greatest match to ever end in a disqualification. While it normally takes away from the finish of an otherwise excellent match, this wasn’t what happened here. It was innovative in more ways than one, and the two proved to have incredible chemistry together. Perhaps the most memorable spot of the match was when Mankind sent Michaels through the announce table from the second turnbuckle.
While we’ve seen many table spots in the subsequent years till date, it was shocking because nothing like that had really happened before. Hearing Foley and Michaels narrate the story behind that spot was truly fascinating. According to Foley on the E & C Pod of Awesomeness, the spot worked mainly because people didn’t see it coming.
To go backwards on the second turnbuckle, the champion turns it into a cross-body, covering pretty good distance, we didn’t show our hand with that. I had moved the table a little bit over the course of the match, so it would be where we needed it to be to go through at a later time. I still think it was pretty, it was as spectacular as things could be when you hit somebody with a big move or go flying through the air onto somebody. I don’t think people saw that one coming and I think that’s part of what makes that spot work.
Michaels emphasized the importance of timing in the match and timing in general because if they weren’t able to figure out their opponents’ timing, it was easily spotted and wouldn’t look good. The match saw a ton of interference, with Vader running in and causing a disqualification. Sycho Sid interfered as well, as did The Undertaker.
The ending was absolute chaos, but it was a match at the highest level. Michaels credits this match for his progression as a character. On the very same podcast, he stated that while he didn’t want to point fingers or make accusations, the reality was that a lot of superstars nowadays are presented as “too ready” and often don’t change or make progression.
This was far removed from the current developmental system (that Michaels is very much a part of) and goes to show that back then, superstars were allowed to learn, make mistakes and progress as time went. Mankind and Michaels would work the house show circuit following this, and this was likely the period when Michaels’ back started causing a lot of strain. Mick Foley revealed that in their matches at live events, he would make sure that Michaels didn’t bump too much (or at all) in order to protect his back.
After their program, Michaels would briefly feud with Goldust before his title reign ended at the hands of Sycho Sid at Survivor Series. Mankind would lose to The Undertaker in a Buried Alive match, but get buried himself. He would end up beating Mankind at Survivor Series.
What did you think of Shawn Michaels and Mankind’s classic? Voice your opinions in the comments below!
