This review was commissioned by Ben A over on my Ko-fi account.
For a worker that’s Patient Zero for many of modern wrestling’s worst tropes and tendencies, Shawn Michaels at his prime really could do some great stuff. Here we have Shawn at the peak of his political power, having just started his first WWF Championship reign, and putting the pieces into place for him and his friends to rule the roost in the decade to come. No shock then that one of his first pay-per-view title defenses comes against fellow Kliq-member Diesel, who’s already got one foot out of the company at this point.
As a pairing, this makes so much more sense than any other inter-Kliq combo. There’s the natural David vs. Goliath dynamic at play here, and it certainly helps that Diesel is a sight better as a worker than Triple H. Say what you will about less mobility or complacency, all these things end up translating to WWF Diesel rarely ever overreaching his own abilities. There’s no cloying grasp for prestige here, just a big dude working like a big dude, and that trueness to character speaks volumes.
It helps too that both the workers here put in performances that match the stakes of the occasion. These two are former tag team partners, Shawn has never beaten Diesel for the title before, and they do well to get that animosity across. Diesel has a more disgruntled vibe to him, tying into his TV beef with Vince McMahon (and I imagine a lot of that ties into his upcoming career transition as well) plus his more cocky oversized demeanor. It’s Shawn that brings a lot of the weight to the emotion here. There’s no dancing and posing when he comes out of the iconic In Your House set, just a steely focus to overcome this old friend. Again, for someone who has dipped into melodrama regularly in his career, Shawn strikes a great balance here of being expressive without being blunt.
The match is constructed around real classic face/heel dynamics as well. There’s an early fired up babyface shine by Shawn, throwing his really good worked punches while also putting over Diesel’s size by needing things like a big dropkick to take the big man to the floor. That all leads into a strong control segment from Big Sexy. There’s a little dead air in between big spots here from Diesel, but it’s never to really knock the wind out of the match’s sails especially when Shawn’s famously over the top bumping gets applied to maximum effect here. Again, Shawn threads the needle—big and loud classic babyface bumping without getting into the hysterics of his more complacent performances.
The issues I have with this match are twofold though. The first is a much broader one in that this match doesn’t ever reach its full potential due to happening in the WWF. While things aren’t as sterile in 1996 as they would become in the 2020s, there is still a PG rating to worry about. This match would have benefited a lot from blood, and the violence we do get tends to be a little muted, such as Diesel pulling a little on his chair shots. Second is that while Shawn mostly nails what’s needed of him in this match, very minor cracks do reveal themselves.
It’s very like Shawn to follow up the best spot in the match—getting powerbombed through Vince and Lawler’s announce desk—with a not especially great sell on his comeback. Seeing him writhe in the debris and fumbling about with the cover cloth starts to feel a little silly at a certain point, and as an actor his pained anger here feels the cheesiest he’s been all match long. While he does use a handy fire extinguisher to lead into a comeback from here, timing-wise, it does feel a little too close in proximity to such a big bump to suddenly be back on offense.
Thankfully, the match isn’t too long from there. We even get a final Diesel cut off on Shawn’s initial comeback. As with any great heel too, Diesel costs himself—choosing to go after Mad Dog Vachon’s prosthetic leg at ringside which only allows Shawn the time to recover and use the leg to set up his own victory. One of the funnier karmic finishes in 90s WWF, and a neat little finish to a strong New Generation bout. Shawn’s worst imitators would be better off studying footage like this than some of his more heralded classics.
Rating: ****
