Section got all screwy, here's the latest edition of the thread.
and STAIRS
and STAIRS
Awesome write-up, bro. I've never seen the match, but I'll definitely check it out now.Shawn Michaels vs Sycho Sid (WWF Survivor Series 1996)
A brief conversation in the cb regarding SID led me to dig out this match again and give it a watch. Apart from Sid winning the title, the other aspect that I'm sure others remember is how the smarky crowd cheered for Sid and showered HBK with quite a few boos. Shawn was having a stellar year in the ring, with plenty of quality matches. So I'll see how it all comes together.
So Sid comes out first and is already met with............cheers, looking mean as fuck and is fist bumping everyone in sight lol
“WHO'S THE MAN?” “WHO'S THE MAN?”
HBK is out next with Jose Lothario and you can already hear the loud 'Sid' chants from the crowd, although he is mobbed by a small section of fans who won't let go, and has to be rescued by security. Match is under way, and Sid hits Shawn in the gut and and big right hook, HBK keeps getting right back up and Sid keeps sending him right back down with big clubs to the head. Shawn attempts a comeback as he baseball slides under Sid and starts smacking him with some punches of his own and a high body press into a pin for the first near-fall of the match.
HBK in control as he puts Sid down on the mat into a headlock. Sid reverses it and tries to put HBK into a head scissors, but Shawn kips up and gives Sid a big slap to the face. Real smart. He gives him another one until Sid says 'fuck this' and kicks HBK in the gut, before taking him down back to the mat. Shawn reverses this, until Sid kips up and gives HBK a taste of his own medicine and slaps him. The stands there with a 'yeah Shawn, what you gonna do' look and they start to trade back and forth blows to the head.
Sid picks up HBK and holds him high above his head for some time,
before Shawn bounces back and whips Sid into the ropes. Sid reverses this and tries to put HBK into the POWERBOMB.
Crowd pop big for this tease btw.
But Shawn gets out of it and bails to the outside. Crowd is giving him some stick at this point and he's not exactly liking it. Eventually Sid goes out ans starts chasing him back into the ring, He sends HBK into the turn-buckle, but Shawn comes right back out and takes Sid out via the knee. Shawn then does the smart thing ans gets to work on that knee.
Crowd not liking this and the boos are high. Their are loud chants of “SYCHO SID, SYCHO SID”
Shawn continues to target the leg of Sid. He seems to mouth something like “Fuck it” to the crowd as he puts on the Figure-Four. Sid is screaming from the effects of this hold. He reverses it into his own Figure-Four, until Shawn gets to the ropes. Shawn stays on the knee of Sid with big, jumping stomps off the ropes.
“BOOOOOOOOOOOO” says the crowd.
Shawn tries to reapply the Figure-Four, but Sid kicks him in the arse and sends him shoulder first into the turn-buckle. Sid gets up, but is still feeling the effects of the knee work. He gives Shawn two big kicks to the gut. This is certainly Sid's chance to take over and go to town. Another big kick to Shawn, before the camera gets too close for comfort and Sid has to swat him off
Foreshadowing, perhaps :hmm: He kicks HBK down again with a boot to the face. He continues literally kicking the shit out of Shawn. Sid tries a big running knee, but Shawn moves and Sid just ends up hitting the ropes. Shawn reverses being whipped into the ropes and kicks the bad knee of Sid again and sends him down to the mat.
“BOOOOOOOOOO” The crowd says again as Shawn picks up Sid's leg and smashes it hard on the mat. Sid ends up getting up and gives Shawn a massive clothesline, sending him over the top rope and onto the outside. He follows him out and drags him down the isle, before landing a big punch, picking him up, and planting him face first onto the guardrail.
Sid takes this opportunity to fist bump a fan
:lol
This is Sid's pace now and he's in control as he sends Shawn back into the ring. He pins Shawn but only gets a 2 count. He sends Shawn into the ropes and into a big back body drop, before running straight at him with a big boot to the face. He starts clubbing Shawn's back with big hammer fists and another big running boot to the face. This is where HBK always shines when he's up against a bigger guy, in his bumping and selling the ferocity of Sid's offense. Shawn takes ones of his big back flips over the turn-buckle and onto the apron. Sid tries to choke him out, but Shawn sends him throat first onto the top rope. This could be a comeback for the Heartbreak Kid.
Shawn tries a flying cross body onto Sid, but Sid catches him and the crowd go.........WILD, fuck Sid is oooooovvvvvvver. Sid plants Shawn with a big back-breaker and gets another near-fall with a 2 count. He sends Shawn into the corner and HBK takes one hell of a back bump TBH
Sid in full 'kill him' mode now. He sends Shawn into the opposite turn-buckle for another big back bump. He stands HBK up and starts landing some big blows to his head, but HBK won't go down. Shawn attempts a comeback as he flies some punches of his own onto Sid.
“BOOOOOOOOOOO” says the crowd once again.
They trade blows before HBK body slams Sid and tries to deliver a double ax handle, but Sid puts his leg up and smack Shawn plum in the face, thus getting this great visual:
:lol
He's took some shit on this match, lol. Sid puts Shawn into a 'Million Dollar Dream'. HBK is fading as he desperately tries to grab onto the ropes. HBK gets out of it and starts hammering away at Sid, but Sid stops him and tries to chokeslam him but gets a THUMB IN THE EYE from Shawn, who prepares the setup for 'Sweet Chin Music'. Sid blocks the attempt and ends up giving him the big chokeslam, for which of course the crowd lapped up. Sid is fucking feeling it now and gestures to the crowd, who respond, and signals for the Powerbomb. HBK quickly reverses it into a small package and into a very near-fall. This of course pisses Sid off and he stomps HBK right back down again. He sends Shawn into the ropes and delivers a big power slam for a 2 count. Shawn flies off the ropes and gives Sid a running forearm, knocking Sid back. HBK kips up, to the annoyance of the crowd, but Sid just puts him in his place with a BIG CLOTHESLINE
Crowd likes that as Sid gets another close 2 count. Sid then goes into the corner to prepare to run at Shawn, but is again distracted by a cameraman. He ends up taking the camera off him and nailing Jose with it. Now, Earl Hebner;
FOR FUCK SAKE, DO A BETTER JOB AT NOT SEEING THIS, AS YOU FUCKING DID
:lmao
Earl does a terrible job of not only giving Sid time to do it, but also pretending like he didn't clearly bloody see it. He even sees Sid drop the damn camera. Although Sid took his sweet time finally hitting Lothario.
HBK takes this opportunity to give Sid 'Sweet Chin Music'.
THIS IS IT, HE'S GOING TO RETAIN!!!
Instead of going for the pin as more boos start to ring out from the crowd, he goes to check on the state of Jose (Oh, now you gives a shit, Shawn), as Jose seems to be having a heart attack. Sid gives no fucks, gets back up, and sends HBK right back into the ring. He flings Shawn into the turn-buckle, who stops and tries a cross body, but Sid ducks and he flies straight into the ref (Oh, this bump may improve Earl's eyesight from now on).
Shawn goes back to check on the condition of Jose. Once again, Sid gives ZERO FUCKS as he follows him, grabs the camera again, and wallops Shawn in the back. Crowd are loving this lol.
NOBODY IS COMING TO THE AID OF JOSE AS HE'S HAVING A SUSPECTED HEART ATTACK, BTW :hutz
Sid rolls Shawn back into the ring, by this time Earl is getting back up again. Crowd cheer Sid on as he puts on the POWERBOMB for the 1..............................2.......................................................................3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crowd erupt as we have ourselves a NEW WWF CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah, now the bell has rung, the stretcher comes out for poor Jose. Shawn is quickly back up too btw to go and check on him.
“I'M THE MAN”
Plenty more fist bumps for Sid after the match too and hugs from the crowd.
Well, this was another great match from 1996 and yet another one involving HBK No doubt he worked his ass off in a lot of matches that year and in this one too. He bumped all over the place for Sid, who wasn't too shabby himself TBH. This may well be his best overall performance. No real botches, did all the power shit, sold quite well when he had to, too. A really good/great match. The crowd were surreal too, you can't watch this match and not mention them. They were pretty much pro Sid from as soon as the bell rang, and showered HBK with boos pretty much every time he had the chance of some sustained offense. It certainly added another layer to the match.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed my gibberish.
I think you summed up my thoughts on Reigns and Owens as workers these days. Reigns, along with Owens, since this program started has gotten into the finisher spamming, no-selling stuff and it's taking away from what he is as a performer. He made so many strides and became a legitimately good worker, and is especially GREAT working as a bully/heelish on his opponents like he did against Balor, Rollins and Styles earlier in the year. His program with Owens has featured virtually no selling, spamming the superman punch and spear attempts with a fuckload of clotheslines and punches in between. Kevin Owens... this guy has just been awful as champion in regards of his in-ring work. For someone like Owens to have his best matches in the past 6 months be two walking brawls with Rollins and Reigns is such a disappointment. The chunk of Owens in-ring work has really fucking sucked for a while now but a lot of people on another board I post on cling to his reputation and act like it's been amazing work. He's been extremely underwhelming.
Reigns/Owens was easy to watch. Somewhere between good and great. I've totally been defeated in being able to enjoy Reigns. Just total apathy when he comes out now. Actually probably something below that. It's just ugh I'm not gonna get what I want out of a match because he's bombing so hard. And part of it is his performances aren't as good anymore. I like the way he sells like Moops mentioned but I want him to sell more long term so I can get invested in his selling more. He's well and truly fallen into the five moves of doom trap too. I think I mentioned all this after the last show actually. Owens is trash. He's a terrible heel worker and his matches aren't even all that good to make up for it. Like AJ for instance is badly miscast but he does a good job trying to be a heel and works somewhat heelish. Owens is just a flop on every single count. It's a Title match so obviously there was a screwy finish. Brass knucks being just a highspot kinda irks me more than the usual kicking out of stuff.
Rumble match was easy to sit through and had good moments. It's always like that though. It's impossible for it to be hard to watch for the bulk of the hour and not have anything to pop for. But that's kinda the very least you take from a Rumble match and there wasn't a whole lot else. I enjoyed watching the match but looking back on it's hard to think of too many reasons why. Dillinger at 10 was cool more so because WWE actually got something right in paying the fans some lip service than because Tye is all that good. I'm really struggling to think of guys who are better for the match. Jericho was in forever but did nothing and they never really played up him cowaring on the outside. He actually looked like he'd hurt his leg on a spot with Corbin and was playing it up more so than planned but idk. Likewise Zayn. I mean there were very few actual spots. Corbin eliminating Strowman was cool but then he did nothing else. Brock's rampage was cool. Ellsworth's elimination was nuts. Henry cameo was cool. I was getting annoyed at the camera cutting away from everyone running down the massive isle but apparently a bunch of guys got on a cart which is pretty hilarious. Gallagher's cameo was cool. His elimination gave me a fit of giggles. Goldberg was great but I wished he'd cleaned house more. Harper turning on Bray was cool. Undertaker throwing short jabs at everyone was awesome. Reigns coming out at 30 was such a debbie downer. I was expecting Joe or Balor. I think most people expect something at 30. Finish wasn't hot at all. The more I think about the match the lower I go on it.
That's honestly more disturbing than any of the actual videos shown during the match.