I thought on the whole Shawn Michaels had a better overall run from 02-early 10 than he did 92-early 98, but I think Michaels as an individual performer by FAR peaked in the 90s. Imo. the only thing older Shawn Michaels had on younger Shawn Michaels was working wisdom. Older Shawn Michaels understood value in using timing and expressions ("less") to get fire out of the crowd than taking 25 spectacular bumps at a frantic pace every night like young Shawn was prone to do.
Outside of that, prime HBK could do everything older HBK could do while older HBK couldn't do or lessened the quality in certain areas like 00s HBK having a far less crisp offense. I also think HBK's lifestyle in the 90s and the hunger he had when he was younger allowed himself to go to places for more effective character work than older HBK. Late in his career HBK tried to compensate for that with acting, but Shawn Michaels is no Eddie Guerrero or Mick Foley and that was quite hit or miss. Worked in spades for the Streak obsession storyline, sank like a stone in the JBL ownership story.
By the way, I have always liked HBK. he wouldn't make my top twenty favorite talents list, but I liked him.
@ShowStopper, you'd go run 1 all the way i Imagine yes?
Well, first of all, in my 5 years on this site, this thread has been created a bunch of different times and in pretty much all of those threads, 2000's HBK won. Maybe some of that has to do with there are more people on here in their 20's rather than their 30's, and they missed out on most, if not all, of his 90's run, I don't know. So, I am pretty surprised to see 90's HBK winning this poll this time around.
As far as character goes, yes, I prefer 90's HBK by a good margin. Alot of good character evolution for him in the 90's. 1990-1991 still as a Rocker. 1992, when he first became a single, he was still very much finding his character, which is natural. It was also a different time, so that style that he wore and portrayed made sense. Sherri being at his side that year was a very good thing for him, IMO. They were a nice pairing and were always entertaining together, especially at a time where some of that stuff wasn't the norm; like him throwing her down on the ring floor and then posing over her and her acting like she liked it.
1993-1994 he was a pure IC Title midcarder, and had some really good matches in those 2 years; 3 with Marty, the Ladder match at WM 10, a Raw main event with Razor o n 8/1/94 that was really good, and he had found his way as a character alittle bit from 1992, with now being a more arrogant, cocky heel that could take an ass-whopping from mostly bigger guys and still keep on ticking. The Diesel pairing was always interesting and added a new dynamic to his character.
1995 is where I think he began to separate himself from others and moved into a higher level of performance. Winning the Rumble, WM 11 Title match with Diesel (that he lost, but stole the show in), July IYH match with Jarrett, SummerSlam '95 Ladder match with Razor, etc. His character also went from cocky heel to cocky babyface and he was very over with that character. 1995 is one of my favorite years of his career; both in terms of character and match quality. He also established himself as an upper mid-carder and sometime main eventer. Great year for him in a pretty bad product at the time.
1996; he obviously became a full time main eventer and won his first World Title. Setting the company on fire with a very good title reign from a match quality standpoint; IYH with Diesel, KOTR with Bulldog, July IYH a very good 6 man tag, SummerSlam a good match with Vader, September a GREAT match with Mankind and Survivor Series '96 with a good match with Sid. Character-wise; he was a white-meat babyface, which he didn't want to do and it was certainly something new for him as a character and although I think he did the best he could with it, I think he was much better as a more edgy babyface that he was in '95, or even as a heel.
1997 to 1998 speak for themselves as far as character goes. He finally found his groove from a character standpoint and was extremely entertaining and great in the ring, too.
His 2000's run, most seem to prefer his work here in the ring. I think he probably did have better matches in 2000's, but they also had alot more talent in that time period than they had in his 90s' run, at least from an in-ring standpoint. IMO, his character wasn't as good. His 2005 heel run with Hogan was very good, though, so there is that. I just wish he was a heel for alittle bit longer, but what can you do.
So, if I had to say, I preferred his character in the 90's, and for me, his matches are kind of tied. He probably had more classics in the 2000's, but having a better in-ring roster in the 2000's absolutely helped with that. Either way, I don't fault with anyone preferring one of his runs over the other. Both, overall, were high quality, so it just comes down to personal preference.
