Shawn Michaels WrestleMania Matches - Ranked From Worst To Best
He may be the greatest performer in WrestleMania history, but what was his finest showing?
When all is said and done, Shawn Michaels may well go down in history as the greatest mainstream American professional wrestler of all-time. The Heartbreak Kid did everything there was to do in World Wrestling Entertainment, winning all the gold on offer and doing it at a level higher than most of his peers for a longer time.
HBK's career was ended early by a terrible back injury, but he was able to return to the ring and put together a second career run that surpassed the first in terms of the consistency of his match quality. It was a different Michaels, the cocky youth replaced by the wily veteran, and WWE was all the better for it.
It was at WrestleMania that this particular star shone brightest. Michaels took part in 17 different WrestleManias, featuring in tag team matches, ladder matches, Ironman matches and a whole lot more. He won his first WWE Title at the event, and his career would end there, too. His run of matches in the second half of his career, in particular, beggars belief. A better run of matches one will not find.
But how do the matches rank against each other? Let's waste no more time and get to separating them, from worst to best.
17. Vs. Big Boss Man & Akeem - WrestleMania V
The debut of Mr. WrestleMania came as early as WrestleMania V.
At this time Michaels was a member of The Rockers, a high-energy tag team with Marty Jannetty, and at the 5th Mania they took on Big Boss Man and Akeem, known collectively as the Twin Towers. Akeem was previously known as One Man Gang, and I don't think anyone will ever truly understand why this gimmick changed happened, but there we go.
There isn't much to write home about with this match, but don't let its positioning at the bottom of this particular list fool you; The Rockers were seemingly incapable of putting on a bad match in the 1980s, and what we have here is a nice little Big Team vs. Little Team match. Boss Man in particular was a high quality big man, and Akeem was no slouch either.
Michaels and Jannetty bumped like lunatics for their larger opposition, with Michaels showing the bumping prowess that would eventually become a trademark of his during his singles run. Akeem would eventually hit Michaels with Air Africa (running splash) to give the big men the win.