10 Best Matches From B-Level WWE Pay Per Views
3. Shawn Michaels Vs. Diesel - In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies
Shawn Michaels' first WWF Title run is considered a dud in retrospect, but some of the matches he wrestled were transcendent. This was arguably the best of an underrated, fruitful bunch. The awesome finish, in which Diesel ripped the prosthetic leg off a watching Mad Dog Vachon only for Michaels to use it against him, elevates it above the aforementioned Mind Games violence festival.
It's also the one of the best iterations of the company's favoured David Vs. Goliath mode; Michaels and Diesel shared an exquisite chemistry, and while the latter is vastly underrated in some circles, this was an absolute tour de force from the Heartbreak Kid. You'd be hard pressed to find a better demonstration of timing in wrestling than when Michaels flung himself into the barricade after Diesel smashed him with a clothesline. The force with which he struck it was frightening, but it didn't come close to looking contrived. He located the sweet spot between selling and impact with impossible ease.
The overarching criticism levelled at Michaels, circa 1996, is that his Boyhood Dream arc failed to resonate - that his bratty core was too transparent to resonate with any degree of conviction with the adult fans who turned on him en masse at Survivor Series.
But his wild post-match celebrations, in which he looked for all the world that he despised his real life best friend, go some way to shattering that myth.