10 Times Shawn Michaels Dragged His Opponents To A Good Match

Shawn Michaels has piles of classics in his resume, but very few of them come from during his time as a tag team wrestler. Before Michaels betrayed Marty Jannetty in December 1991, he sparingly wrestled singles matches, rather opting to star alongside Jannetty in tag team bouts. However, the few times Michaels was given the opportunity to wrestler singles matches, he made the most of them. And he did just that when he took on Kato (better known as Paul Diamond) at a WWF show in the historic Madison Square Garden.

Now, it needs to be said that Kato was not poor in the ring. Like Michaels, he was a fellow tag-team wrestler (wrestling in The Orient Express after Sato left) and had not received many chances to showcase his solo ring work.

The contest ran at a blistering pace, showcasing Michaels’ speed and selling as well as Kato’s power moves. When Tanaka interfered and nailed Michaels with a cane (giving Kato the win) the audience erupted into boos, for Michaels had put on the performance of a lifetime only to lose to the villainous Kato.

The match gave Kato heat that he'd never experienced before, and is his highest rated match to date (****). But then again, most wrestlers had their highest rated match with ‘The Heartbreak Kid’.