10 Times WWE Totally Changed Its In-Ring Style
8. Shawn Michaels Vs. Mankind - WWF In Your House: Mind Games
In 1995, Bret Hart and Diesel had tapped the wall of the WWE style by destroying the Spanish announce table for the first time.
At In Your House: Mind Games, Mankind and Shawn Michaels tore it down and the load it bore, collapsing the foundation and rearranging it in a new ultra-violent image.
The Firefly Fun House match drew awe-struck critical praise for its audacious and cathartic take-down of the John Cena myth. The main event of Mind Games followed a similar narrative path, but was actually told through the medium of a total banger of a professional wrestling match: Mankind evoked the vicious, combative side from Michaels, and it surfaced in an intoxicating and innovative war that rewarded the hardcore fan in virtually every sense. Michaels really was that man, and he worked the match like a strongly motivated version of the 1997 vintage; the brutal, destructive action was an insane spectacle the likes of which 'The Fed' were perceived as too cartoonish to deliver; and, in one awesome spot, Michaels worked the meltdown he had legit suffered the prior month at SummerSlam.
Convincing, unhinged and artful, this drafted the blueprints for the best of the Attitude Era.