10 WWE Stars Loved For The Wrong Match
9. Shawn Michaels
Loved for: Shawn Michaels Vs. The Undertaker, WrestleMania 25
Nobody can deny the power of this, one of the greatest matches in company history. Fought between eternal legends as their physical and psychological primes intersected, this epic match flew by in a haze of superb in-ring work, at least two jaw-dropping moments, and the facial expressions of two performers with a surgical ability to extract drama from the space between moves. The greatest tribute that can be paid to it is that virtually every WWE match of note since has cribbed from its bulletproof big match structure.
Deserves as much, if not more credit for: Shawn Michaels Vs. Triple H, SummerSlam 2002
Wrestling, at its best, is an appeal to emotion. The art form is so athletically advanced - and technology allows so much in the way of instant inspiration - that several performers now come equipped with the ability to assemble a cosmetic epic. But how many matches, even in this age of awesome in-ring action, truly make you feel? Shawn managed that at SummerSlam 2002, in a match informed by four years of agonising history. His selling was peerless, surpassing even that of Ricky Steamboat, in how every last attack targeted to his back drove the empathy of all watching.
Michaels could always drop jaws; on that night, he put hearts in mouths.