12. Shawn Michaels vs. Such Sid (Survivor Series 1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo8iOOU_5Io 1996 was a rollercoaster ride for the Heartbreak Kid. He rang in the new year with his second straight Royal Rumble win, and enjoyed a storybook babyface push all the way to winning the world title from Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII. He had a great defense against Diesel a month later, but would spend much of the year embroiled in a lame soap opera angle with the British Bulldog and his wife Diana. The WWE tried to salvage the title reign's momentum by giving Michaels a vicious streak in matches against Mankind and Vader, but something just wasnt clicking. At exactly the same time that Shawn Michaels was floundering as a squeaky clean babyface, Goldust and Steve Austin were becoming huge stars specifically because they portrayed edgier characters who appealed to older fans. Michaels was a safe kind of edgy that read as insincere, a male stripper in mirrored chaps being marketed to six-year-olds. The 1996 Survivor Series was held in Madison Square Garden, but this wasnt the same Garden that fawned over Sammartino, Backlund and Hogan. This crowd was smarter and more jaded. Theyd seen ECW; they knew what they wanted from their wrestling going forward, and it wasnt athletic pretty boy Shawn Michaels. Instead, they went nuts for Sid, even as he won the match by braining the much smaller champion with a video camera. If you're wondering, this "smarks hate Shawn Michaels" thing was not long for this world, basically forgotten in the wake of DX, Montreal, and the inaugural Hell in a Cell. HBK is now pretty much universally considered one of the two or three best and most beloved wrestlers of all time, and Sid is a running joke.