9 Times Wrestling Made You Believe
6. Shawn Michaels Makes Us Care About Him
Shawn Michaels was a difficult man to care about in 1995. His antics as a backstage uber-tool were starting to bleed into audience perceptions. This was, after all, about the time he was mauled in Syracuse, New York by an 'undetermined number' (one) of US Marines who objected to whatever he was getting up to that night.
But his performance in a match on Raw versus Owen Hart got audiences to do the unthinkable - care about Shawn Michaels. After dumping Hart out of the ring, skinning the cat back in and throwing his lunge-n-guns pose, Michaels grabbed his head, stumbled around and flopped unconscious onto the canvas. Hart and managers Jim Cornette and Mr Fuji sold confusion, as after a believably long time trainers got to the ring with bottled oxygen. Even Vince McMahon, not yet fully acknowledged as the WWE's owner, broke his commentator character to get in the ring and look worried. In an era before WCW milked the 'worked shoot' until the concept was dry, the audience had no reason to believe Michaels wasn't really in trouble. It might seem cheap now, but it certainly got its audience feeling concern for Michaels where there was no little hatred before.