THIS Is The Most Overrated Wrestling Match Of All Time

The fans boo loudly at 30 minutes, when Shawn kicks out of a crunching piledriver. It becomes apparent that no falls are forthcoming, nothing that might compel the Heartbreak Kid to intensify his challenge and, consequently, the drama. An incredible diving crossbody briefly electrifies and turns the crowd. Things are happening now, things that aren’t holds.

And then a sleeper hold happens, 35 minutes deep. There is no build. There is no sense of urgency. Nothing happens that rewards the investment. At around 308 minutes—that is not a typo but rather the effects of trauma-induced tachypsychia— Bret uses his shoulder to vault a lunging Shawn over the ring post and to the outside. The same shoulder Michaels has worked on for well over half an hour.

Even the most exciting spots are undermined. There is no spellbound immersion because so much of what happens is disconnected to what came before. Hart doesn’t grip his shoulder in agony, as if this reversal was some strategic, pyrrhic victory—a tactic of desperation that might reveal itself to be a grave error in a pulsating finishing sequence. Hart simply, belatedly focuses his assault on Shawn’s back in a bid to weaken it ahead of the Sharpshooter—something he probably should have done about 20 minutes prior.

This body part work might inform the kick-out drama—could Hart battle through the pain his shoulder to lift it at the last?—but it doesn’t. The whole thing is so baggy and loose, and yet, when it comes to show ass, the belt tightens.

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