2. Shawn Michaels vs Jeff Jarrett - In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8j8mAB7vlM To say 1995 was a bad year for the WWE would be an understatement. This was a year we sat through Mabel winning King Of The Ring, then go on to face Diesel in the main event of Summerslam for ten damn minutes. It was bad. The only thing keeping the company from being 1999 WCW levels of unwatchable was the efforts of the mid-carders. In particular Shawn and Bret, who spent the year seeing who could have the best match with the worst possible opponent. Well that's not exactly fair on Jarrett, who has always been a solid mid-carder in his own right. But it's also fair to say the guy doesn't have a massive amount of four star plus matches under his belt. But lookee here, Jarrett is nudging a five star performance, while wearing a mad country singer costume? True Michaels magic. This was during that weird period of wrestling where everybody who wasn't a headliner seemed to have a second job: dentist, taxman, country singer. I suppose there were some lean years on the payroll after Hogan left. Silly outfits aside, this is a textbook example of old-school southern wrestling, with some WWE style bumps thrown in for good measure. Most hair-raising of all is Shawn going clear over the top rope onto the floor following a huge backdrop by Jarrett. It's a showcase of structure not to everybody's tastes: while Jarrett slows the pace, Michaels picks things up with high-impact moves. It all follows logically and makes the audience pop big for the face's offence. The spots are meticulously thought out and the ending, where the meddling Roadie costs Jarrett the match by grabbing the foot of the wrong guy, is a simple but effective feel good moment. Proof that sometimes the old ways are the best, this sits alongside the ladder match as Shawn's best IC title match.