Match #6 Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (w/Jose Lothario)

A few things before I do this. First off, I'm the biggest fan of the iron man stipulation around; it's easily my favorite type of match, because of the immense canvas which it offers to the workers and the great artistic opportunities it allows. As a setup, it offers an unmatched opportunity to construct a nuanced and deep match over a great expanse of time: selling, pacing, multiple finishes, psychology, all of these can be utilized in an iron man match as in no other contest to tell a story. In addition to the natural advantages of the time, which allows for incredibly nuanced selling and pacing (and an innate drama, given the rarity and extremity of these stipulations), the psychology which can exist around the multiple falls stipulation is equally important; the trick of "giving up a fall in order to do enough damage to get it back" is well known, and had been introduced before this by Ricky Steamboat and Rick Rude four years prior to this match at Beach Blast '92. That, however, is but one of many possibilities; others include the element Benoit and Jericho utilized in their 2/3 falls match, "tap out quick in the first fall in order to prevent injury", among many others. The point is, few elements in a match allow the workers to convey more about their characters and the match than the finish, and the iron man match is the only setup which allows this important element to be utilized to such a great degree. In short, the twin elements of time and multiple falls create an unparalleled opportunity for the workers to create art.

As it regards iron man matches, I'd like to also mention that I've done my homework; those I've seen include Steamboat/Rude, Hart/Flair, Hart/Hart, Hart/Michaels, Rock/HHH, the quasi-iron man Angle/Benoit ultimate submissions match, and Fuyuki/Hayabusa. If any others exist on tape, either I'm not aware of them or they're slipping my mind.

Shawn's music plays to kick things off, but of course it's Jose Lothario. He stands on the bottom turnbuckle in the ring and points to the rafters, and it's Shawn making the famous zip line entry that's been replayed a million times since; Bret makes his entrance second, utterly upstaged, as he had been through most of the build for this show. Prior to the match they do the wonderfully anachronistic equipment check, and Earl Hebner repeats the match rules to both men over the house mic. Bret kisses the title belt before passing it to Hebner, gives away the sunglasses, and we're ready to go.

Unlike EVERY OTHER MATCH ON THE SHOW, they start without a brawl, which is a great move; it puts over the technical focus of the match (since a brawl would be untenable given the time frame, and out of character with the build to this match) and distinguishes this match immediately as something different. All the other matches were based on the basic conceit of personal animosity built up over whatever; this has the different underlying idea of each man wanting to prove they're the better WRESTLER, specifically for Bret that he's still the top man in the WWF, and for Shawn that he can hang with the top dog. The object is the same, the other man; but the governing and motivating emotions are pride and thirst for glory, even a bit of fear, rather than hate.

There's also an element of the dramatization of Bret's real life professional tragedy (as opposed to the greater personal one of Owen's death), the way in which the wrestling he grew up with and loved was, in time, pushed aside by the industry in favor of the highflying, brawling, and over-the-top showmanship represented by Michaels. The internal story of this match is, in large part, that of Bret trying to stop time and impose his will on everyone, on the crowd, on Michaels, on the people who made the decision that the boy toy's style was more "marketable", or whatever. It's going to be a match designed to be technical, fundamentally based, mat oriented; it's Bret's dream, for better or worse, his great retort in the year's big showcase to those who, in the end, buried him. It's not going to be a match about Shawn, even if he's going over, even if he's the big new thing; it's about Bret validating HIS wrestling, and himself as the master of it. They tie up collar-and-elbow, no advantage, they break and the corner and return to a neutral position. Shawn gets a brief advantage and hits a waistlock takedown, but they amateur wrestle their way back to a neutral position. Again, it puts over to start both men's technical expertise and the nature of the match. A second tie up, and Shawn rolls Bret out of a headlock. They repeat the spot, and Bret looks frustrated. Shawn gets the arm wringer and works the arm for a bit, Bret reverses to a headlock, Shawn tries to roll out but this time Bret holds on, seeing it coming. Shawn sends Bret off the ropes, but Bret drags him down with the headlock. Headlock takedown, and Bret controls on the mat. At the start, it's all about Bet demonstrating dominance, forcing Michaels into the strictures of his type of match; that's all the headlock is about, dominance. It's not a damaging move, just a controlling one. Shawn tries to fight out of the headlock every which way, and finally escapes off the ropes. Shawn hits a hiplock, Bret pushes him off with his feet, Bret with the headlock again and Shawn this time sees it coming and counters with a headscissors, Bret kips out, and gets ANOTHER headlock. That's an essential problem with the match right there: the story is in place, but the moveset involved is very, very basic and there are long expanses in which they tell the story with what are essentially rest holds. In fact, one of the essential elements of the match is that it takes place in a crowd vacuum; Bret seems much less out here to entertain anyone than he is to make a statement. Shawn escapes the headlock with a top wristlock, back trips Bret down, but gets caught in a front chancery. Shawn makes it back to his feet, and Bret takes him down with the headlock again. Shawn fights out again off the ropes, ducks under twice, and hits two arm drags into an arm bar. He legdrops the arm, and adjusts into a different knee assisted arm bar. Bret gets up, Shawn takes him back down. Bret breaks off the ropes, Shawn shoulderblocks him down, Bret ducks under and then hits the drop toehold into...a headlock. Shawn rolls out to a hammerlock, and drops a knee on the arm, then hooks the far arm and tries to roll Bret to his back amateur-style. Bret blocks it and pushes Shawn into the corner, and they take turns working each other over with strikes, the first of the match. Shawn sends Bret to the other post with a whip, Bret reverses, Shawn tips up in the corner and catches Bret with his legs, and sends him sprawling to the outside with a headscissors takeover. Bret is frustrated, and we're 10 minutes in.

Bret climbs back in, Shawn gets an armbar, an arm wringer, and a quick fireman's carry into an armbar back on the mat. Another running break off the ropes, the Hitman ducks under, and catches Michaels as he rebounds, throwing him over the top. Michaels skins the cat back in and plays off this quick sequence with...an armbar. BOOOO. It's a bad spot which plays against the story of the match by having Michaels utilize Hart-style offense, not to mention simply being a momentum killer. The hold is broken quick again off the ropes, another Bret drop down, and he catches Michaels with a knee to the gut. This whole early section of the match tends toward the repetitive. Bret follows up with slow ground based offense, a headbutt to the midsection, a legdrop, a chinlock. His mannerisms are subtly heelish here, and reflective of the distain he's depicting, as he moves Michaels into position for one of his strikes with a derisive foot shove to the head. It's a little element which serves to build the portrait of his character. Shawn breaks with a jawbreaker out of the chinlock and hits his own legdrop, than moves to a Fujiwara armbar which is sold as a resthold. He moves to a standard armbar, Bret kips up, reverses the armbar and switches back to his headlock. They do ANOTHER break-in-the-ropes-and-do-a-running-sequence sequence, and Bret catches Shawn on a leapfrog, hits a slam, and goes for the sharpshooter. Shawn makes the ropes, but as he gets to his feet Bret sends him out over the top with a lariat. Bret follows out and gets...a headlock...on the floor.... Shawn sends Bret forward and into the post, Bret falls onto the timekeeper at ringside, and just manages to avoid the superkick Shawn sends after him by ducking out. Sadly, the timekeeper is not so lucky, and gets leveled. Back inside, Bret with a chinlock; and, so we sit. Again, a repetitive problem with this match rears its head: there are long expanses of the match which make theoretical sense from a storyline perspective, but which have NO value aside from that; chinlock, armbar, etc.; wrestling Spam. They're moves which can have a purpose, but they're overused to a large degree here and as such they result in large dead zones within the match. After an eternity, Shawn armdrags out of the head/chin lock and connects on a lariat. They go off the ropes, Bret hits a lariat...and another chinlock. That's why this match, in the end, is good but not Great: so much of the time is taken up with meaningless non-moves. It's a waste of the stage on which these men were given the chance to perform. Shawn gets up and escapes the chinlock, comes off the ropes, escapes an attempt at a press slam and waistlocks Bret from behind. He runs him into the ropes, Bret holds on to block the attempted rollup, and Shawn hits a dropkick and an armdrag into an armbar. Shawn works the arm a bit and moves to a modified cross armbreaker, and we are 20 minutes in.

Bret is selling the armbreaker as a resthold, and tries to walk himself up and over to where he could kick Michaels in the face to break. The attempt fails, but Bret manages to roll over Michaels' legs into a headlock, which is quickly reversed to a hammerlock. This is all very, very odd to me having just watched several Pride tapes. Michaels works the hammerlock, dropping knees to the arm, until Bret manages to back Michaels into the corner and break the hold with elbow shots to the face; he follows up with stiff uppercuts, but Michaels blocks a whip with a knee to the gut, and throws Bret shoulder first to the post. Shawn leaps from the apron to the floor, slamming Bret's arm into the post, and gets into another of his arguments with camera men as he goes: "get the fuck out of the way before I knock...." Inside the ring, he follows up his attack on Bret's arm with a shoulder breaker and a second rope axe handle. He slams Bret down, then hammerlocks him and runs his shoulder into the top turnbuckle twice. Three standing axe handles. This whole section is very disjointed, as if they really don't have a clear understanding of what to do next and thus have to keep delaying and using filler moves to figure out where they're going; Michaels keeps hitting a move, then walking around and creating dead space. Michaels gets an arm wringer, Bret reverses, Shawn reverses, Bret gets some punches and whips Shawn, but puts his head down early and gets caught with an armbar takedown. Shawn goes for another cross armbreaker, but puts it on the wrong arm until Bret warns him off; it's a pretty bad blown spot, so far as mat wrestling goes. Shawn gets it on the right (left) arm, but this time Bret escapes the way he previously attempted, walking up and stepping on Michaels' face. He rests in the corner though, selling the arm, and Michaels catches him with a shoulder thrust to the stomach. Great little sequence there, because it utilizes selling to create and maintain internal logic: the arm work means something, because it has a real effect on what Bret can do; likewise, the value of offense is maintained as Bret sells all the accumulated arm work more than Shawn sells a face rake. Had Bret mounted a comeback immediately, it would have violated basic logic and devalued Shawn's offense. Shawn hits some back elbows, a snap mare, and a crouching armbar of sorts. He moves to a standard arm bar before Bret breaks with punches and a stun gun of sorts on the second rope. Rather odd for Bret to be picking people up with that bad arm, huh? Bret hits a catapult sending Shawn to the post, and it gets 2 for Bret. Bret tries to slam Shawn's head to the buckle as a followup, but Shawn blocks and does it to Bret. He goes for a Stinger splash of sorts, but no one's home and Shawn gets hung up on the top. Bret puts the boots to him, then hits and inverted atomic drop and a lariat for 2. Wow, that arm cleared up quick, huh? Bret's not selling it at all anymore. Bret gets a bulldog, then they do a bizarre spot in the corner: Bret puts his knee behind Shawn's head as he sits on top, and sort of tries to ride him down, driving the head into the mat. It's really hard to tell exactly what the idea was, since they collide with the ref, but the ref bump goes nowhere. Shawn reverses a whip for a powerslam and a 2 count, as we pass the half way point, 30 minutes in.

When I was figuring out how to structure this recap, I ended up having to do it the way I didn't want too: breaking it up every 10 minutes. Without the value of the give and take of falls (and without even considering the other problems that causes) the great natural internal give-and-take of the iron man match is largely lost. Since it wouldn't be remotely realistic for either man to have any long stretches of offense without securing at least one fall, the match has to be structured largely either around rest holds or around quick switches of offense back and forth; the result is that structurally this is like any other match in this area, just a very long version of it. It doesn't get deeper than that, answering the question of how each man would perform beyond the first fall of a basic match, whether they could come back from being several falls down, whether they could physically recover from long stretches of the other man's offense, sufficient to secure several falls. Those are the questions in the minds of fans that an iron man match is partially designed to answer, and because of the structuring here this match doesn't really answer them. It's possible to argue that instead of this conception of the iron man concept, they were attempting to portray the state of utter equality between the two men; yet that doesn't in and of itself preclude the utilization of the multiple falls stipulation to advance that story. Again, I read this as an example of the major problem with this match: it's too small for the stage it was set on.

Bret reverses a whip, and hits a jumping piledriver for a close 2 count. Lawler: "how'd he kick out of a piledriver!?" Bret goes up top and gets predictably thrown, then caught with a rana and punches on the rollup. Michaels signals for chin music and whips Bret into the ropes, but they blow the spot as Bret was supposed to duck under a Michaels elbow, and instead help on to the ropes. Michaels throws some punches to cover up, but is visibly calling spots as they rest in the ropes. He hits a side backbreaker for 2, whips Bret off the ropes, and this time connects on the back elbow. He sets up for the superkick, but Bret bails to the outside. Shawn follows with a plancha from the top, rolls Bret back in, and follows up with a flying cross body which hart rolls through for a 2 count. Bret is immediately up and in control, throwing punches; the arm is totally fine, and Bret's not selling the plancha at all, despite it being the major highspot of the match so far. It's as if Hart is explicitly trying to convey that Michaels' high-flying style is inferior to/less effective than his ground pounding mat wrestling; he no-sells the plancha because it's "the wrong style", and he no-sells the arm work because he doesn't respect Michaels' ability to work "the right one". Again, that's one of the underlying themes to this match: Hart depicting the dominance of his style, and his mastery of it. Bret goes for a backslide, Shawn flips through and gets a small package for 2. Off the ropes, Shawn punches to the gut and hits a fisherman's suplex for 2. He applies the sleeper, Bret backs into the corner to break, Shawn reapplies, and when Bret tries to break in the corner again Michaels side steps and runs Hart's head into the turnbuckle. Nice. The sleeper returns, Michaels flips out of a backdrop counter, and hits a reverse elbow and a front kick. He whips Bret to the corner and charges at him...oops. Bret catches him with a backdrop and over the top Michaels goes, almost over the post, in one of his trademark "holy shit" bumps. Shawn is dead. Bret follows him out and runs his back into the post, then brings him back in and focuses on the back. Headbutts, forearms, hard whips to the buckle, the second rope elbow, all are directed toward Michaels' back. They blow a caught bodypress into a backbreaker spot partially, but Bret saves it and executes. Knee to the back, punch to the back, kicks to the back in the corner and a Vader bomb of sorts as we pass 40 minutes.

A hard whip triggers the Michaels flip in the corner, and Hart quickly follows with a backdrop superplex for 2. This is where the match begins to take on an aura of unreality, since Michaels and Hart had both taken a sufficient amount of punishment to finish them in every other match, few of which went past 25 minutes even on pay per view; instead here, they both seem to be kicking out of every move thrown at them simply because it's in the script to have no falls, not because it makes any internal logical sense to do so. It's another of the rather glaring flaws with this match. Bret applies a Sid-like "camel clutch" (arms not hooked), Shawn fights out while selling the back, and hits a sunset flip off the ropes as a comeback tease for 2. Bret continues to focus on the back, avoiding an attempted flying double axehandle from Michaels. Russian legsweep for 2, and a HARD whip sends Michaels flying over the top with an HHH-like bump. Great spot. Outside, Bret whips Shawn into the steps and Jose Lothario. Back in, Hart hits a belly-to-belly suplex for 2, and stifles a Michaels comeback with shots to the back. Shawn flips out of a vertical suplex and rolls Bret up off the ropes for 2, but Hart's kick out sends Michaels out to the floor through the ropes. Bret hits a tope through the ropes, then waits for Shawn to crawl back to the ring. Bet tries to suplex Michaels in, Shawn flips out again to a waistlock the same as before, but this time Bret sees it coming, reverses the waistlock, and hits a picture perfect bridging German suplex for 2. Any of these spots would be acceptable as finishes, but, obviously, aren't used as such. Michaels fights up off the mat from his knees, brawling with Bret in an obvious babyface heat spot designed for him, a nice subtle-ish touch. It gets less subtle when Shawn adds the "gimme some more" hand motion. Bret goes back to the not-so-good camel clutch and we've got some more dead time, though of a logical sort. It's a LONG hold though, passing through to the 50 minute mark.

Shawn fights out of the hold, ducks a lariat off the ropes, and collides with Bret in a double knockout spot. Bret hits a superplex, and it's another double knockout, till Bret goes for a sharpshooter which Shawn blocks. After some fumbling with a figure-four, Bret goes to a single leg crab which Shawn breaks in the ropes. Side backbreaker, and both men are exhausted, selling and in reality, 55 minutes in. Second rope elbow catches boot, and both men stay down. Shawn's up first and hits a dropkick, an elbow in the corner, and a hard whip which triggers Bret's "ouch my chest" crumple bump, then the flying forearm and a nip up. With a bad back. Not so good. Stomp to the face, leaping back elbow, slam, and a spinning double axehandle from the top gets 2. 57 minutes in. Vertical suplex, Michaels elbow, it gets 2. Gut-wrench sit-out powerbomb (!), moonsault press rollup for 2. Shawn blocks a whip, leaping rana from the second rope rollup, 2. A minute left, and Shawn hits a slam and goes up top. Hart catches Michaels as he comes off the top, and locks him into the sharpshooter, 30 seconds left. Michaels won't tap. 15 seconds, he won't tap. 10. 5. And the time runs out, with no submission, for the ostensible draw.

Of course, this triggers the dreaded Dusty Finish, as Gorilla Monsoon does the babyface commissioner spot, saying "there must be a winner!" Or some such. Overtime. Bret dominates to start going after Michaels' back, hammering it with strikes and hitting a backdrop and a side backbreaker. Michaels tips up in the corner on a whip, Bret passes under him, and WHAP, Shawn hits a superkick. Both men are out. Bret does the best sell ever of the superkick, acting like he's trying to get up but can't from being dazed. Very Kawada-like, everything but the thousand yard stare. Michaels crawls to the corner, Bret staggers up, WHAP, superkick, 1-2-3, that's it. Shawn does the weeping celebration as the show closes.

It's a hell of a match, but one that's fatally flawed in so many ways. On the one hand are the coherent story and a multitude of solid work and smart spots, plus other advantages; on the other, the really bad selling from Bret and the often-mediocre work and lengthy rest spots, among other things. In the end, it's a match with too much good in it to be less than memorable and good, but which falls short of the greatness demanded by its circumstances. ***3/4.

Closing Thoughts

A mix of a show. The main event is one of those WWF must-sees, if only to make up your own mind on its quality; some say it's a near-***** classic, some say it's not even ****. I more or less split the difference myself. The rest of the card is basically throw away, though the UT vs. Diesel match is impressive simply for not sucking, and the Austin vs. Savio match is surprisingly good. Overall, a 6 or 7 out of ten or so, and a fun show overall. It's probably most important from a storyline and booking perspective, as this established firmly the paradigm for the rest of 1996: Shawn Michaels having **** or so matches in the main event, carrying the company, and an undercard that would range from spectacular (Survivor Series) to horrific (Mind Games). In all though, the meaning of this show to the WWF audience was the one conveyed by the final image from the show: from here on out, it was going to be the Shawn Michaels show.

Next up: IYH: Good Friends, Better Enemies (a.k.a., the Kliq farewell show).

Shaddax
[slash] wrestling

Mail the Author
Visit Bustertime
Comment about this article on the EZBoard