If Shawn Michaels never hurt his back

[Guest Rrrsh]

9/24/95 IYH: #3 0.65 Deisel/HBK vs BullDog/Owen

4/2/95 WrestleMania XI 1.35 HBK vs Deisel

3/29/98 WrestleMania XIV 2.2 Shawn/Austin

1/18/98 Royal Rumble 98 0.85 Shawn/Taker

12/7/97 IYH: Degeneration X 0.44 Shawn/Shamrock

10/5/97 IYH: Badd Blood 0.64 HiaC Shawn

1/19/97 Royal Rumble 97 0.60 Shawn v Sid

11/17/96 Survivor Series 96 0.60 Shawn v Sid

9/22/96 IYH: Mind Games 0.40 Shawn v. Mankind

8/19/96 SummerSlam 96 0.60 Shawn v. Vader

7/21/96 IYH: International Incident 0.35 6 man Tag

6/23/96 King of the Ring 96 0.60 Shawn v. Bulldog

4/28/96 IYH: Good Friends, Better Enemies 0.70 Shawn/Deisel

 

That makes 9.98. Divide that 13, and that makes 0.77 average

 

7/6/97 IYH: Canadian Stampede 0.59 10 man Tag with Bret

2/16/97 IYH: Final Four 0.55 Final 4 with Bret

12/15/96 IYH: It's Time 0.35 Sid v. Bret

2/19/96 IYH: #6 0.65 Bret vs Deisel

1/22/96 Royal Rumble 96 1.10 Bret vs Taker

12/17/95 IYH: #5 0.35 Bret vs Bulldog

11/19/95 Survivor Series 95 0.55 Bret vs Deisel

1/22/95 Royal Rumble 95 1.00 Bret vs Deisel

11/23/94 Survivor Series 94 0.9 Bret vs Backlund

9/29/94 SummerSlam 94 1.3 Bret vs Owen

6/16/94 King Of The Ring 94 0.85 Bret vs Deisel

3/20/94 WrestleMania X 1.68 Bret vs Yoko

4/4/93 WrestleMania IX 2.0 Bret vs Yoko

1/24/93 Royal Rumble 93 1.25 Bret vs Razor

 

That makes 13.4. Dived that by 14 and you get 0.93

 

These had both Shawn and Bret in the Mian Event

8/3/97 SummerSlam 97 0.79 Bret v Taker with Shawn as ref

3/31/96 WrestleMania XII 1.25 Bret vs Shawn

11/25/92 Survivor Series 92 1.4 Bret vs Shawn

11/9/97 Survivor Series 0.89 Bret Shawn

 

 

So Bret drew o.15 better. Neither avegarge more than a 1. They both didnt draw.

[Guest JMA]

One reason he was so hated is that they kept pimping him as some sort of great champion during his last run in 1997/98.  I mean my god, everyone knew he had ZERO credibility with the title and got it in a flagrant screwjob.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the WWF just tried to make the best out of bad situation (one that was their fault) there. Oddly enough, I remember Triple H bringing up the fact that Shawn had no right wearing the title during their DX days.

[Betty Houle 0]

coming in late here...

 

I think Shawn would have made for stronger matches AND would have been a stronger heel for Austin to play off of. As it was, he had Vince who was an awesome heel but couldn't work the matches. So we got Foley twice (which were really good matches, granted. He just wasn't that strong a heel) and Kane once (yawn). We would have been better off with him.

 

The shame is that Foley might not have become as big a star as he ended up being. Maybe.

[Guest JMA]

I will reiterate it:  Shawn was passe by 1998.  I don't mean in terms of not having good matches, it's just that he was injury prone by that point, a backstage cancer, and was seemingly holding the WWF back from attaining new heights.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I tend to agree. It seems like there comes a point when a wrestling promotion has to purge some wrestlers in order to move forward.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To expand on this, I think that it helps a promotion to completely remove their old headliner at a certain time. If they stick around and remain the focus of the show it'll hurt the overness (or potential overness) of the new headliner. Of course, having the new guard go over the old guard is perfectly acceptable and even desirable.

 

I'm NOT suggesting that the old guard be treated with any kind of disrespect, though. On the contrary, they should be treated as the company leaders that they are/were.