Lost and Found:

[Guest thefrenchargel]

Ah, 1995, very truly the dark ages of the WWF. Chaos behind the scenes, an oversized load was holding the WWF Title, tanking the ratings in the process, interest in wrestling in general was down dramatically, and only a few performers were putting out product worth watching. Sound familiar? It should. 2002 is in my opinion, a near-carbon copy of 1995. Just replace Diesel with Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels with Kurt Angle. True, Kurt's nowhere near the level of master manipulator like Shawn, but he's one of the only workers worth watching nowadays. Poor ratings, bad booking decisions, and an overall feeling of desperation really makes us yearn for another "Attitude" type of revolutionary change. I'm not saying the WWE needs to get more racy and gross, as that's the reason they're in the predicament they're in, but they DEFINITELY need to do something different. The only problem: there's no ECW to steal talent and ideas from. However, wrestling is wrestling, and it's good stuff when motivated workers put on great matches, even if they're bits of treasure floating in the toilet that is the overall product. Naturally, no one wants to pick through the septic tank...except maybe me, but then again it's worth getting stinky fingers to retrieve a rolex watch from the unthinkable.

 

    Case in point: this match. Shawn Michaels was -THE- man in the WWF in 95. JJ, an effective heel champ, had beaten Razor Ramon for the IC belt after his faithful dirty rotten cheater of a sidekick, The Roadie, had interfered on JJ's behalf. It was a pretty foregone conclusion that HBK was taking the gold home in this match, as he was quite obviously the only thing the fans were buying into.

 

    Live, from Nashville, Tennessee, at In Your House 2, it's Shawn Michaels vs. "Double J" Jeff Jarrett for the WWF Intercontinental Title.

 

    Big heat for JJ to start, and he bails to piss off the entire front row as Shawn checks his reflection in the IC title belt. Nice touch. JJ back in, and he guides the ref into the corner, to keep him out of the way of any kind of danger, I guess. They lockup, JJ backs HBK to a corner, they exchange punches, and Jarrett runs and hides behind the ref. Ha! He begs off, so Michaels props himself up in the corner and lounges across the top rope. They lockup again, JJ gets an armdrag, and struts. Big heat. Lockup yet again, they exchange armwringers, and JJ pulls Shawn to the corner with his hair. Cross-corner whip, Shawn vaults back over JJ, who nails him and celebrates. Shawn takes a breather, and checks out his jaw. Fans are totally completely 100% behind Shawn. JJ lounges in the corner now. Touche! Back in, lockup, Jarrett with a headlock, HBK to the ropes, JJ with a hiptoss? No. Shawn tries his own. No. Rocker-dropper reversal, HBK nonchalantly pokes him in the eye. Haha! JJ goes to the ropes, another rocker-dropper reversal by HBK, but ducks a JJ clothesline, and sends him into the corner. Shawn nails him, cross-corner whip is reversed, HBK up and over again, only nails JJ first this time. Good psychology. Irish whip, JJ gets hiptossed, and a clothesline sends him over the top, Shawn skins the cat, does the JJ strut, and dances to boot. Crowd eats it up with a thousand golden spoons. JJ stalls like hell, then takes a walk to HUGE heel heat. The ref, Shawn, and the crowd all count together. JJ comes back, but just breaks the count and stalls some more. Brilliant. He does it again, and the crowd wants Jarrett to get his BADLY. Finally Michaels gets pissed, goes out and decks JJ, and rolls him in. HBK goes for a double axe handle, but gets caught in the breadbasket and falls into the ropes. JJ straddles him. HBK to the ropes, JJ dropkick misses, JJ whipped, gets reversed, Roadie, who is now on the apron, tries to hit Shawn, but HBK ducks and pokes Roadie in the eyes. JJ tries a charge, but gets dumped onto the dazed Roadie. Crowd goes totally nuts. We're only six minutes in, by the way. The stalling hasn't hurt this a bit. HBK goes up top, and nails a HUGE crossbody to the floor on both men. Back in, and he poses to even more adoration. JJ back in, he cowers. Shawn kicks him and tries a cross-corner whip, gets reversed, and Shawn hops up to the second rope. Makes like he's trying the crossbody, but only headfakes, which gets JJ to duck. Shawn gets a leaping sunset flip off the second turnbuckle, but JJ won't go over. He tries to nail Shawn, but only hits the mat. Michaels tries a charge now, but takes the fabled "holy shit bump." AKA a backdrop over the top to the floor. He falls completely flat-backed, by the way. Sick, sick, SICK bump.

 

    So far, it's been a back and forth southern wrestling classic, confident handsome babyface vs. cowardly heel. Totally textbook, executed to perfection. Heat segment time...Shawn eats stairs twice, and sells like a god. Back in, face first suplex by JJ gets our 1st two count. He stomps away. Whip, and JJ gets an abdominal stretch, Roadie-assisted leverage, of course. Ref busts them on the third time, obviously, and Shawn hiptosses out of it. Whip, HBK puts his head down and JJ catches him with a dramatic DDT. It gets a two count. Vince's microphone is out for whatever reason, and King then goes to the play by play, which is hilarious, as he tries to sound all serious. JJ chokes Shawn on the ropes as Roadie distracts the ref, and vice versa. Shawn finally grabs Roadie and lays him over the 2nd rope, and Jarrett straddles him by mistake. Rope rollup gets 2 for Shawn. Cross corner whip, and Shawn Flair flips out to the floor. Eleven minutes in, King exclaims "What a match!" JJ goes up, top, but the ref gets him back down, allowing Roadie the opportunity to hit a flying clothesline off the apron. JJ celebrates, opting to go for the count out victory. Crowd is literally begging Shawn to get back up. HBK gets back in, and Jarrett is pissed off. He goes up and tries a crossbody, rolled through by Shawn for 2. Crowd bought that one big time. Whip, reversed, JJ gets a crucifix into a sunset flip, Shawn won't go down though, and sits on JJ for 2. Rolled over for a Jarret two-count. Gorgeous dropkick gets another JJ two count. Awesome elevation and contact on that one. Whip again, back elbow misses, clothesline misses, but Jarrett hooks in a sleeper. He drives Shawn to the mat and gets a close 2.

 

   So far this match has been completely flawless. Time for Shawn's big comeback now, though. He counters the sleeper into a belly to back suplex, and both men are down. Shawn dramatically throws an arm over Jarrett as the ref reaches a 9 count. He gets a 2. Both men up, JJ to the ropes, tries a punch, but Shawn blocks it and decks him. Same sequence one more time. The crowd is totally feeling it. To the ropes again, but Shawn ducks JJ and hits the flying forearm. Nip up to an immense pop. He beats on JJ with rights, Cross corner whip, Shawn hits another big forearm. Stomps away. He goes up, and a turnaround double axe handle gets him a 2 count. Slam, and he goes up for the big elbow. He hits it, and a nonchalant cover gets him 2. Gorilla would defenitely admonish him for not hooking the leg, were he calling the match. Cross corner whip sends JJ to the turnbuckle, and gets a foot up, but Shawn outsmarts him, slides out to trip him up, and crotches JJ around the ringpost. He goes up top, but Roadie shakes the ropes, crotching Shawn. The bastard! JJ up, gets a superplex. He signals for the figure four, but gets cradled for 2. Shinbreaker for JJ then goes for the figure four, but Michaels kicks him away, and the ref gets bumped. HBK calls for the Sweet Chin Music, but Roadie runs in and chopblocks him, like he did to Razor when JJ won the belt. JJ up top, and nails a huge crossbody for a really, REALLY close 2. JJ looks to whip HBK into the ropes, where Roadie is ready to trip him, but the whip gets reversed, Roadie trips the wrong man, allowing Shawn to hit the Sweet Chin Music, cover, and we have a NEW Intercontinental Champ to an absolutely thunderous standing ovation.

 

Wow...wow wow wow. This was an old-school southern wrestling match executed absolutely perfectly to the letter. *****, EASY. Although Shawn would go on to recieve more accolades for the big rematch with Razor in their 2nd ladder match, which wasn't as good as the first one. In fact, I'd definitely say that THIS match was far superior to the 2nd ladder match. If you've never seen this, for the love of god ignore the "1995" on the box and pick this up. Ignore the rest of the crap from this year in the WWF, as much of it isn't even worth your time. However, it did have its diamonds in the rough, with this match, Shawn/Razor II, Bret/Diesel from Survivor Series, Bret/Davey Boy from IYH 5, and Bret/Jean-Pierre Lafitte. The latter two will definitely make this column at some point. So, if the WWE of today gets you down, just thank your lucky stars that they've somewhat learned from the mistakes of the past, and haven't put Mabel in the KOTR.

 

-Argel Out

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I completely agree.  Jarrett vs. Michaels is arguably the most underrated match of all time.  It is far better than the ladder match from Summerslam.

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

Jarrett was underrated period. I always liked him. This just proves he can put on a ***** match.