Thursday, September 9, 2004

The Birth of HBK
The Heartbreak Kid is a personality of Shawn Michaels that was launched in early '92 after the Rockers break up. When the HBK persona was born Shawn was only 27 and had great potential in him athletically. What everyone soon found out was that HBK was very good on the mic to go along with his tremendous work rate. His ability to get the crowd to hate him was evident as soon as he turned heel. He then established a regular talk show segment on WWF shows called the "Heartbreak Hotel." This cocky, young, brash superstar spent his time gaining a reputation as a guy who did a lot of talk yet he was still able to back it up because of his in ring talent.

His first taste of WWF gold came in a match against the British Bulldog on October 27, 1992 when Shawn won the Intercontinental title. A month later wrestled Bret Hart at Survivor Series in a match he lost for the WWF world title. This was the first of three PPV matches these two had. It did not really have as much hype as you would expect although it was still a classic match.

Shawn's IC title reign lasted for seven months, ending when he lost it to his former partner Jannetty in May '93. Although he did lose the title, he regained the title only a month later. He never lost the belt in a match though. He had to give it up due to "not meeting certain contractual obligations." In a span of a year he held the Intercontinental Title for 11 months. Shawn only lost IC title once and that was to Jannetty. He was stripped of it in '93 as well as in '95 when he couldn't compete due to getting attacked outside of a Syracuse nightclub in October of '95. I'll have more on that story a bit later on.

He was stripped of the IC title in '93 because he was in a contract dispute with WWF management. Because of the dispute, he did not defend the title within thirty days so he was stripped of the title in reality and in terms of storylines.

Being stripped of the IC title turned out to be a good thing for Shawn because of what happened at Wrestle Mania X. After coming to terms with management, a feud was built up between Shawn and Razor Ramon (the IC champ at the time) over who was the real IC champion. For storyline sake, Shawn carried around the IC title that he was stripped of a few months earlier. He claimed that he did not lose the IC title so the WWF decided to hang both IC titles from the ceiling and have a ladder match. The first ladder match saw Shawn losing the match to Razor in a match that determined the "real" IC champion. Despite the loss, both men came away winners because it was arguably the best match in the history of the WWF at the time.

Due to the success of the first ladder match, Shawn went on to have another ladder match with Ramon on PPV, this one coming at Summer slam '95. This time Shawn came in as the face, walked in with the title and also walked out with the title still around his waist. The Wrestle Mania X ladder match is one of the best matches that I have ever seen. Not only are these two of the best matches in Shawn's career but they are the two of the best matches in wrestling history. After people saw these matches it seemed obvious that Shawn wasn't just good in the ring, he was extraordinary.

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