MID-Tier Match Reviews: Shawn Michaels vs. Vince McMahon – WWE WrestleMania 22

When people talk about the best performers in WWE history Shawn Michaels’ name is one of the first to come up. His Hall of Fame career is filled with great moments and matches, many of which get replayed from time to time to this very day. And up until recently, included in those replays was a big moment when he had a match with Vince McMahon. But given recent events it’s unlikely that we’ll be hearing of this match anytime soon.

That’s somewhat unfortunate because this is an…interesting…match to say the least. It’s a fine little case study in watching WWE scramble to create a WrestleMania-worthy match after their initial plans fell apart due to an unexpected tragedy. Few people expected this match to be any good; spectacular yes but nothing worth crowing about. But if there was one person still in WWE at the time that could live up to the old “broomstick” argument it was Shawn Michaels. So let’s see if the closest thing to him wrestling an actual broomstick does indeed hold up after almost two full decades.

The Story

Mid-2000s Vince didn’t appear as often as he did in the past but when he did he was sure to make things special in his own twisted way. He threw his weight around, humiliated employees and subordinates, and most egregiously, made people literally kiss his ass. In Vince’s own words, “the means justify the ends. As long as I get what I want, that’s the right thing to do.”, Yes, this was said in a wrestling promo but the character’s words often reveal the person’s thoughts.

Vince made people hate him by claiming that his decisions were for selfish gains while Shawn Michaels sacrificed his body selflessly so that the fans could get what they wanted. So at one point Michaels asked Vince to grow up and move on from the past, but apparently this was too much for Vince to do and so he decided he was going to make life hell for HBK. He recreated the Montreal Screwjob with his son Shane “beating” Michaels. He abused his power to have Michaels overpowered time and again in handicap matches, against much bigger opponents, and in heavy stipulation matches. Michaels remained defiant, only to get a worse beating when he did so. Vince realized that having a one-on-one match with Michaels might not be that fair (for him) so he stacked the odds further in his favor by making it a No Holds barred match.

I should point out that this was never the original plan; the original plan for Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 22 was for him to wrestle Eddie Guerrero. Initial storyline plans had been put in place for the story to be built around the parallels between both men’s lives and careers. When one of the writers presented this idea, Vince reportedly answers “goddamn, that’s money”. Sadly this pre-planning took place before Guerrero’s untimely death in November 2005 and so plans were shifted for Michaels to do something else. And with the card largely put together by the start of 2006, Vince decided that the simplest and easiest way for him to get Michaels over again was for him to do things himself.

The Match

This took place on April 2, 2006. It was rated ***1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Michaels comes out first and has a passable reaction, though it’s not the typical pop he usually gets. Meanwhile, Vince comes out looking freakishly orange and oiled up like he’s about to do a bodybuilding routine. Speaking of which, as he walks around the ringside area he reveals an enlarged version of Muscle & Fitness magazine with himself on the cover. Vince gloats for a moment next to his picture until Michaels rushes him to get things going.

Michaels throws punches and chops and then chokes Vince with some cable. Back in the ring, he whacks that picture of Vince over the real Vince’s head. He gets in Vince’s face but then the Spirit Squad comes in to help their boss. They launch Michaels into the air and then Kenny goes for a diving leg drop but misses. Michaels takes them out one by one but this allows Vince to take advantage and drop him with a clothesline.

Vince lands some corner shots and uses his bulging muscles to squeeze Michaels as much as possible. He whips and chokes Michaels with his belt but Michaels fights out, only for Vince to drop him with an elbow. Vince steals Michaels’ taunt and starts teasing Sweet Chin Music. He goes for the kick but Michaels blocks and begins a comeback. Michaels whips Vince with Vince’s own belt and lands a diving elbow drop. He teases SCM but here comes Shane with a kendo stick…and handcuffs. Then Vince proceeds to pull his pants down for another Kiss By Ass spot. Shane tries shoving Michaels’ face into the abyss but Michaels blocks and does it to Shane instead. Big pop from the crowd. Vince thinks he’s embarrassing Michaels but then turns around to see Shane recoiling in disgust and then eats a low blow.

Michaels handcuffs Shane to the second rope, mocks him, and beats him with that same kendo stick. He pulls out a chair and gives Vince one of the loudest chairshots to the head I’ve ever heard, busting Vince open in the process. Michaels tries another SCM but this time stops himself. He wants to prolong Vince’s suffering. He introduces a ladder and launches it at Vince’s head. he stops himself on another SCM and pulls out some garbage cans and a table.

Michaels whacks Vince with one of those cans and places him on a table. He goes to recreate his famous ladder dive from WrestleMania X but then stops himself. It looks like Michaels is having doubts or remorse for his actions and – nope, he pulls out a taller ladder instead. He makes sure Vince won’t move with a few more punches, then puts him back on the table, this time with a garbage can placed over him. Shane tries moving the ladder but it doesn’t budge. Michaels climbs it, does the DX crotch chop, and dives off with an elbow drop.

The ref asks for doctors to come down but Michaels keeps them at bay. He does another DX crotch chop to Shane and blows a snot rocket at him. Then he pulls Vince up to his feet, gets in his face, and lands Sweet Chin Music for the three-count.

Winner after 18:25: Shawn Michaels

Post-match a nearly unconscious Vince flips Michaels off as he’s wheeled back up the entrance ramp on a stretcher.

Review

On one hand that was exactly what I expected it to be: a slow and over-the-top display of theatrics from Vince filled with shenanigans to disguise the fact that he was physically limited as a performer. It was more of a story-driven match with Vince using his power indirectly to make people believe that he could somehow beat Michaels. On the other hand there was never any doubt that Michaels was going to win. As such this was less of a match and more of an extended angle or humiliation ritual. Sure it was spectacular, especially with Vince being as cartoonish and over-the-top as he could be. Yet the whole time this felt like a poor man’s recreation of Austin versus McMahon and without the same magic that made that feud successful in the first place.

Vince tried everything in his power to make this match entertaining. He knew going toe-to-toe with Michaels wouldn’t work so he used the stipulation to his advantage and made it into a handicap match. He stacked the deck against Michaels to level the playing field somewhat, used weapons whenever he could, and cheated wherever possible since he doesn’t fight fair, ever. I suspect part of this extra effort into making Michaels babyface was in response to Bret Hart’s appearance and he didn’t want to risk the shadow of Montreal casting a pall on this match. It’s almost as though Vince wanted to use that infamous moment to push this match’s story yet he wanted the audience to react by booing him and not Michaels since Michaels was as much of a guilty party in that fiasco as Vince was.

Nevertheless, Vince, for all his many fault, took an absolute beating in this match, though, again, Michaels pummeling him wasn’t as entertaining as Austin doing it eight years earlier. Vince gave the audience a small sampler of the company’s glory days of yesteryear by letting one of his employees throw him around, crack him in the head with a chair, and bust him open. It was fine for what it was despite having a few nice spots including Michaels’ dive onto Vince through the table. Anyone wanting to relive something nostalgic and revisit the ‘evil authority figure gets justice’ well will find something to like here, in spite of its cartoonish and slapstick wrapping.

And yet it was clear that Michaels wasn’t giving 100% for this match and why would he? This was a major step down from his last three WrestleMania appearances. In 2003 he arguably stole the show with Chris Jericho, in 2004 he was involved in what many still call the greatest triple threat match in WWE history, and in 2005 he and Kurt Angle had an outstanding, historic classic that will be talked out for decades to come. In comparison, this match feels like a misuse of Michaels’ talents. It was clear Vince was going to lose no matter how many shenanigans he threw into the mix. With Michaels being so incredibly good during this second run, why not use his guaranteed WrestleMania spot to build up someone new? Why not have someone the company was going to push serve as a Vince stand-in and have Vince interfere from ringside? Yes, Vince is an incredibly animated and over-the-top personality, but he’s so limited despite his physical fitness that he can’t do all that much without dragging things out and padding his matches.

Final Rating: **3/4

While this had a few moments of excitement and had a good story that was told well enough, the overall match is skippable and not all that compelling. Everything looks and feels cheesy despite the serious edge they tried to put on it. Michaels wrestled like he was coasting and didn’t put in all that much effort yet he was so good that he made this nonsense work while putting in the bare minimum. It’s no wonder that so many people revere him and consider him one of the best to ever do it.

I went into this hoping to see Vince McMahon at really ham things up and be as ludicrously entertaining as he has made himself out to be over the decades. But for a guy who was known to exaggerate so much in front of the camera and really do whatever it took to get others over inside the ring he fell short as well. Hell, Vince’s WrestleMania match with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania XIX was better than this and that featured ten with a combined age of over 100.

Though Vince was known for being a solid performer, it was clear come 2006 that his best days were behind him and no amount of wackiness or wrestling theatrics could turn the clock back.

Thanks for reading.