Some old man Michaels

I have a peculiar urge to run through a bunch of post-comeback Shawn Michaels. We'll see how far I get before going back to the Hector Guerrero. 

Shawn Michaels & HHH v Rated RKO (New Year's Revolution, 1/7/07)

I will not be re-watching the full old man DX run. However, I'd guess this is the highlight of that foolishness and that particular run ending with HHH blowing a quad and Shawn Michaels throwing a temper tantrum is quite fitting, all things considered. Helmsley in his oversized hockey jersey and Michaels running around with his wee beanie hat is peak "How do you do, fellow kids?" meme. They're about three years removed from that Good Charlotte video with the pensioners dressed like goths and skateboarders. This was pretty good. Had a couple heat segments and I liked Michaels and HHH dragging the referee out of position so they could hit stuff ILLEGALLY and whatnot. Michaels hits an apron legdrop on Orton and catches him with the heel of his boot and when Orton started bleeding I was like "wait a minute, I remembered much more blood than this." Edge eventually hits a chop block on Helmsley who goes FIP for a minute, then it breaks down a bit and Edge spears Michaels off the apron before Orton wellies him with the tag belt. Michaels bleeds a lot and I was like "I could've sworn it was Randy Orton who did all the bleeding!" HHH comes in at one point and starts hobbling as he's ejected and I thought the wee referee fella had caused him to blow his quad but it would appear he was just selling the leg from earlier. After the hot tag it all breaks down like I guess it was always supposed to, then the quad explodes on a spinebuster and he, Edge and Orton all start kind of floundering. So Michaels hits a corner tope on Orton and pulls rank on everything and wallops the referee to completely remove all of those awkward moments where he's getting in the way and having to make slow counts. Then he whomps Orton with a chair and THERE is all the fucking blood I remembered! Orton looks like he's been fully stabbed in the face and is just WEEPING blood after about six seconds. Michaels rolls around on the broken table after he elbows Orton through it like my 4-month old dog rolls around on the floor after I take him a walk in the rain.

Shawn Michaels v Randy Orton (Survivor Series, 11/18/07)

I don't think I've watched this since it aired. I remembered it being the first WWE match to feature a Crossface post-Benoit and not a whole lot else. Michaels always gets dinged for having piddly looking offence and has never been talked up as much of a hold worker, but maybe he'd been hanging around with Regal for a minute before this because he threw on a mean cravat early on and wouldn't let the thing go. This had a kind of silly stipulation in that Michaels couldn't hit Sweet Chin Music or he'd be disqualified and never allowed to challenge Orton for the title again. I have no idea why. Orton meanwhile would lose the belt if HE was disqualified. The latter is never really a factor but the former leads to some really creative stuff and WEAVES A TALE of Michaels having to step out of his comfort zone and find a new way to win. That means using a bunch of submissions that he's been forced to submit to himself over the years and I shit you not his Crossface looked better than Benoit's ever did. He really used his legs to hook Orton's arm so he couldn't grab the ropes and then twisted his head all ugly to the side, which left Orton with a cut lip (that led to some nice visuals later of Orton's blood-stained grin, especially after he nearly took Michaels' head off with a clothesline). He broke out the Sharpshooter and this being Survivor Series adds a nice wee layer to things, tried for the figure-four but it was reversed, then he went to the ankle lock towards the end and people were biting huge on it. They even worked those superkick teases in well, the first time with him making to hit it after the top rope elbow, brushing aside the referee's reminders that he can't actually do that move, but merely using it as a FEINT and rolling Orton up when he ducked. The second time he tried it was out of instinct, had to pull it back, and that split second let Orton hit the RKO. If we're keeping it a buck I've never seen Ric Flair work a match as creative as this. Fire me, I'm already fired.