Any match where someone spends several minutes actively working over their opponent's face is going to sit well with me. I don't even remember the reason Virgil was wearing a face mask around this point but Michaels saw it and wanted to get rid of it. "Early heel Shawn was never particularly dynamic offensively." Well you can cue up the Stephen A. Smith we don't care meme because if he's punching folk in their broken nose I'm sure I can make peace with any offensive shortcomings Michaels had. I thought he was pretty awesome in this. Right out the gate he tries to jab Virgil in the face and immediately sells his own hand when it connects with the mask, Sherri getting up on the apron to kiss his knuckles. After that he slaps Virgil instead, so Virgil bumps him around the ring and uses Michaels' hair to keep hold of a headlock. Michaels is obviously a huge and visceral bumper, everything done with ridiculous snap and speed, but his comedy stooging is super fun and it's not really something that gets brought up about him very often. Maybe it's because the bumping is so obvious and in your face that you don't notice the stooging, maybe it's because that bumping could verge too far towards cartoonish that you're already annoyed enough not to care, but as a stooge I could see this Michaels dropped into 1982 Memphis with Jimmy Hart as his manager and making magic. By 1992 we will absolutely settle for the Sensational Sherri, who distracts the referee long enough for Michaels to finally lift that mask and punch Virgil in the nose. If we're talking Memphis then this wasn't a Bill Dundee shot, but Michaels measured it perfectly and it looked like it stung and Virgil sold it like it did more than that. Michaels will choke Virgil, grab him in a headlock and turn him away from the ref' so he can jab him in the face, outright grab a handful of nose and start pulling, nothing fancy but mean and nasty. He even rams Virgil into the turnbuckle with so much force that the mask goes flying out the ring! MSG really responds for the Virgil comeback, sympathetic as they are towards the man having his broken face punched and twisted, which is a pretty stark contract to the beginning of the match when they were neither here nor there on either guy. I really liked the finish as well, with Virgil picking up steam and going for a high knee in the corner, only for Michaels to move and spike him with the teardrop suplex. This early heel Michaels run has been way better than I remembered. If there's any of that 1993 USWA run out there I should watch it this instant prolly.
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