WWE Unforgiven, Oklahoma City, OK
Request via Ko-fi. This was right around the time my interest in wrestling was starting to fall off big for the first time in my life. I was 23, I could go to bars, and drinking cheap beer while listening to a small town DJ play the same songs over and over and over and over again was just more interesting to me than “Carlito” and “Snitsky.” It wasn’t until 2006 that I really started truly taking time away and I know I ordered this PPV and stuff, but I legitimately don’t remember much of anything about it.
Michaels recently did not pass the Masterlock Challenge or whatever. Jim Ross is on commentary with Jerald the King and John the Coach. Masters has also “never been pinned on television,” according to Jim Ross, which is a very funny thing to say specifically.
In a different era with different booking, Chris Masters absolutely would have had a short-term feud on the road and maybe one TV special against John Cena as WWE champion.
When Old H.B. Shizzle would pray on the ramp while his theme played it felt as though he were offering himself up to serve as the Lord Jesus Christ’s sexy boy.
When Michaels goes to his his spread-legged muscle flex in the ring, Masters grabs the Masterlock. Bell hasn’t sounded yet, and he breaks the hold pretty quickly, but he also keeps attacking. Referee Jack Doan should throw this out but obviously he won’t. I kinda like the idea here; Michaels was a notable favorite in this match and no amount of “but the other guy has big muscles” was convincing The WWE Universe of Masters’ chances at this point in Shawn Michaels’ career, so giving him an early advantage works.
Or, well, would, but Michaels just gets back into it pretty much immediately, and while he does shake his right arm around a couple times, he also hits a slingshot plancha, so, you know.
Jim Ross starts bitching about these goddamn youths talking about “torches being passed” and “glass ceilings.” It starts off as conversational commentary and starts to become Ross unloading some frustrations with young wrestlers.
Michaels fetches a chair and means to use it, but Jack Doan grabs it and Masters gets a shot in, but again it doesn’t last, Michaels is kicking Masters’ ass here. Eventually, though, Masters does get Shawn up in a power bomb lift on the outside, and slams his shitty useless back into the post a couple times, and that gives Masters the firm upper hand.
Masters, like the old time short-term title challenger heels, is a basic wrestler, doesn’t scream out with his charisma, but looks good and/or carries himself well. He does OK in this match, physically dominating Michaels once the advantage is his. It’s a different sort of thing than it would have been against a Bruno or a Hogan, because Michaels doesn’t wrestle like those guys, obviously, and doesn’t bring the same energy to a match they do. With Bruno or Hogan, you were looking for the hero to overcome a stiff challenge, sure, but they did it with power and indomitable spirit. Michaels has to do it with finesse, and frankly, both style and era, what you expect more of him is a Great Match. A performance to remember. Especially second career when he went years not winning the belt but just being a top attraction for the company, mostly but not always out of the title picture.
Masters’ back work is solid, simple, logical, and what he’s doing is done well. It’s not special and it’s not flashy. He is a 22-year-old guy learning on the job; if anything, Masters hit WWE too young, because there is a level he cannot get to, especially when pressed to go big at the level of a PPV match with Michaels, even if it’s just an Unforgiven and not a Mania, Rumble, SummerSlam type of show. Michaels sort of “auditioned” a bunch of guys in high-level matches in this era. Some made it through big, some kinda stagnated, but it doesn’t say a lot about the matches themselves, really. This match is certainly no worse than the one he had with Batista at Armageddon 2003, at least that I recall. If anything, I think this is probably better.
Masters gets a bloodied nose. Ross does a good job making it part of the match’s story, easy to do but not always done. Masters also clearly a little gassed in there, not terribly but the pace and length of the match is pushing him to his limit. He’d done 15 with Flair on Raw six days before this, possibly to test how ready he was, because mostly he’d done short stuff on TV, mostly under two minutes, a couple around four minutes.
Michaels escapes the Masterlock attempt and comes back with the flying burrito, clotheslines, a scoop slam because his back is good enough, I guess, same with the flying elbow. I’m all for the idea of an athlete fighting through the pain and injury, but this one feels abnormally like a betrayal of the work done in the match. Sweet Chin Music is ducked, and the Masterlock is on.
If they really had wanted to truly put the rocket on Masters, this would have finished it. They didn’t, so it’s not. Michaels goes to kick off the corner for a pin falling back, and a second attempt doesn’t go either. Masters too strong and has too much leverage with the full nelson. Crowd’s into this and Shawn looks lifeless with his arms being cinched as tight as can be.
Shawn finally figures out what to do, not kicking himself off the corner but over it and to the apron, meaning Jack Doan has to order the hold to be broken. From there, Shawn’s chances are reliant on his veteran savvy as much as anything, even counting his legendary resilience. Michaels goes up top, a little wobbly, and just sort of falls off into a slam attempt, Masterlock attempt, and then Chris turns around into the Sweet Chin Music for the Michaels win.
I thought this was really quite good; in part, it was kind of a make-good for Michaels’ pissbaby performance at SummerSlam with Hogan. I thought Masters held up his end of the bargain quite well for what you could have reasonably expected of him. It’s a bit strange that he really just never got these sort of chances again. He is, like many people, someone far better than his rating from the mouth-breathing contingent of Cagematch raters would indicate, even if he was never particularly great. That said, he was always going to be a short-term guy in any significant spot; he would really have been best as a traveling heel, bouncing from territory to territory, but he came along way too late in the game for that to be an option.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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