Shawn zip lines into the arena, which is great. Quite how Bret was supposed to follow that I’ve got no idea, he just walks out to an amazingly lukewarm reaction. Earl Hebner goes through the rules which, while delivered a bit awkwardly, really makes the match feel significant. “If you don’t break by a count of four, I *WILL* disqualify you”.
For all the talk of conditioning, we go to the rest holds very early in this match. Bret is working headlocks, Shawn working Bret’s arm. To be simplistic, it largely stayed like this for the first half hour. The action picks up as we start the second half, Shawn hits a powerslam, Bret kicks out, Bret hits a piledriver, Shawn kicks out. Michaels, for about a thirty second spell in the entire match, tries for a superkick, after that he mysteriously doesn’t go for it again in normal time.
The second half of the match is more of a series of spots as the match built in intensity. The crowd, largely, were pretty flat through. There are some gasps – Shawn goes vaulting over the top turnbuckle to the outside, something that played out even better on TV with the cameraman underneath the action. With ten minutes to go, the intensity and desperation picks up, but the drama never really did. Shawn, inexplicably, never went for the superkick (despite dominating a 2 minute stretch of the final five minutes). Shawn goes to the top, Bret catches him jumping off and locks in the sharpshooter with 30 seconds to go. Shawn survives and Bret thinks (as he’s probably in his right to) a 0-0 final score should be enough.
Gorilla Monsoon says we should go into Sudden death. Bret fires Shawn into the corner, Shawn vaults the charge then leathers a superkick. Both men go down, Shawn gets to his feet, hits a second superkick and wins the match. The crowd pop for that.
Overall, this was a good match. However, when you consider that it largely decimated the entire card, and cost us what probably could’ve been a barnburner of a Shawn/Bret match otherwise, it’s a disappointment. For all the talk of conditioning Bret and Shawn shot for rest holds way too early, and the 0-0 story felt clichéd, almost obvious. A far better story would’ve been Shawn picking up a fall at any stage during the match, then Bret desparately trying to get one back, using heel tactics as a result. That would’ve given the crowd more reason to react, rather than watch, and would've made the sharpshooter conclusion far more dramatic. Good match, but could and should have been better.