27.8.02

"Beautiful Day": U2
It's a beautiful! Doo bee doo bee doo...
Memory is a very interesting thing. Why is it that I can recall some memories from years ago as if they happened yesterday and yet I can't remember what I ate for lunch two days ago. One of the great mysteries of the world. Before I go on with my post, I'm letting you know that this is going to be another wrestling post so if you're not interested in wrestling... too bad :) You're going to either have to stop reading here or continue on.

Yesterday I went to The Paramount to see WWE's Summerslam. The card was excellent and I was really looking forward to some of the matches. You had Kurt Angle (the WWE'S MVP in my opinion) taking on Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit taking on Rob Van Dam, and the Rock taking on "Next Big Thing" Brock Lesner. Now as hyped up as the main event was, the match I was looking forward to the most was the return of "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. As most of you already know from past posts, Shawn Michaels was my boyhood idol. When I was young, I grew up watching Shawn Michaels and I wanted to be him. I ate up his promo's and I was awestruck by his athleticism. I still have his autographed gloves for crying out loud!

After Shawn had to retire from the WWE four years ago with a broken back, I wished that he would one day come back for a final match. For those of you who remember, the last match Shawn had was with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and that's pretty much when Shawn passed the torch to Steve and the "Stone Cold" era of wrestling. Anyways when I found out that Shawn was taking on Triple H for perhaps his final match, I was prepared for magic in the ring.

And magic it was. I would have paid the entire admissions price just to watch the Shawn Michaels/ Triple H match. It was that good. For a man who's been away from the ring for four years, it was as if he had never left. They told an amazing story and had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. There was just something very special about seeing Shawn Michaels perform. There's a reason why he is called "The Icon" and "The Showstopper". The crowd cheered when Shawn hit one of his trademark spots, and they cringed in unison when Shawn was hit on his lower back with a chair. One moment I will particularly remember was right before Triple H dropped Shawn on top of a chair, I heard people groan and say "No, no come on don't do that. Not on his back. Please don't..." People felt for Shawn and people hated Triple H. When Shawn pinned Triple H after what seemed like an eternity, the whole theatre erupted. It was amazing.

If that was Shawn Michaels' last match, I'm glad I saw it and I'm glad lots of new fans were able to understand why people called this man the greatest sports entertainer of all time. There is only one Heartbreak Kid and he put a smile on all the faces of his "Clique".

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