It is with great pleasure that I announce that my fellow ATPW contributors have chosen to induct Shawn Michaels as the 8th member of the Across the Pond Wrestling Hall of Fame. I'm honestly surprised that it's taken this long for HBK to make it into our little HOF.
Shawn Michaels is someone who always manages to hold my attention when he's on the screen no matter what he's doing. He could be standing in the background of a skit and my eyes would be on him. He always seems to be performing, attempting to get a reaction out an audience, just because he could.
A list of must-watch matches as long as long can be, stretching from his time in the Rockers, all the way up until his retirement match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVI. Who can forget his Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker, his match with Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XXI, his match with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania XIX, his ladder match with Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X. And that's just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to Shawn.
He could seemingly bringing the best out of any opponent he would step in the ring with whether that be a larger man like Undertaker or a smaller guy, such as Rey Mysterio. Shawn was always able to find out what he needed to do with that opponent to make both of them to look good out there and it showed in his work. As his style changed as he got older, his matches didn't decrease in quality, in fact perhaps the very opposite, the final few years of his career produced some of his best matches.
His shock appearance at this year's WrestleMania to nail Sting with a Superkick showed that the nickname Showstopper still applied Michaels as he produced another WrestleMania moment in a career of WrestleMania moments.
Three WWE Championships, a World Heavyweight Championship, three Intercontinental Championships, three World Tag Team Championship, a WWE Tag Team Champion, Michaels produced a fine trophy cabinet throughout his career. And now he can add ATPW Hall of Famer to that list.
An announcement about an announcement! I'm going all BBC PR on your asses.
Usually we would have held a vote to see another wrestling personality enter our Hall of Fame to tie in with TNA's Bound For Glory PPV, but with TNA deciding it couldn't be bothered to promote to the PPV, I decided there wasn't much point announcing anything around a PPV that no one was actually interested in seeing anyway!
So, I went away and had a bit of think...WWE's Survivor Series would be an obvious option, but over previous years WWE has put a lot less empathsis on this PPV and anyone that still believes it to still be part of the big four is either deluded or on some kind of narcotic. Big Show main evented the show last year for Dawley's sake.
So I continued to ponder...pacing back and forth across a metaphorical floor. When on earth could I announce who our Panel has voted to join Bobby Heenan, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, The Undertaker and Ric Flair in our Hall of Fame! If only there was some company holding some big event, that has a certain buzz about it, perhaps a former WWE superstar causing shenanigans and maybe they're just about to launch a new on demand service (for only £3.99 a month?)
That's right! Our next Hall of Fame announcement will on Sunday 2nd November and will coincide with Insane Championship Wrestling's Fear and Loathing VII. Plus, the next vote will be exclusively for British wrestlers! As usual anyone is eligible and literally anyone could enter if our esteemed panellists vote for them. This one could be interesting.
