[Mr. Pike Central]

[SIZE="3"]#6

Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels
Non-Sanctioned Match (Summerslam 2002)[/SIZE]

Full Match:

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Did ANYONE ever think that HBK was going to have the career that he had? I mean, he was already in Hall of Fame status by the time he was out the first time, but he did the unthinkable: Coming back from retirement and continuing for 8 more years. HBK may have been past his prime physically, but mentally he would improve to be the maestro of wrestling matches. Austin calls him the greatest wrestler of all time and it's hard to dispute that. He would go on to have classic after classic so much that his absence has had an effect on the quality of the product.

HHH/HBK would go on to have another great match on RAW but it would be the last time that they have another classic together. This was the first and a dream match for many. After HHH ended up having the illustrious career that he had, the two wrestlers were matched to matched equally.

So yea, the build up to this was crazy. In a good and bad way. The feud started with HBK trying to recruit HHH into the nWo. With Nash's injury and Pac's drug habit, the nWo project failed so HBK decided to reform dX instead. HHH ended up with the severe and backstabbed Shawn. The next week, HHH cut a promo on Shawn and then Shawn was found bloodied after being thrown at a car window. On the next RAW, HHH suddenly had a change of heart and vowed to go after HBK's attacker. Segment after segment you would see HHH taunting talent by asking who attacked his best friend. VERY SIMILAR with Kane going after the Undertaker's attacker in 2010. As it turned out, we coincidentally had super awesome backstage footage of the attacker attacking HBK. It ended up being HHH.

Sound stupid? Definitely. Did it make HHH look even more like an ass for pretending he had no idea? YEAH!!! If you didn't think people wanted to see HHH get his head smashed in then you weren't paying attention. I recommend viewing the match video because the beginning has a super duper awesome promo package explaining the whole ordeal. The only stupid thing that they were doing in this feud was pretending that it wasn't going to happen because the GM wouldn't book it. Explain the ref and the entrances then, buddy. Supposedly, HBK used a blood capsule instead of blading. Pretty understandable given it was his first match in 4 years. It was a fine piece of storytelling that Shawn would come to master and become one of the greatest storytellers in wrestling history.