Marty Jannetty vs. Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship, from the May 17, 1993 episode of WWF Monday Night Raw

The dirty little secret about HBK’s early 90s heel run is that it was only intermittently successful in the ring and that he turned face right as he finally figured out a formula that worked. That’s years away from this match, however, so it’s Jannetty that must carry things with his shiny teeth, getting the lions share of the offense while the metatextual question of if the company is crazy enough to let him win looms (this was the same night 1-2-3 Kid beat Razor; would they really deliver two shocks in one night?). Fun stuff, but they’d do better.

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