Who do you prefer: Week 2 - The Rock vs Shawn Michaels

Gerard.C

Week One - Stone Cold (49) b Ric Flair (5)

I've decided not to go down the expected routue of HBK-Bret, Hogan-Rock, etc... as it would only re-hash old argumants. So...

Week two sees The Great One face off againts The HeartBreak Kid. The Peoples Champ vs Mr. Wrestlemania. Who and Why?

I'm going to have to pick HBK, he is THE icon at the end of the day, and I'm sure Dwayne's transition to Hollywood Superstar has left a slightly sour taste in more mouths than just my own.

Thoughts, opinions?

ShawnRaven

Like the direction you're going here.

Interesting comparison as the two never actually faced each other either.
Shawn takes this one all the way, because he's everything Rock never was or could be. While both had the natural charisma to make you either love or hate them, depending on the role they played, Michaels had the in ring ability. Michaels also carried the company on two legs during the company's worst financial time during the transition of the New Generation era to the Attitude era, having to work the likes of a past his prime Vader, or guys with limited ability like Sid.

Rock was never really put in a similar situation in that sense, he always had some sort of support. When Austin was out with injury, he always had the likes of HHH or Undertaker, or Kurt Angle to work with. That's nothing on Rock, i'm just saying that he was never put in the position so we'll never know.

Of course, the thread title is "Who Do You Prefer?", but i tend to judge someone on their ring ability first, everything else comes a long way after that.

gimmick

I would also be inclined to go for HBK as his match quality for the last 20 years at this stage has been top class. he has not been selfish when it comes to title runs either. His last title run was 3-4 weeks in late 2002 afterall.

He has put over alot of new talent, he is still having great matches, he can cut a promo and has been involved in some of the great angles.

He will always have a fond place in my heart for his oversell Vs Hogan at Summerslam 2005.

That being said, I loved The Rock as well for his incredible charisma and he was very very funny as well.

jossnjuice

its hbk for me too, as by the reasons mentioned above....love his work in the ring and i think almost matched rock on the mic.

nicely put shawn, rock never had to carry the company, and hbk did so definitely swings it in hbks favour.

good work on the thread too, like the idea!!

Reganio 2

I think HBK is amazing always have but I have gone for The Rock as he had a much bigger impact in the time I have watched wrestling. I know HBK carried it for years but the things I have seen made me go for The Rock. He just drew in non wrestling fans and you just wanted to hear him speak as you knew you were going to be entertained. Any Raw you could have gave him the mic for 2 hours and their would not be 1 complaint as he would keep it going.

CMpunked

I picked the Rock for the simple reason that my good lady will be more inclined to watch some old re runs of him because he is more entertaining.

To her if i have an old dvd of him, say WM17, she will watch the build up and connect to it on an emotional and genuine feeling of wanting to know who will come out on top.

So i picked the Rock for me because he was always just that little bit more entertaining.
I started watching wrestling just after the Screwjob and at that stage i didnt care so much for HBK. In time i learnt his history and that, and have respect for the dude. But when it comes to it, it has to be the rock.

Cactus Col

I went with the Rock.

I do appreciate how good HBK is in the ring, and that he's a charasmatic enough chap. But I've never particularily liked him.


The Rock .... was far more charasmatic, and though he might have had lesser ability, his matches often seemed more ... electric.

He seemed to accomplish as much in his 7 years in the wwe as HBK has in his 15-20 years.

Minto

This is a tough one. HBK is the embodiment of what a great wrestler should be. He is technically gifted, has great mic skills and charisma and really can tell a story in the ring. The Rock on the other hand, had superb mic skills and buckets of charisma. He was never gonna be Bret Hart in the ring, but he told a great story and always had the crowd in his pocket.

I grew up in the era of Rock and Austin. When I came to wrestling, Shawn was on his way out with the back injury. Simply for nostalgia and the time I spent in awe of the battles of Rock and Austin, I have to vote the winner as being The Rock!


IF YA SAAAMMMEELLLLLLLLLL....................

WHAT THE ROCK.....................

**crowd** IS COOKIN!

**whispers to camera** is cookin! **raises eyebrow**

flahavaj

Good choices Ger, fair play, I'd expect no less from a man of your calibre.

I'd go with HBK here all the way, one of the top five all time workers IMO. Rock had amazing charisma and when it all finally clicked for him he was unbelievably over, but he was never the worker Michaels was.

pingu_girl

I was a big rock fan from 96-99 but Picked HBK even though he was never my favourite wrestler cause he was able to carry the company almost single handedly for years back in the mid/late 90's and yet still over 10 years later deliver match of the year the past 2 years.

chopperbyrne

Shawn Michaels for me.

The Great One does live up to his name in the promo department, but if I was asked to name his top ten matches I think I'd struggle to get past five.

HBK on the other hand, I could probably list a different classic match every day for a month. He's also great on the mic and can convincingly be face, heel or tweener.

He has helped so many people further their careers and has provided so many memorable moments that I'd be hard pushed to name anyone ahead of him as a personal favourite.

Quite possibly the best of all time.

DM_7

Nice selection Ger.

I am going for HBK. He was a cocky sob in earlier years but he always delivered in the ring. He was one of my favourite wrestlers when I was a kid and when he won the title from bret at mania it was and is the most memorable moment in Wrestling for me.

I loved the build up to that match. The match itself is not always highly regarded here but for me the suspense involved is what made it special and the restart to a finish after it looked like HBK's chance had gone was great drama.

The fact HBK came back to wrestling after all his injury troubles shows how much love this Guy has for what he does. I am continually amazed at how he performs so well on a consistant basis after so many years.

He was involved in some of the most memorable matches and moments out there, Ladder match with Razor, Hell in the Cell v taker ,Elimination Chamber, winning at mania v bret, the thing in Canada, the barbershop window, Feud with Jericho, Mania match this year.... and so many more.


The Rock was great and if it was anyone else other than HBK the Rock would win in my book but not against HBK.

lankysexybeast

i'd vote the Rock. Although you can argue that hbk carried the company and that he is now the Babe Ruth of the wwe that vince always wanted. he matchs and promos were never the draw that the rocks were.

the rocks matchs weren't as techniquelly good but they involved the crowd. Watching him was truelly like watching a panto unfold. his moves were so inivitive in that regard that he's spawned a whole host of copy cats.
The rock hands down was the better entertainer and wins for me

grames_bond

i think LSB (im not callin you by your full name) made a great point, the amount of people copying the peoples elbow is rediculous, people say that the rock copied hogan....but the rocks involved the full thing not just the impact. i really enjoy them both, but tbh i think the rock totally involved the crowd with every move and every gesture, and there was no one like him on the mic!

ShawnRaven

grames_bond wrote: »

i think LSB (im not callin you by your full name) made a great point, the amount of people copying the peoples elbow is rediculous, people say that the rock copied hogan....but the rocks involved the full thing not just the impact. i really enjoy them both, but tbh i think the rock totally involved the crowd with every move and every gesture, and there was no one like him on the mic!

Let's not get carried away with ourselves folks!
I'm pretty sure other people used a gimmicked elbow as a finisher prior to Rock, Dusty Rhodes springs to mind.

grames_bond

ShawnRaven wrote: »

Let's not get carried away with ourselves folks!
I'm pretty sure other people used a gimmicked elbow as a finisher prior to Rock, Dusty Rhodes springs to mind.

agreed but take into account the armband the criss cross and all the other useless, unnecessary stuff made that move and the rock could sell it like no one else! the most electrifying move in sports entertainment today has unfortunatley become the most imitated move in sports entertainment today!

ShawnRaven

grames_bond wrote: »

agreed but take into account the armband the criss cross and all the other useless, unnecessary stuff made that move and the rock could sell it like no one else! the most irritating move in sports entertainment today has unfortunatley become the most imitated move in sports entertainment today!

Fixed your post!

grames_bond

ShawnRaven wrote: »

Fixed your post!

haha ill admit it never looked that effective or anything, but the way it was sold and performed had the cored in the palm of his hand regardless of if he was face or heel!

ShawnRaven

grames_bond wrote: »

haha ill admit it never looked that effective or anything, but the way it was sold and performed had the cored in the palm of his hand regardless of if he was face or heel!

I guess some people are easily pleased.

silvervixen84

Shawn Michaels for me, i've been a fan for 20 years, and i'm only 25!! He is an all rounder - skill, charisma, looks and works well as a face and a heel. I deafened my poor brother when his entrance began at WM this year (i know there were a few slip ups during the match, but the atmosphere in the arena was phenomenal) swoon :P

I like Rocky too, great entertainer, but i think he totally abandoned the wrestling biz for movies, he should have kept one foot in the door for when the bubble eventually bursts.

lgoring21

love love love the heart break kid....what a character!!

does any 1 know whats happenin to his eye?? really bad turn in it....one too many knocks i suppose!!

bigeasyeah

I dont like the rock,never did.HBK all the way

itsallaboutheL

I've never been a WWE fan TBH but used to watch it purely for the Rock and Stone Cold, Rock was pure entertainment even for casual viewers like myself...


ItsallaboutheL says "know your damn role";)

itsallaboutheL

i've been wandering around Youtube looking for a clip of the flip the Rock used to do / does in all his movies....

1:56 my favorite moment from WWE ever, i think thats pure athleticism from two absolute behemoths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6J2xNzrjTs

SlickRic

it's like f*cking Sophie's Choice...

The Rock was awesome, and was one of the main reasons I was hooked on wrestling during the Attitude Era. you just knew you'd be entertained when he was on. and because he was able to get me emotionally involved, because i loved the guy so damn much, i was always into his matches.

his wrestling calibre is also heavily underappreciated. He wasn't a ring technician, but he had an awesome style that worked for him, and he pulled it off superbly.

However I voted for HBK as he is, without a doubt in my mind, the greatest sports entertainer and professional wrestler alive. I believe he will go down as THE greatest. i truly do...

when we look back on his career at the end; it will only be then that i believe we will fully appreciate this man. his achivements are countless at this stage; he carried the company on his own, he's had MOTY too many times to remember (including the last 2 years), he was the first Grand Slam champion, he's the innovator of most major gimmick matches we see in WWE.

he can talk, he can wrestle, he can fight.

he's awesome. there's only one winner here for me. HBK.

it still sucks these two will never wrestle though...

Mr.Nice Guy

Really big fans of both guys but for me it's The Rock.

The way I look at it is the WWE enjoyed terrific success in the absence of Michaels. In the absence of The Rock, it began to slide in my view.

If Rock returned next week the fans would go crazy. Michaels never illicited that kind of response.

Michaels is the better wrestler, Rock is the bigger star.

rossie1977

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

The way I look at it is the WWE enjoyed terrific success in the absence of Michaels. In the absence of The Rock, it began to slide in my view.

the wwe was already on the slide when the rock was there, arena attendance especially at house shows saw a dramatic downturn in 2002 compared to the two previous years, WM19 buyrate was the lowest since the bleak days of the mid 1990s

Mr.Nice Guy

rossie1977 wrote: »

the wwe was already on the slide when the rock was there, arena attendance especially at house shows saw a dramatic downturn in 2002 compared to the two previous years, WM19 buyrate was the lowest since the bleak days of the mid 1990s

The Attitude era was dying at that stage definitely but let's remember his appearances became very sporadic from 2002 onwards. This was also the year Michaels returned to prominence, certainly the latter stage of the year. I would argue The Rock overall plugged up many of the holes. Drafting him back to Raw for example in 2003 I think typified how important he was to the company. They couldn't allow him to remain on Smackdown. Taking him off it ended up hurting SD in the ratings. I also recall when he left after Backlash ratings nosedived initially.

Think I'm right also in saying the highest rated segment and match in Raw history both featured The Great One.

Fans are more likely to tune in when they know he's on, regardless of the shoddiness of the product. If I heard he was on next week I'd tune in. I wouldn't do so for Michaels, despite the fact I'm a fan of his.

Shaneomac

The man at his peak http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYHQ1jII2MQ&feature=related

Shaneomac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlaBqv45LBo&feature=related For anyone who forgets what happens...

Lone Kimono

Ah terrible poll! Way too heard to choose between these two!

I have had to think about this, and in the end I pick HBK...just. IMO he could go down as the greatest of all time. There has been three 'stars' in wrestling history. Hogan, Rock and Austin. They have been over like no one else before or since. But HBK, he is amazing on the mic, great actor, well able to sell a story, he can play a heel character that will really make you despise him even when you know its not real! In the ring, he ranks below the likes of Bret Hart and Kurt Angle for me, but he has been in so many classic and huge matches during his WWE career, how many Wrestlemania classics has he been involved in? Was in the first televised ladder match in WWE and the first ever Hell in a Cell match. When you add hes skills and ability in and out of the ring together and with everything he has been involved in he may just be the best ever. The total superstar.

This is taking nothing away from the Rock, imo the greatest on the mic ever, no one has ever had the charisma that this man possesses, he can hold a crowd like no other. But still I give this one to HBK.

CMpunked

Its fairly tight.

Well done to Ged C for coming up with such a thought provoking choice.

orestes

A lot of people are saying this is a close call for them. To me, it's a no contest.

The Rock had a shortish spell in the WWE. He had more charisma, mic skills and the worship of the fans than most wrestlers would ever be able to dream of. He wasn't too shabby in the ring either, something that gets overlooked a bit cos he was so damned good with the mic and people focus on his promos.

But HBK is the total package. Arguably the greatest perfomer of all time, can work the mic, can play any role he wants too and could have a 4 star match with a mop (5 star if it's a good quality mop). And has done for 20 years, carrying the company on his back for some of them. People praise the Attitude era superstars, but without HBK there would have been no company to have an attitude era at all.

HBK gets my vote

Mr.Nice Guy

What surprises me about this poll's current score is that there seems to me to be parallels between this poll and the last one between Flair and Stone Cold.

Flair it's fair to say was a better wrestler than Austin and therefore most would argue the better all round package...and yet Austin won the poll comfortably.

Like Flair and Austin, Michaels was a better wrestler than Rock and perhaps therefore more of an all round package and yet in this poll most people seem to be voting HBK, mainly because of that fact.

Thoughts?

Lone Kimono

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

What surprises me about this poll's current score is that there seems to me to be parallels between this poll and the last one between Flair and Stone Cold.

Flair it's fair to say was a better wrestler than Austin and therefore most would argue the better all round package...and yet Austin won the poll comfortably.

Like Flair and Austin, Michaels was a better wrestler than Rock and perhaps therefore more of an all round package and yet in this poll most people seem to be voting HBK, mainly because of that fact.

Thoughts?

Well I see your point, but the great thing about these polls is that people are voting on their favourite. I gave my thoughts and reasons on why I voted HBK, but only because I found it so hard to pick between the two. If you said pick between lets say a star and talent like Flair or Christian, I'd have picked Christian every single time just because I would rather him even if he never will be the star Flair was.

thealltimelow

hbk because he did not go run away when hollywood came looking like the rock and after wm25 this guy is a god in the ring

Lone Kimono

Why are people always annoyed with The Rock for leaving to make films? While the WWE made him he gave back much more to them and along with Austin was a huge part of the Attitude era. I'd rather be doing ok for myself in the film business instead of being 40 year old broken down wrestler.

itsallaboutheL

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

What surprises me about this poll's current score is that there seems to me to be parallels between this poll and the last one between Flair and Stone Cold.

Flair it's fair to say was a better wrestler than Austin and therefore most would argue the better all round package...and yet Austin won the poll comfortably.

Like Flair and Austin, Michaels was a better wrestler than Rock and perhaps therefore more of an all round package and yet in this poll most people seem to be voting HBK, mainly because of that fact.

Thoughts?

Its because people like me see the poll who only have a passing interest in wrestling yet can relate to The Rock from when they were younger, same with Austin

JP Liz

This is a difficult one for but i picked The Rock in the end

CMpunked

thealltimelow wrote: »

hbk because he did not go run away when hollywood came looking like the rock and after wm25 this guy is a god in the ring

Are you telling me that if you were a sports star and a hollywood producer came and said "We wanna put ya in pictas!". You would decline?
I know i sure as hell wouldnt. Could be fun. :pac:

And hollywood never went looking for Shawn either.


I think most people dont hold anything against the rock for what he done, theres not a lot of people who dont respect how he was there when they started watching wrestling or how him an austin defined an era.
And he gave soo many good moments that why should he HAVE to come back and wrestle again?
His time was 1998-2004(ish).
Just because it can be cool to get all nostalgic doesnt mean it should happen.


My gripe with the Rock, or Dwayne as i will refer to him as, was a huge wrestler to the wrestling fans, and a well known wrestler to the non-wrestling fans.
He went of and made a few movies and went back to the WWE and went all heelish, which was pretty awesome, .
Then dissapeared again, never to be seen near a ring.
But now Dwayne requests that people dont ask him about his wrestling past, they dont reference him as ever being a wrestler.

I dont get that. If the majority of the people who know who you are from hearing your name being associated with wrestling then why just try and ignore the history?

Its that i dont get with the rock.

Its like he gave himself some sort of Self-Benoit-Syndrome*.

*(Where history is changed regardless of accomplishments and achievments, and all associating with the individual is forgotten about.)

gimmick

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

What surprises me about this poll's current score is that there seems to me to be parallels between this poll and the last one between Flair and Stone Cold.

Flair it's fair to say was a better wrestler than Austin and therefore most would argue the better all round package...and yet Austin won the poll comfortably.

Like Flair and Austin, Michaels was a better wrestler than Rock and perhaps therefore more of an all round package and yet in this poll most people seem to be voting HBK, mainly because of that fact.

Thoughts?

Its funny, because I was about to say that you could argue this post as Sports Entertainment Vs Wrestling, where Rock stands for the former, HBK the latter. But then in the previous poll you could have almost asked the same with Austin in the Sports Entertainment bracket.

So my above thought is incorrect.

batari

If the Rock had stayed at it and not left when he did, I'd say he'd be pretty much one of the biggest legends in wrestling.
But I've grown up with Michaels since the time himself and Marty Jannetty used to astound prople with their killer off the top rope moves, and watched him always reinvent himself to keep up with any newbie that entered the ring.
So, the Rock - Great Wrestler, was on his way to something special.
H.B.K. - LEGEND :pac:

ShawnRaven

Glad ya popped in atariman.

Otis Driftwood

On a technical level there is no contest but for sheer energy and entertainment I plumped for the Rock on this one.
Tough choice though.

parker kent

Shawn Michaels all the way for me. Sure The Rock attracts more casual fans but HBK is the best American wrestler IMO. The three matches I've enjoyed the most in 14 years as a wrestling fan are Hell in a Cell HBK/The Undertaker, HBK/Undertaker at Wrestlemania this year and then HBK/HHH in Michaels comeback match at Summerslam. The Rock just had the same match over and over again. HBK had innovative, exciting matches.

sweatingbullets

has to be hbk,sa-weet chin music all the way.

deanodrummer

Ooh it's pretty tight.

Gotta say HBK though. Loved him as a kid and possibly the greatest of all time. Always puts on a good match. The Rock was terribly entertaining though overall.

brick tamland

a toughie

In normal week to week TV, I'd prefer Rock.

on a PPV match I'd prefer Shawn

i went for rocky in the vote

G-Money

At the risk of getting flamed, I'd have to go with The Rock. HBK has had a much longer career and in some ways maybe achieved more. But in terms of pure entertainment value, The Rock wins hands down for me.

oldboy

voted the rock, him and austin got me back into wrestling in the late 90s, great heel and a great babyface

reading bret harts book at the moment and hbk doesnt come off good in it at all, he comes across as a cnut

flahavaj

This is getting very close. It has to be repeated, brilliant choices by Gerard C this week.