Email This Article - Contact Us - VIP Sign-Up - Back to Home Page

|

Two PWTorch.com readers submitted counterpoint editorials to Michael Moore's review earlier this week of the Shawn Michaels DVD "Heattbreak and Triumph."

By Terrie Neilson, Las Vegas, Nev.

One thing that Michael Moore made mention of that bothered him about certain facts may need to be clarified.

One was about Shawn Michaels failing a drug test and Vince wanting the IC Title back. In both the written edition and the DVD, Shawn was taken aside for specifically failing a *steroid* test and not a more general drug test. Shawn acknowledged at the time of having prescriptions but that the steroids would not be in his system. One look at a much chunkier Shawn at the time (1993) and the idea of him being on steroids doesn't look to wash.

Moore seemed to have issues with vagueness regarding Shawn's past demons. There is a point at which we should allow for some privacy. William Regal was much more candid about his drug issues in his book, but not everyone else may be. Shawn's wife Rebecca does name one, somas (a common one among wrestlers from things I find), in regard to the breaking point moment involving his then toddler son. The written edition never expressly named which specific drugs or alcohol Shawn became addicted to, and I am satisfied with that, as addiction is addiction regardless of the specifics. All this recent news of Britney Spears, with everyone needing to know every little detail about her current problems, is just plain overload across the board. There has to be a point of detachment somewhere.

One thing I am noticing: a great amount of recent attention, on Shawn's DVD but in many recent issues of WWE Magazine, to the botched tag team title match versus the Hart Foundation. I keep getting the sense that there is a major attempt to rectify the match and title change. It's 20/20 hindsight now, but I don't know why they couldn't have just shown the match anyway (curious to watch it without commentary). The Hart Foundation could have used the rope as the reason to have the titles vacated instead (keeping the Rockers title win they did earn in from of a TV crowd valid and explaining the brief reign that way on TV), which would have likely furthered the Rockers-Harts title feud. Before the rope break and after the rope was fixed, the match was decent.

True, where Chris Benoit fits in during Wrestlemania XX was left out, but the material with Kurt Angle was clearly shown (which Moore said was also left out). Also, Shawn sets up about the section about Hulk Hogan and SummerSlam '05 (his book stopped at Wrestlemania 21 and Angle), but he himself does not speak of the issues surrounding the match; several others do. And Moore stops there, leaving out summer 2005-April, 2007 and whatever opinions he had of that span of time. I'm curious what he thought of the rest of it.

Of course, there is with every DVD release the things we wished were on them but isn't. For me, it's the 2005 "Gold Rush Tournament" match against Shelton Benjamin. Wasn't there to be a fly on the wall to know why that wasn't included, but wished I was. Shawn Michaels will likely never totally live down his past behavior nor be totally accepted for having turned his life around. He, like many others in the business, will always live under a microscope for folks to analyze the smallest details. At some point, we have to let things be and move on.

*** *** ***

By Mark from Buffalo

I'm writing in response to your review of the "Shawn Michaels: Heartbreak and Triumph" DVD. I just ordered the DVD myself over the holidays, so I had a chance to watch it very recently.  I usually enjoy material from the Torch, but I was disappointed in this analysis of the DVD, as I felt the author left out several key elements of the the release in order to further his argument that it was filled with lies and inconsistencies.

For example, in paragraph four of the "WWE tag team specialist and superstar" section, the author chastises Shawn for claiming there was no way he could have failed the test that led to his brief suspension in 1993 as he openly admits to using drugs in other parts of the DVD. Your writer should have watched the DVD more carefully: Shawn was suspended because trace amounts of steroids were found in his test results. In that very segment, Shawn admits that he was constantly on prescription and illegal drugs in that point in his life but is adamant about never using steroids. Obviously, I have no idea whether he took steroids or not, but regardless there is no inconsistency in Shawn's claims here.

Later on, when discussing the infamous "I Lost my smile speech," the author makes the blatant claim that "Nothing is mentioned that this was an excuse to avoid jobbing to Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13." Actually, Shawn does discuss this and claims that it isn't true. I'm not taking Shawn's side on the issue, but it's unfair and inaccurate to make the claim that that particular rumour isn't even addressed. 
 
Lastly, although the version of events leading up to and following the Montreal Screwjob covered in this DVD is undoubtedly skewered towards Vince's and Shawn's points of view, the author still makes several erroneous claims in this section of the review that makes the WWE out to be far worse than they really our.

He makes the case that the DVD paints Triple H as the mastermind of the whole thing: In reality, it's made clear by both Vince and Hunter that McMahon was already thinking along the lines of double crossing Bret, but was fearful of going forward without having Shawn and Triple H on board. The DVD doesn't try to portrary Triple H as the mastermind of the whole Screwjob, it just states that when Triple H said "F--- him," it gave Vince the confidence to go forward with what he already had in mind. To claim that the DVD doesn't try to make Vince out to be the one most responsible for the screwjob is simply inaccurate. 
 
Overall, the reviewer tries to paint the DVD as constantly trying to twist things Shawn's way in order to make him look good. I have no doubt that the WWE did some selective editing, but there are many points throughout the biography where Shawn does not come off well at all: Besides being a drug user, numerous wrestlers and friends describe him as being arrogant and selfish at different points in his life. For the most part, I thought the DVD was honest and fair even (sometimes) at the expense of Shawn's reputation. The author is obviously free to feel differently, but at many times he does so while leaving out important facets of the release.

Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.

For more BREAKING NEWS on WWE, TNA!
VISIT OUR AFFILIATE - PROWRESTLING.NET

For UFC & MMA NEWS & BLOGS:
VISIT OUR SISTER SITE - MMATORCH.COM

Upgrade to PWTORCH VIP: DETAILS & SIGN-UP INFO