TAKE PWTORCH
WITH YOU! Get our iPhone App (FREE!): Click Here Or enter "PWTorch.com" on your Blackberry or other Smart Phone browser for mobile-version of PWTorch.
CALDWELL'S TAKE
CORNER CUBE MONDAY 8/18 - Shawn Michaels showed strength, not weakness by not attacking Jericho Aug 18, 2008 - 12:34:44 PM
Updated daily from the corner cubicle, Torch columnist James Caldwell's weekday blog focuses on hot topic current events and other items of interest from around wrestling.
Updated Monday, August 18
Last night's angle between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho was stellar in terms of acting, costume, tone, and delivery. It was also stellar in conveying the exact nature of the characters involved in the confrontation that was the culmination of three months of interplay between two of the top wrestlers in WWE.
Shawn Michaels didn't look weak for not fighting back against Chris Jericho after he punched his wife. This entire storyline is about Michaels changing his stripes. He's not playing the old Shawn Michaels character, which would have led to him instantly jumping on Jericho and letting his anger get the best of him. He's a family-man who has to live with his past, but is trying not to repeat it.
Michaels not attacking Jericho was the perfect way to show how Michaels has changed. If Michaels would have attacked Jericho, he would have stooped to Jericho's level - the level where Jericho has wanted to take Michaels for months, but a level Michaels has refused to venture towards.
Michaels showing restraint from retaliating showed character strength, not character weaknesses. Just like JBL tried to take C.M. Punk down to his level on Raw, Punk refused even if he would have looked cool to a portion of the audience for throwing back some liquor.
Michaels played the part perfectly showing a second-by-second conflict within himself of whether to attack Jericho or tend to his wife. Old self or new self? Eye-for-an-eye or turn the other cheek?
By not attacking Jericho, he made Jericho think about his actions. Thinking of this in terms of a hypothetical shoot, Jericho wouldn't have been able to sleep last night thinking about punching out another man's wife.
Michaels did more damage to Jericho by not attacking him. And it fit the storyline perfectly, which has been all about Michaels trying to do the right thing as a man of principle when Jericho has wanted him to fall into his old self.
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.
INCREDIBLE BENEFITS! Over 50 full-length audio updates per month (iPod compatible)... New weekly award-winning Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (text and printable pdf versions) with latest exclusive insider news, new Torch Talks, great columns, Keller's cover story, much more... Hundreds of full-length back issues of PWTorch Newsletter from late-'80s to today... Ad-free access to PWTorch.com's Main Listing... VIP Forum with interaction with other subscribers and Torch staff... Torch Talk Library with text and audio of hundreds of interview installments from last 20 years... Great layout... Deepest archives on pro wrestling history anywhere... Keller's PWTorch Today PDF Bulletins with email alerts... VIP Email reports on major PPVs and TV shows... Staff Roundtable Reviews (text and audio) followiing major events... The best staff of writers and world class reporting since 1987... We'd love for you to join us and experience the most entertaining, authoritative, experienced staff of professional reporters and commentators in the business...
Compare the value of four or five months of PWTorch VIP content to the price of just one PPV. Can you cut 25 cents a day from your budget to make room for PWTorch VIP?
AND NEW FOR 2009! Monthly "Vintage Audio Torch Talks." We are releasing for the first time ever audio versions of our text Torch Talk updates, the historical first series of insider interviews ever. Wade Keller's newsmaking in-depth interviews with wrestling's biggest names are now being made available exclusively to VIP members. But you must be a member each month, as these are not archived, so they are replaced with a new one each month! This debuted in January 2009 with a 68 minute interview with the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith. Who's next? Hulk Hogan? Eric Bischoff? The Rock? Goldberg? Jeff Hardy?
