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After finishing up disc 1 of the "Shawn Michaels: My Journey" DVD, the positive feelings I had about the initial part of disc 1 weren't unfounded. Michaels's interview segments with Michael Cole are really good for the most, but the real treasures are the matches.
Two matches I really enjoyed on disc 1 were the Brainbuster vs. the Rockers from the old Boston Garden and the Hart Foundation vs. The Rockers from MSG. The Brainbusters-Rockers match featured some really good tag team wrestling.
The match is prefaced with Michaels's comments about leaving the AWA to sign with the WWF. He talks about how different it was to work in the WWF environment where he and his partner Marty Jannetty weren't surrounded by younger wrestlers, but instead were surrounded by veterans of the business. Michaels also talks about how Blanchard and Anderson were very helpful to him backstage.
The Hart Foundation-Rockers match is also really good, but doesn't quite have the heat the Rockers-Brainbusters match had. It was fun to watch the match after Michaels talked about how he and Jannety would bump around for the Anvil. Sure enough once Anvil got in the ring, Michaels and Jannetty bumped around for him and made him look fantastic.
The focus of disc 1 eventually shifts towards HBK's breakup with Jannetty and his beginnings as a singles wrestler in the WWE. Michaels talks about it being a difficult time for him because he wasn't sure what the breakup would mean for Jannetty, but on the other hand it was a "make or break" period for him where if things didn't go well, it would be bad for his career.
Cole asks Michaels about working with the British Bulldog, Bret Hart, and the 1-2-3 Kid during this segment and once against Michaels delivers some interesting stories about working with all three men. Michaels's matches here against Hart and the 1-2-3 Kid are both really good and I'm looking forward to going back and listening to Michaels and Cole do commentary on his match with Hart.
The disc ends with Cole asking Michaels about the prejudice McMahon had against using smaller wrestlers on the top of the card. HBK's comments were interesting to listen to as he talked about having a chip on his shoulder to prove McMahon wrong during the period in his career. There's also a really hilarious exchange between Cole and Michaels about HBK having to work with big wrestlers where they basically say Psycho Sid was terrible, but Michaels refused to let him have a bad match.
I'll be back with more thoughts as I continue with disc 2.
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