The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon (Sep 1993 – Aug 1995)

Background

Scott Hall joined the WWF in May 1992 and debuted as Razor Ramon, a Miami bully whose look, accent and swagger were modeled on Tony Montana and Manny Ribera from Scarface.[5] The catchphrase came from the same place: "Say hello to The Bad Guy."[5] He wrestled his first WWF match on August 8, 1992, beating Paul Van Dale with the Razor's Edge.[5]

Shawn Michaels had spent that period as the WWF's Intercontinental Champion, working the belt as the vain heel who had thrown Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window.[6] Both men were on the same card constantly. Neither had any reason to cross paths until one Monday night changed both of their years.

On May 17, 1993, at the Manhattan Center in New York, Raw ran two matches that mattered. The 1-2-3 Kid pinned Razor in 2:12 with a moonsault after Razor missed a charge and hit the ringpost, an upset that triggered a slow turn toward the crowd for Razor.[5][7] Later on the same show Marty Jannetty pinned Michaels at 10:57 with an inside cradle to take the Intercontinental title, after Mr. Perfect threw a towel in Michaels' face.[7]

Michaels got the belt back on June 6 in Albany, beating Jannetty with the superkick while a debuting bodyguard called Diesel distracted the champion from the floor.[7] The bodyguard was Kevin Nash.[5]

Their first singles match came fast. On June 12, 1993 at Madison Square Garden, Razor beat Michaels by count-out at 8:51 when Diesel dragged the champion out of the ring right after the Razor's Edge landed.[7] Razor grabbed a microphone and told Michaels to bring the bodyguard and the belt back out. Michaels and Diesel came back to ringside, then left again.[7]

That was where things sat in September 1993, when Michaels stopped showing up.

Build-up

The WWF announced it on the weekend syndicated shows of October 2 and 3, 1993: Michaels had been stripped of the Intercontinental Championship and suspended for failing to appear for title matches and not fulfilling his contractual obligations, and a 20-man battle royal that week on Raw would decide which two men wrestled for the vacancy.[7]

The real version was a failed drug test. Michaels tested positive for steroids in September 1993, a charge he has never admitted, and he did not send the belt back.[6] "Being the troublemaker that I was, I had literally taken my title home and wouldn't send it back," he later said.[15]

The battle royal ran on the October 4 Raw and ended with Razor Ramon and Rick Martel both left standing after they dumped the Quebecers, so both were declared co-winners.[7] A week later, on the October 11 Raw, Razor pinned Martel with the Razor's Edge at 10:42 and became Intercontinental Champion for the first time.[7]

Michaels came back at Survivor Series on November 24, 1993, filling in for Jerry Lawler as the captain of the masked Knights against the Hart family.[6] He came back carrying his old belt, and the WWF now had two Intercontinental Champions on the same television show.[15]

The needling started immediately. On the November 29 Raw, Razor beat Diesel by disqualification in a non-title match when Michaels ran in, and Michaels then tried to piledrive Razor onto the title belt before the 1-2-3 Kid chased him off.[7]

On the December 4 WWF Superstars, Michaels sat for an interview, said he answered to no man where his suspension was concerned, and called Razor an imposter.[7] Razor walked out and said that if it had been up to him, he would have beaten Michaels for the belt personally. Then he flicked his toothpick at Michaels and burst the bubble gum in his mouth.[7]

Two days later on Raw, Michaels wrestled the 1-2-3 Kid to a no contest at around fifteen minutes by hitting the Kid with the Razor's Edge twice and refusing to cover him.[7] Razor pulled the Kid out of the ring and chased Michaels up the aisle, Diesel punched Razor from behind the curtain, and Michaels dropped Razor with two Razor's Edges of his own by the entrance before officials broke it up.[7]

Three weeks later, in Toledo, Ohio, in front of 850 people at the SeaGate Center on December 27, the two of them wrestled the first Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels ladder match.[7] They would run it around the loop for the next three months.

At the Royal Rumble on January 22, 1994 in Providence, Razor defended the belt against IRS.[3] Michaels came in with his counterfeit Intercontinental title, cracked Razor across the back with it, and IRS was counted the winner and the new champion at 10:46.[8] Earl Hebner came out and told referee Joey Marella what had happened, the decision was thrown out, and the match kept going.[3][8] Razor pinned IRS at 11:47 with the Razor's Edge while IRS was celebrating on the middle turnbuckle.[8]

Later that night Michaels drew number 29 in the Rumble match itself, eliminated Bret Hart, and then lost his footing when a spinning heel kick sent Fatu into him.[8] He was looking at Razor on the floor when it happened. The two of them brawled all the way to the back.[8]

There was one belt too many and two men claiming it, so the WWF hung both of them above the ring at Madison Square Garden and put a ladder under them.[1][16] Whoever climbed up and took both belts down was the undisputed Intercontinental Champion.[1] The WrestleMania countdown show ran a video package on it and sent Johnny Polo backstage to interview Diesel about the match.[8]

The Matches

WrestleMania X ran on March 20, 1994 at Madison Square Garden, 18,065 in the building and a 1.68 buyrate worth about 420,000 North American buys.[1]

Razor walked under the ladder on his way to the ring without breaking stride.[17] Michaels would not go under it. Razor chokeslammed him early, Michaels answered with a neckbreaker, and Diesel clotheslined Razor on the floor until Earl Hebner sent him to the dressing room.[1][17]

Razor peeled back the mats to expose the concrete, Michaels got to the ladder first, and the first thing he did with it was baseball-slide it into Razor's chest.[17] He worked him over with it, propped it in the corner, and hit a splash off the top of it.[17] Razor got up and shoved the ladder over with Michaels on top of it.[17]

From there they traded it back and forth for the rest of the match: a superkick, a piledriver, the ladder sandwiched between Michaels and the ringpost more than once, and roughly fourteen separate moments where one man got a hand on a belt before the other knocked the ladder out from under him.[18]

The finish came when Michaels laid the ladder across Razor's body and started climbing. Razor got up under it, shoulder-blocked it down, and Michaels came off tangled in the ropes, his foot caught and then his arm, hanging there while Razor set the ladder up and climbed.[8][17] Razor took both belts down at 18:47 and left the Garden as the only Intercontinental Champion.[1]

The rematch took eighteen months and it was not planned. Michaels had turned babyface and won the title back from Jeff Jarrett in July 1995, and a defense against Psycho Sid was already advertised for SummerSlam.[6][9] On the August 5 WWF Superstars, interim WWF President Gorilla Monsoon scrapped it and made it a ladder match against Razor instead, saying he had the fans' interests in mind.[9]

SummerSlam ran on August 27, 1995 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, a sellout at 18,062 and a 0.9 buyrate worth around 205,000 buys.[2][9] Michaels was the champion this time and both men were fan favorites, a rare matchup of two babyfaces.[2]

Razor built the whole match around Michaels' left leg, twisting it in the rungs and dropping the ladder on it over and over.[2] Michaels suplexed him off the ladder and went to the air; Razor caught him coming off the top and cut him off.[2] Razor got the Razor's Edge but could not follow up, and when he went for a second one Michaels reversed it and backdropped him to the floor, then climbed and took the belt at 25:01.[2][9]

Razor came back out afterward, handed Michaels the title, and shook his hand.[9]

House Shows

The first Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels ladder match ran at the SeaGate Center in Toledo, Ohio on December 27, 1993, in front of 850 people, almost three months before WrestleMania.[7] Over the next month they ran it at the USAir Arena in Landover, Maryland on January 9, 1994 (1,800), the San Jose Arena on January 14 (6,200), the Great Western Forum in Inglewood on January 15, the Richfield Coliseum outside Cleveland on January 16 (2,800), the Torrington Armory in Connecticut on January 21, Bristol, Connecticut on January 23 (900), and the Philadelphia Spectrum on January 24 (5,000).[7][8]

The San Jose match is the only one from the tour with a recorded time and finish: 21:54, ending when Michaels was knocked off the ladder and fell throat-first across the top rope.[8]

They also wrestled each other constantly without the ladder. The Springfield Civic Center in Massachusetts on February 2, 1994 got the longest version on record: Razor pinned Michaels at 19:56 after the match had already been thrown out as a double count-out at 11:26 and Razor grabbed a microphone to demand they keep going.[8] Diesel knocked out referee Joey Marella and used Michaels' fake title belt as a platform for an elbow drop, Marty Jannetty ran in to break the cover, and Michaels accidentally hit Diesel in the face going after him.[8]

Razor also ran ladder matches with other opponents on the same tour, beating IRS in one at Johnstown, Pennsylvania on December 30, 1993 and again at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on February 20, 1994.[7][8]

Aftermath

Michaels did not get the belt at WrestleMania, so Diesel got it instead. At a WWF Superstars taping in Rochester, New York on April 13, 1994, Diesel pinned Razor at 5:43 with the powerbomb after Michaels pulled a turnbuckle pad off, and the footage aired on the April 30 show.[8] Diesel held it for four months.[8]

The rematch was at SummerSlam on August 29, 1994 in Chicago, and Razor brought Walter Payton with him.[8] Michaels interfered behind the referee's back and superkicked his own partner by accident; Payton stopped him from breaking up the cover, and Razor won the title back at 15:02.[8] Diesel stalked Michaels backstage while Razor celebrated with Payton and Payton's son in the ring.[8] The partnership limped on to Survivor Series and ended there.[15]

By 1995 both men had moved on. Razor chased Jeff Jarrett through a run of house show ladder matches in May and June, briefly winning the belt from him in one at the Montreal Forum on May 19 before losing it back three days later, and taking a rib injury in another at the Nassau Coliseum on June 9 that cost him the King of the Ring tournament.[5][9] Michaels beat Jarrett for the title in July.[6] The SummerSlam rematch was the last significant thing the two of them did against each other.

Six weeks after Pittsburgh, on October 13, 1995, Michaels was assaulted by several servicemen outside Club 37 in Syracuse, New York.[9] Davey Boy Smith and the 1-2-3 Kid were with him; Smith took a black eye, the Kid was not hurt, and Michaels refused to press charges, as the Wrestling Observer reported at the time.[9] The WWF announced on the October 16 Raw that its Intercontinental Champion had been jumped by ten people outside a nightclub, and Michaels phoned in to the same show promising to be in Winnipeg for the pay-per-view whatever shape he was in.[9]

He was not. At In Your House on October 22, 1995, Gorilla Monsoon awarded the vacant belt to Dean Douglas, and Razor beat Douglas at 11:01 with a back suplex to win the Intercontinental Championship for the fourth time.[9]

The last time they stood in a ring together in the WWF was May 19, 1996 at Madison Square Garden, in front of a sellout of 18,800.[10] Hunter Hearst Helmsley beat Razor earlier in the night, Razor tried to say goodbye to the crowd and had his microphone cut, and after Michaels beat Diesel in the main event cage match all four men embraced in the ring.[10] It was Scott Hall's last WWF match for six years, and Nash's too.[10] Both signed with WCW.[5]

Behind the Scenes

The five men at the center of this were friends first. Michaels, Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman and Paul Levesque were the Kliq, and by 1995 the group was seen backstage as having real influence over what Vince McMahon booked, a reading Michaels has always disputed.[6]

"We had this incredible bond," Michaels said after Hall died. "We'd bare our souls to each other. And we didn't care what anyone else thought. The five of us, we knew we had each other."[13] He met Hall when he was barely twenty. "I was 19-just-turning-20 when I met Scott. And the first time we met was when we were in the ring together."[13]

By his telling, that familiarity is what let them build the WrestleMania match on the fly. "We were so used to calling it in the ring," Michaels said. "Scott remembered calling that heat spot outside the ring when he lifted up the pad."[13] On WWE's Playback series, watching it back with Hall, he put it more bluntly: "I'm just winging it and tossing it at him."[14]

They had also been rehearsing it in public for three months, working one section per town on the house show loop and then moving on to the next one in the next city.[18]

Neither of them seems to have thought about what would happen if the equipment failed. "There was one ladder in that building and it's right there," Hall said. "If we had bent that ladder or broke it, we'd still be standing there."[14] Michaels' version: "There was never even a thought of what if something happens to the ladder."[13][14]

The idea itself was not theirs, and the man it belonged to has said so for thirty years. The ladder match came out of Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, where Dan Kroffat put a bag of money over the ring against Tor Kamata in September 1972.[4][20] Bret Hart wrestled one there against Bad News Allen in July 1983, and after he got to the WWF he pitched the concept to Vince McMahon.[4] To demonstrate it, he wrestled Shawn Michaels in one on July 21, 1992 in Portland, Maine, a match filmed for home video and barely seen for fifteen years.[4]

Hart's view of what happened next has not softened. "It was all just to show Vince the match, what the concept was," he said in 2020. "It was just a flat-out theft. I was always kind of disappointed by that. It was MY match and all I wanted was for Shawn to demonstrate it."[11]

Michaels' side of the suspension that set the whole angle up has stayed the same too: he has never accepted that he failed a drug test, and the company's on-air explanation about missed title defenses was never the reason.[6] What he does own is the part that made the story possible. He kept the belt.[15]

He is also candid that the sequel was the harder job. "Scott and I were coming off that amazing match at WrestleMania. By then, it had started to sink in that we'd created something special," he told Sports Illustrated in 2024. "We just wanted it to sit there and let the aura rise from it. Of course, we were told, 'Let's do another one!'"[12]

"This one was very different," he said of Pittsburgh. "The whole story going into it was different and very challenging... Sequels are always tough, but this is one I think that doesn't quite get the recognition it deserves. There's a simple reason for why: it's number two."[12]

Legacy

The WrestleMania X match was voted Match of the Year for 1994 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Pro Wrestling Torch.[8] Dave Meltzer rated it five stars, the first WWF match he ever gave that rating.[5] IGN later ranked it third on its list of the top 20 WrestleMania matches.[1] The SummerSlam 1995 rematch took the Torch's Match of the Year award for its own year.[9]

Both men were working the midcard when they walked into the Garden. Diesel was WWF World Champion eight months later, and Michaels won his first world title at WrestleMania XII in March 1996.[6][8] Razor's win over Dean Douglas in October 1995 made him the first four-time Intercontinental Champion in WWF history.[5]

The ladder stayed. Razor and Jeff Jarrett ran ladder matches around the house show circuit through May and June 1995, and Razor's third title reign came in one of them.[5][9]

Scott Hall went into the WWE Hall of Fame twice, in 2014 as Razor Ramon and in 2020 as part of the nWo.[19] He closed his 2014 speech with a line that outlived him: "Hard work pays off. Dreams come true. Bad times don't last. But bad guys do."[19] Michaels, Nash, Waltman and Levesque joined him on stage afterward.

Hall broke his hip in February 2022, suffered complications during surgery to repair it, and was taken off life support on March 14, 2022.[19] He was 63.[19] Kevin Nash's tribute was short: "We were the 'Outsiders' but we had each other... My life was enriched with his take on life."[19]

Michaels was asked what he wanted people to know about him. "That we loved him. He was easy to love. There was a pure soul there," he said. "He was an unbelievably wonderful human being inside that big ol' body."[13]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. WrestleMania X — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_X
2. SummerSlam (1995) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SummerSlam_(1995)
3. Royal Rumble (1994) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rumble_(1994)
4. Ladder match — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_match
5. Scott Hall — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Hall
6. Shawn Michaels — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Michaels
7. 1993 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/93.htm
8. 1994 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/94.htm
9. 1995 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/95.htm
10. 1996 WWF results (television, pay-per-view and house shows) — The History of WWE. https://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/96.htm
11. "Bret Hart: Michaels, Ramon stole ladder match idea" by John Powell (Aug 12, 2020) — Slam Wrestling. https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2020/08/12/bret-hart-michaels-ramon-stole-ladder-match-idea/
12. "Shawn Michaels on Ladder Match Rematch against Razor Ramon" by Justin Barrasso (Jul 30, 2024) — Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/fannation/wrestling/wwe/shawn-michaels-on-ladder-match-rematch-against-razor-ramon
13. "Shawn Michaels Reflects on His Friendship With Scott Hall: 'We Had This Incredible Bond'" by Justin Barrasso (Mar 18, 2022) — Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/wrestling/2022/03/18/shawn-michaels-scott-hall-friendship
14. "Watch: Shawn Michaels and Scott Hall Reflect on Legendary WrestleMania X Ladder Match" (Mar 17, 2019, on WWE's Playback) — ComicBook.com. https://comicbook.com/wwe/news/shawn-michaels-scott-hall-reflect-wrestlemania-x-ladder-match-video/
15. "Classic Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon" — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/classics/classic-rivalries/shawn-michaels-razor-ramon
16. "Five-Star Match of the Week: Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels - Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match, WrestleMania X" — WWE.com. https://www.wwe.com/classics/five-star-match-razor-ramon-shawn-michaels-wrestlemania-x
17. "Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels (WWF, 3-20-1994)" — Tape Machines Are Rolling. https://tapemachinesarerolling.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/razor-ramon-vs-shawn-michaels-wwf-3-20-1994/
18. "Vintage Vault Repost: Razor Ramon and the WrestleMania X Ladder Match" — Place to Be Nation. http://placetobenation.com/vintage-vault-repost-razor-ramon-and-the-wrestlemania-x-ladder-match/
19. "Wrestling legend, WWE Hall of Famer Scott Hall dies at 63" (Mar 14, 2022) — ESPN. https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/33505127/wrestling-legend-wwe-hall-famer-scott-hall-dies-63
20. "8 Ladder Matches That Redefined Wrestling History, From a Calgary Bag of Money to WWE's Biggest Stage" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/ladder-match-history-origin-wwe/
21. "FULL MATCH: Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels – Intercontinental Title Ladder Match: WrestleMania X" — YouTube (WWE). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MS9CY_Gn7E
22. "FULL MATCH: Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon | Intercontinental Title Ladder Match: SummerSlam 1995" — YouTube (WWE). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjVqTVh6V1I
23. "FULL-LENGTH MATCH - Raw - Razor Ramon vs. Rick Martel - Intercontinental Championship Match" — YouTube (WWE). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOIuenaPfMI

Further Listening

• WWE Playback: Shawn Michaels and Scott Hall on the WrestleMania X Ladder Match — the two of them watching it back together in 2019
• Heartbreak & Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story (Shawn Michaels' autobiography) — his account of the 1993 suspension, keeping the belt, and the Kliq
• Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling (Bret Hart) — Hart's version of bringing the ladder match to the WWF
• Dark Side of the Ring: 'Scott Hall' — Hall's life, addiction and the years after WCW
• Kliq This: The Kevin Nash Podcast — Nash on Hall, Michaels and the mid-1990s WWF locker room
• Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard — the 1993 steroid trial era and how the WWF handled suspensions