ROUND ONE: Shawn Michaels (1) vs. Andre the Giant (8)

[Everlong]

The Ultimate Wrestler Tournament
ROUND ONE: Shawn Michaels (1) vs. Andre the Giant (8)

These two never faced off, but they're certainly giants (no pun intended) of the industry. Andre perhaps a bit underseeded here, but his importance to the industry should be enough to make this a pretty solid first-round matchup against the fan favorite Heartbreak Kid.



Shawn Michaels helped carry the WWF in the early to mid-90s, first as a tag team wrestler, then as a rising star in the midcard and finally in the main event. He helped define the Attitude Era with Degeneration X, and eventually became known as "Mr. WrestleMania" for his penchant of putting on show-stopping matches at the biggest show of the year.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

*WWF Championship (x3)
*WWE World Heavyweight Championship (x1)
*WWF European Championship (x1)
*WWF Intercontinental Championship (x3)
*World Tag Team Championship (x5)
*WWE Tag Team Championship (x1)
*Royal Rumble Winner (x2)
*Triple Crown Champion
*FIRST Grand Slam Champion
*WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2011)
*5 star match (x2) by Wrestling Observer

NOTABLE MATCH



NOTABLE SEGMENT





For a long time, Andre Giant was the biggest draw in the business. Today he's probably best remembered for his clash with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 3. By that point his body was really beginning to give out on him, but he was already established as a legend in the business, the biggest draw in the world in the territory days of professional wrestling from the late 60s to early 80s.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

*WWF Championship (x1)
*WWF Tag Team Championship (x1)
*WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1993, Inaugural Inductee)
*Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum (Class of 2002)
*NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (x1)

NOTABLE MATCH



NOTABLE SEGMENT





CAST YOUR VOTE and be sure to give your reasons in a post!

[prophet]

By all accounts Andre is arguably the greatest big man wrestler ever to enter the ring and his name remains synonymous with pro-wrestling to this day which is a testament to his talent and fame back in the day but HBK simply has to win this opening round.

I voted HBK. He's one of the best ever to lace up a pair of boots and in all honesty I've seen more of him than I ever did Andre, be interesting to see the point of view of a few of the older gents though.

[Everlong]

I'm going with Michaels too, but this is certainly not as cut and dried for me as the Austin/Goldberg matchup. There's no doubt that Andre was the bigger draw of these two. People came from near and far to catch a glimpse of this guy, even in his twilight years of the late 80s. He was also one of the first pro wrestlers in the WWF to really have mainstream media appeal.

But, this tournament is about who's better overall, not just looking at who was the bigger star. Andre was great for his size and era but Michaels obviously wasn't nearly as limited in his skillset, and was able to carry storylines on the microphone when needed.

[DanielsonTHAGOAT]

No disrespect to Andre but it's hard to compete against someone who is known as Mr. Wrestlemania. HBK is such a great talent that he could make anyone look good in the ring. I think he had some good matches with Mr. McMahon as well.

As far as promo work and drawing power, HBK wins again. I loved Andre as a heel during the Hogan rivalry. However, HBK was an amazing heel and did well as a face as well. HBK was the founding member of De-Generation X that changed the wrestling business and pop culture forever.

[Messiah]

Andre the Giant's legacy will never be forgotten and he was of course critical to the growth of the WWE.

But this is Shawn Michaels and it is not really close IMO.

[Tom]

Andre was without a doubt one of the biggest names wrestling has ever produced, and was one of the guys who put wrestling on the map. If I was choosing who was the biggest draw, and who did more for wrestling, I would probably say Andre.

However, I cannot look past Shawn Michaels here because he is in one of my top five to watch of all time. For me, Shawn Michaels was one of the guys who would have the best match on the card despite where he was placed on it. The Rockers have always been my favourite tag team in wrestling. They defined the definition of tag team wrestling at the time, and had awesome matches with the likes of the Orient Express, the Brain Busters, the Nasty Boys amongst others. His singles career is extremely well defined, I nearly feel like I don't need to explain myself. He has had five star matches with the likes of Taker, Jericho, Angle, Triple H, Benoit, Mankind, Razor amongst others. I am sure a lot of wrestlers would say that their best match was with Shawn Michaels.

Unfortunately, I have only seen Andre's work since the early Wrestlemania days and as others have noted he was in decline in terms of his mobility at that time. I also never grew up watching him as my early memories of wrestling dates back to late 1991. So I could never create the same attachment with him as I could with Michaels!

[ShaneOfan]

Andrea was great for a big man but HBK had way more range.

[Everlong]

Tom is owning these threads so far, love it

[Viazon]

I'm going with HBK because, in terms of skill, I do believe he is one of the best of all time, if not the best. He could do it all. He could brawl, he could be technical, he could be a high flier. The man could steal the show, night after night and even after that injury which put him out of action for years, he could still go better than most.

[The Legend]

The wrestling business has changed far too much for Andre to stand much of any chance to win this tournament. I would love to get the perspective of someone whose wrestling following was more centered around the time Andre rose through the ranks. I mean I saw Andre when he was at the end of his career and pretty broken down, but that isn't a fair representation. And then when you look at what Shawn was able to do in the business and all the different things he accomplished he was amazing and will easily win this matchup.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Has to be HBK.

Never saw enough of Andre but admire and appreciate what he did for the business as probably the best big man ever and he seemed a nice bloke aswell.

HBK was a shit at times but incredibly talented in the ring and on the microphone.

[Ace]

This one goes to Michaels

No disrespect to Andre but it almost seems like the only reason he was such a huge draw was because he was such a big guy. People were drawn to such a spectacle. He had an awesome rivalry with Hogan @ WM 3 which is one of the most identified wrestling matches in the history of professional wrestling.

That being said, he's up against the best in the biz IMO. Shawn Michaels is not only a great competitor but was perfectly able to transition from the change in generations. He was part of DX at the beginning of the Attitude Era & was able to transition into a PG era & still drawn fans to his main events, most notably at WrestleMania...

HBK 4 EVR

[Cena54]

Ummm look Andre was good and everything but we're talking about HBK here hes one of the two or three best ever so obviously its HBK.

[Str8Shooter]

No question for me it's the Heartbreak Kid, Michaels is one of my favourites ever and the guy's laundry list of top level matches can rival anyone in the history of the industry. He could play a damn good face and heel, his mic skills were pretty darn good as well. One thing I don't think HBK gets as much credit for is his ability to have really good matches with all kinds of opponents. He's had good matches with the likes of Sid and Vader during his World title run in '96.

The fact that Michaels came back off of a serious back injury to compete again and have arguably a better run than his did when he was younger speaks volumes about the kind of worker he was. I'm not sure anyone else has taken that amount of time off and come back and instantly been one of the best in the business again. I mean his return match against Triple H at Summerslam 2002 was amazing and one of the best of his career.


Andre was a force of nature. I think it's hard for any of us to grasp what he was like in his prime, because his prime was probably in the 70's more so than the 80's when he had his biggest run. By the time he faced Hogan he was so brutally beat up physically he couldn't do much in the ring. People run down his in-ring work, but let's be honest, the 70's and 80's were a different time for wrestling, you didn't have to be the athlete that HBK was, you could be a slow paced brawler and get away with it. Andre may not have been as good as HBK, but I think it's without question he did more the wrestling as a whole than HBK did.

[Hanley!]

Do movie roles count, because if so then Andre wins this whole tournament on the strength of the Princess Bride.

[ShaneOfan]

Do movie roles count, because if so then Andre wins this whole tournament on the strength of the Princess Bride.

That is a very good point

[JDD]

Only thing ive seen of Andre is his mania match with Hogan, and The Princess Bride. That alone almost makes me want to vote for him. But HBK is one guy who's on almost everybody's Top 10. If it was a different match up, maybe Andre would have a chance, but not against HBK.

[Hanley!]

I'm the weirdo who's going to vote against Michaels in a lot of future rounds, because I don't like him as much as many others. But I did vote for him in this round. As badass as Andre was, he doesn't beat Michaels in a lot of categories. Andre was the more unique performer. He was certainly a bigger draw. He remains a much bigger household name to this day.

But while Andre is underrated in terms of pure talent, he's not up there with Michaels. It's sad to see the big guy leave the tournament this early, but Michaels is probably the deserving winner here.

Then again Michaels comes from an era in wrestling we're far more capable of understanding today. Maybe our Dads and Grandads would think we're mad for voting against Andre.

[Kirbi]

Do movie roles count, because if so then Andre wins this whole tournament on the strength of the Princess Bride.

I may have joined this forum almost entirely so I could vote for Andre, because it's one of my favourite movies.

[Everlong]

Do movie roles count, because if so then Andre wins this whole tournament on the strength of the Princess Bride.

I may have joined this forum almost entirely so I could vote for Andre, because it's one of my favourite movies.

Haha, well welcome aboard! I'm afraid Andre probably won't be pulling this one off though