Original subtitles

- You say you're the champ, I say I am.

- Shawn and Razor changed professional wrestling.

- They could create this incredible story

and this incredible drama.

- It's their time to shine.

It's their time to be the top guys.

- We were young and trying to have the best match every night.

- Unbelievable.

- You kind of say f everybody else.

I was a vicious little prick back then.

- Oh.

- Oh.

- It's like being in a foxhole.

A certain group of guys that, you know, you can survive with.

- They were like a gang.

They were going to take over.

- A ladder match one more time?

Are you crazy?

- They don't do the sequel

because it's never as good as the first one.

- Oh my goodness.

- We do ridiculous stunts in ladder matches

because they set the bar so high.

- We're create magic here.

- Follow that, follow that.

- I am coming to end your career.

- I don't know how much more personal it can get.

- When two legends collide,

their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories

behind the greatest rivalries of all time.

I'm Gabriel Iglesias,

and this is

WWE Rivals.

- Razor Ramon at WrestleMania 10,

The Heartbreak Kid will be standing tall

- WrestleMania 10,

The ladder match.

The bad guy takes all the gold.

- Shawn Michaels versus Scott Hall, aka Razor Ramon.

It was a transitional period.

WWE was trying to get away from like, the bodybuilder types,

and they wanted to focus more on athletics and the youth,

and, uh, these two guys were the ones leading that.

- You know, Scott was one of these guys,

anybody who worked with Scott would tell you he's one of the

greatest they've ever worked with.

- Ever.

- Scott was the most calm guy in the ring.

He just- he thought things through-

- Yep.

- -and just everything made sense.

He was so good in the ring.

- He just-

He was the coolest.

There was nobody-

You know what I mean?

- Razor Ramon, El jefe.

- He took that character on, like, to where, like

honestly, be honest with you, sometimes you couldn't tell

where one began and one where end, you know?

- You know, people always say to this day,

"I wish we had 20 Shawn Michaels."

We didn't have 20.

We had one.

He was that good.

And if he'd have been seven foot tall,

or if he'd have been four foot tall,

like, he was still Shawn Michaels.

- Right.

- In the early 1990's, you had to accept

that the golden era of Hulkamania had ended.

And so there was this mentality,

"Okay, let's start a youth movement."

♪

- Tap into the future.

Experience the new WWE generation.

- Every once in a great while,

an athlete comes along

that sets himself apart from all the rest.

And I don't have to tell you who that is Jack.

- Shawn Michaels at that time

was not your prototypical professional wrestler.

His mix of athleticism and charisma and just theatrics

popped off the screen.

- He is one of the greatest wrestlers

in the World Wrestling -- right now.

- You know, I could do this all night.

- Oh, what a devastating maneuver.

- When he wants to go and is focused on it,

there's nobody that can do what he does.

- I certainly always felt that it was best to get out there

and, you know, and get moving and try to dazzle

'em with your excitement.

You can have a great, solid run game of football,

but it bores people to death.

You know, they like seeing you air it out a bunch.

- In the squared circle right now,

Shawn Michaels the number one contender

for the Intercontinental Championship.

- He's not six foot seven, 300 pounds of pure solid muscle.

This guy is big.

He's ripped.

He's not as big as those guys.

How is he going to beat any of 'em?

- There again the raw power of The Bulldog.

- Look at that.

Down to the canvas.

A slam from way up high.

- He always found a way.

And he made you believe.

-The British Bulldog will put the finishing touches

on Shawn Michaels.

Oh.

Wait a minute.

No.

- Yes, yes, yes.

We got a new Intercontinental Champion.

- You see, Shawn kind of conquering

in this world of giants,

I was like, "Man, I can kind of relate to that.

Like, this is-

This is my jam right here."

- Shawn Michaels,

he's our Intercontinental champion.

I can't believe it.

- He looked so young,

and he was a pretty boy,

but super athletic.

And when I came in as Razor Ramon, it was huge.

It was great.

There's only one man,

who is oozing machismo.

- I'm really happy that my break as Razor came when it did

because I'd already been around several years,

different gimmicks.

I mean, trying to get over and nothing catching on.

And so Razor gave me this character, like,

"How are you doing? Better than you chico."

So it gave me a lot of freedom and I enjoyed that.

- His genius was in the simplicity of what he did.

There was nothing that wasn't done right,

his mannerisms,

there was no wasted movement.

- But devastating-

- Forget about it.

- It's over.

- Scott and I hit it off right away,

started hanging out with each other,

and driving with each other,

and-and living on the road with each other.

We were all really passionate about this line of work.

Me, Kev, Scott and Waltman and then Hunter, and then, you know,

you form that friendship and then all of a sudden people

notice that you're always together.

- They were poison.

And when they were all together, they were like a gang.

They were going to take over.

- When you're pretty open and honest about who you are

in this line of work sort of makes you bulletproof.

- It's like being in a foxhole.

You get to a certain group of guys

that you know you can survive with,

people who feel the same way about something,

have a tremendous amount of impact.

And we're talking and we both want to be big stars.

- This man is a future, future champion,

and the star of the 90's.

- Razor Ramon, resonated with the audience

for so many reasons.

Number one, of course, there was something familiar

to adult fans at least, and that is

the Tony Montana character from Scarface.

[tire screeching]

- Say hello to Razor Ramon.

I was completely ripping off the Scarface movie.

- So say good night to the bad guy.

- I would say hello to the bad guy,

and I started doing my whole Razor shtick.

Take a look at Razor Ramon.

Look at the gold, man.

Look at my clothes.

Check my ride, man.

It's a Cadillac, man.

And all I want

is what I got coming to me.

The world, Chico and everything in it.

Now I'm just stealing lines from the movie,

but Vince doesn't know this, and he thinks I'm a genius.

Something happened to this gold

Something going to happen to you, man.

Entiende?

- With his toothpick and his gold chains and,

you know, really became somebody that people began to embrace

because he was the epitome of cool.

- You didn't really see a whole lot of Latino representation,

and so to see, you know, basically what's on your shirt

right there, you know, on TV,

where-where this cool bad guy would just walk out,

and he'd have the toothpick and he's talking and he's just like,

I remember watching going,

"Who is this guy and why is he so cool?

- Here's Razor, a guy who I had no idea was not a Latino.

Come to find out years later, his name was Scott Hall,

and I was like, "What? His name is not Ramon?"

- Did you buy into it?

Did you did you think that you were watching a-

- Latino star

- -Latino superstar?

- I thought I was watching, you know, because remember,

I'm Mexican and Razor's character was Cuban.

And so there are the differences in the way that we speak,

the accents and stuff like that,

so there was no reason not to believe it

because he was selling it so well.

- There were so many times we'd go places

and like, especially like if we travel like in Miami

or any place like that,

and nobody would speak English to him,

he'd be like, "Dude, I'm from Baltimore."

[laughing]

You know?

- As a Latino kid that you don't know any better.

He was a hero.

It was like, I want to grow up and be like that guy.

- Nobody cares where you come from chico.

They only care where you're going.

Look at me, man.

I'm going to the top.

- So, Razor is this exciting character,

meanwhile, you have the Intercontinental Champion,

Shawn Michaels, who at the time is dealing with some issues.

- Due to Shawn Michaels failure to appear for a number of

Intercontinental Championship defenses

and his refusal to fulfill

his contractual obligations,

the World Wrestling -- has no alternative,

but to suspend Mr. Michaels,

and thus vacate the Intercontinental Championship.

- On television, the WWE explained Shawn's absence

by suspending him for what they call contractual obligations,

but in reality, Shawn had apparently failed a drug test.

- Everything was random.

You never knew when it was coming.

Yeah, it was legit,

and it was for obviously, you know,

it was for recreational drugs,

and-and steroids.

- When you see this symbol, you can be assured of drug free

Sports Entertainment that you

and your entire family can be proud of.

- I had tested positive for steroids, and truth be told,

and I've always admitted all the stuff that I have done

that was not one of them,

so I pitched a huge fit.

- You got to remember,

I'm traveling with this dude every day.

We're sharing hotel rooms.

We're eating together.

We're together 24/7,

Bro, we're not even working out that hard.

Why would you take steroids?

And he's not.

- I was, I don't know, bloated and probably

the heaviest I'd ever been.

Not in good shape and not, you know,

not worthy of being on steroids by any stretch.

- But what happened was at that time,

a lot of pills were being passed around in bars.

It was like, "Okay."

I think that's what happened.

- Back then it was a crazy time,

and there was some heat between some people

and a lot of accusations flying, you know,

- It just seemed like it was more likely

that somebody was trying to [bleep] him over.

- And I can remember Vince saying that,

"Well, it was it was a very small amount."

And I was like, "That's bull [bleep]."

"Well, I'm sorry you still got to take six weeks off."

I'm like, "All right, fine."

Like, "Yeah, we're gonna need you to send the title back.

We're gonna have a tournament for it."

I'm not sending the title the title back."

- Which is typical, Shawn.

Like, "F you, no."

- I was a vicious little prick back then.

So you come down to my front door and get it,

but I'm not sending it.

- Big news here.

This week, Shawn Michaels has been suspended here

in the World Wrestling --

and stripped of the Intercontinental title.

- So when Shawn gets suspended, he takes the title with him.

- He believed in himself and he-

he left and like you said,

he wasn't going to give the title back,

so he took it home and he just kind of called his own shots.

It takes balls to do that.

- It does.

- And it allows for the-the rise, if you will,

of Razor Ramon.

- A 20 man over the top rope battle royal will be held

to determine the new Intercontinental Champion.

- We ended up having this battle royal

where the last two people

end up wrestling for the IC belt.

- Oh, wait a minute.

No no.

- Over the top yes.

Pierre clothesline, is all fired up.

Ramon sends Pierre out as well.

- It's going to be Razor and Martel.

- Look at this.

I can't believe it.

- Ends up being me and Rick Martel, who's a pro,

who knows at this point in his career,

his job is to make me look good.

And he does.

- Here it comes, ladies and gentlemen.

- There's almost no way out of this.

- Here comes the Razor's Edge now.

- Snapped his neck.

- We got a new champion.

- One.

Two.

Three.

Yes.

- He's done it.

- Yes.

- Everybody's jumping up and down.

People were so excited.

That was me and my couch, too.

I just remember jumping up and down and my father being like,

"Hey, sit down."

You know?

just jumping.

[laughing]

I couldn't keep quiet.

- The championship title in a lot of ways

will legitimize people.

So Razor Ramon,

I think having the Intercontinental Championship

legitimized him as top tier, top notch.

- Say hello to the new Intercontinental champion.

I'm the IC champ, kinda.

Except Shawn never lost.

- It wasn't ideal at all, man.

Like winning the title somehow, other than beating the champ is-

it always sucks.

- Right.

- It's never ideal.

- It feels great, but I can't really enjoy it because to me,

Shawn was the champ.

He was my friend.

We traveled together every day,

and then, because of some bogus drug test,

Shawn's stripped of the title,

but he's never been beat.

I'm walking around with my friend's belt

because I didn't beat him.

Everybody knows it.

- Guys used to carry Halliburtons all like the guys

that had champ, guys that had belts-

- They would carry them in there.

- -they would put them in there.

So Scott had it, you know, and

he was all brand new Halliburton.

And he comes back from the ring and somebody had taken a Sharpie

and wrote "Shawn's belt"

- Ah.

- In big letters on it.

- But it morphed into something great, because when he came

back, he still had his belt and I had the other belt.

- After my suspension, it's one of those things where I still

had the title, so it was something that I threw out there

that how about I come back with the title?

I was never stripped of it and we go from there.

You, like everybody else, I'm sure, are grateful

that the World Wrestling -- Intercontinental Champion

is back in town.

And that's really how all of it started.

We got some guy,

who looks like he combed his hair with a pork chop,

lived his whole life in the gutter,

and now, mystically out of thin air,

he straps a gold belt around his waist,

and has the nerve to call himself

the Intercontinental Champion.

- Who has legitimate claim to be the champ?

Technically, they both do.

- There is only one undisputed World Wrestling --

Intercontinental Champion.

Clearly, it's going to have to, you know, culminate in one form

or another with a run up against Razor Ramon.

- Whoa, wait a minute.

Wait just a minute.

Ah, but yes, there he is.

There is the bad guy.

- It's just like any other sport,

boxing or whatever, when there's an interim champion.

And then the whole time, you're just wondering,

"Man, when that dude gets back from injury,

when he gets back from suspension,

their paths are going to cross.

This is going to be a collision course."

- Say hello

to the real Intercontinental Champ.

- It seems so organic.

Plant the seed and let it grow.

Let me go conquer the world, now.

Shawn and I were ready to tear the house down.

- Well, well, well, what do we have here?

The sexiest man alive,

and his ever present World Wrestling --

Intercontinental title.

- After the suspension, Shawn returns.

He's got a title, Razor's got a title,

and now we have a problem.

Who is the real Intercontinental Champion?

How do we settle this?

- In a match just announced WrestleMania 10.

Razor Ramon defends against Shawn Michaels.

If that isn't enough, this is a ladder match.

Yeah, you heard me right.

A ladder match.

- When you hear ladder match, you're not sure exactly what it

is because it was the first one.

We'd never seen it before.

- Is it the first person to climb a ladder,

or is it the first person to- to get a ladder?

Is it the first person to build a ladder?

Who knows?

Right?

You're intrigued about this like new and unique match.

- The intercontinental belt is on the line with a huge ladder

in the middle of the ring

Suspended above is not only

Razor's Intercontinental Championship belt,

but Shawn's bogus belt as well.

Now, the first man who climbs the ladder gets the belt

is the winner and the Intercontinental Champion.

- Well, a real positive came out of that situation because they

they were able to introduce the ladder match to the bigger,

a bigger audience because it had already been done,

but I don't think it was on TV.

- Bret had been pitching to have a ladder match for years,

um because Bret had done the first ever ladder match in 1983,

in Stampede Wrestling for my grandfather's promotion.

- I remember Vince when he says, "What's a ladder match?"

I said, I tried to explain it to him.

He goes,

"Show me the ladder match.

I want to see it."

- So Bret and Shawn did it.

- Shawn did it to show Vince what it could look like.

- It was just using the ladder to climb for the belt.

There was no spots where you hit anyone with the ladder or any

all that other cool stuff that they incorporated.

- It was just-

the ladder at that point-

- Yeah,

- -was just used to climb.

So Bret had convinced Vince that to do a ladder match,

they did it,

Bret and Shawn had done it on a live event

that wasn't televised.

- And then of course-

- In classic fashion, he gave it to somebody else.

- It actually turned out to be a pretty good match,

but Shawn saw the match and the concept,

and then stole it from me a couple of years later.

- To the best of my knowledge,

it kind of went quiet after that.

Something we tried.

It went quiet, and then,

you know, when all of this came around with Scott,

Pat Patterson, who's always been one of the

brightest guys when it came to creativity, just thought like,

"Hey, this is a place where we could, you know,

where it makes sense to do that ladder match.

Why don't we give it a try at WrestleMania?"

Did you see Razor Ramon beat Shawn Michaels

for the Intercontinental title?

- No, as a matter of fact, I did not.

- Then the facts really are that Shawn Michaels is the only

undisputed World Wrestling -- Intercontinental Champion.

- Wait a minute.

Razor Ramon going after Shawn Michaels.

- For too long, chico,

there has been confusion.

You got your belt.

I got mine.

You say you're the champ.

I say I am.

- As far as like the ladder match

at WrestleMania 10 was concerned,

What people don't know

is that by the time we got

to WrestleMania 10,

we'd already had several.

Shawn and I were on tour like somewhere in Cali,

like five days in a row.

You know, you walk into the building and there's the sign,

bang, you know, it says Ladder match.

We're going, what the [bleep]?

I've never even seen one,

heard about it, nothing.

- At that time, ladder matches were not the, I don't know,

they weren't the brand that they are now.

It was just kind of an idea that we'll see how it goes.

- So we throw it together in 10, 20 minutes,

and we have ladder matches,

but about five days later,

that ladder match was pretty effing sweet.

People in the arena saw them.

They weren't televised.

We were taking notes in our mind,

and now we're riding together too.

So after the show, we're going, "Oh, that was great,

that one thing,"

And then,"Okay, let's leave that in" and, you know,

just move it around,

so by the time we got to Mania, we knew if we had our worst

match it would still be good.

- There's no rules, no ref.

Somebody, chico,

leaves WrestleMania the real champ.

- This capacity crowd will witness for the first time ever

at a WrestleMania a ladder match.

- First ladder match ever for the general population to see.

First time I ever saw one.

- When everything is said and done,

The Heartbreak Kid will be standing tall.

- The two Intercontinental Championship belts,

hanging from above.

- Often I found that when you're in a gimmick match,

it's all about putting the gimmick over.

If you walk out and look up at the belt and look at the ladder.

- Who will climb the ladder of success and become the

Undisputed Intercontinental Champion here

at WrestleMania 10?

- The reason that match is lauded is not because it's the

first ladder match.

It's because it may be the best ladder match.

- This capacity crowd

will witness, for the first time ever

at a WrestleMania a ladder match.

- The ladder match at WrestleMania 10

changed professional wrestling.

- To me, this is the greatest match of all time

because of the drama.

The two titles hanging up, it took them about 8 or 9 minutes

to even get the ladder into the ring,

and everything just meant something.

I think the drama of this to me, makes this

the greatest match of all time.

- Neither individual able to get to the ladder as of yet.

- You know, if Shawn's in a match, it's going to be

at worst, it's going to be good.

- Shawn could have a great match with a broomstick,

and Scott could go-

he was a very talented wrestler.

- Whoa.

What a move.

- Yeah, and here's another one.

- There are very few guys that could go out there,

and go Shawn Michaels speed with the precision and timing,

and there are very few guys that could do it.

Scott could do it at 6'6".

- Look at that.

- Beautiful move.

- And down.

- Oh.

- Whoa.

Razor setting him up.

Here we go.

Razor's Edge.

No, no.

- Oh.

- Oh, that was concrete.

Michaels is going to get the ladder.

Razor Ramon.

Well, I guess if there's any doubt as to Razor's condition

there's no doubt now.

Razor Ramon brings the ladder into the match,

and the ladder is-

- Oh.

- Oh.

Did you see that?

- Yes I did.

- You have to consider the fact that all the stuff they were

doing was incredibly innovative.

- Oh.

- You know, I got up there at one time in the match,

and I get up there with the ladder, I'm on the top rope,

and I'm sitting there, and I had no idea

what in the hell am I going to,

Scott's laying on the mat and I'm like, hmm.

- Oh, oh.

That was the greatest.

I can't picture either one of them getting up after what

they've been through.

- Shawn Michaels from high above.

Oh.

Unbelievable.

- Shawn jumping off the ladder.

It's an iconic moment.

That image is, like, etched into the minds of wrestling fans.

- You don't know that that's going to be a picture,

that it's going to be shown forever.

- I mean, to be looking across the ring at Shawn,

and going,

"Can you believe this working?"

- No no, no.

- Oh.

- The ladders broke.

It's not going to hold him.

- The ladder is bent.

It's twisted.

- At that time, there wasn't enough knowledge about ladder

matches to know that one might break

and you might need a backup.

- And that-that ladder was all rickety.

Yeah.

- They only had one ladder.

- They only had one ladder.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

No one even thought what happens if the ladder breaks?

- If the ladder, if they take a bump off that ladder?

The ladder breaks.

The belts are still.

It will still be up there.

- Yeah.

- Nowadays you have backup ladders under the ring.

You got them in the back.

- Right.

- You got them everywhere.

They had one ladder.

Right.

- I mean, if that ladder gets screwed up somehow or mangled.

- And it was.

- Took my showbiz to another level where you get to walk, you

know, you're crawling up the ladder and, you know, it's just

to do it with a guy who's a dear friend.

- Both men trying to climb at the same time.

- Come on Shawn.

- Both men have been battered.

- Shawn like we said, not really small,

but Scott was significantly bigger.

Not everybody that size would be comfortable

once they get past the third or fourth rung of that ladder in

in the ring too.

It's unstable.

It's pretty scary up there.

I can't imagine being a guy that size.

No, Razor's trying to-

Michaels dropkicks the ladder and down goes Razor,

and the ladder is teetering back and forth.

- I don't think we grasped what we were doing that night.

You didn't go into the ring thinking,

"We're going to create history here.

We're going to do something special

that will stand the test of time,

and there'll be gazillions of documentaries

and DVDs, and it'll launch a whole new type of match."

Ignorance is bliss.

- What a match.

What a WrestleMania.

- You have certain people who you just love working with.

You love going out there with because you know you have the

same mentality in terms of wanting to kill it,

wanting to steal the show,

wanting to make sure that regardless of where

you are on the card,

people are going to leave that show remembering you.

- And Razor starting to shake the ladder.

- Get out.

Look out Shawn.

- Oh, he throws a shoulder.

- Oh.

- Oh, no.

- Shawn Michaels,

- Get out.

- He's reaching for the championship.

One more rung, he'll have it.

- The ladder match at WrestleMania 10 is in the

conversation for best WrestleMania match of all time.

- Shawn is on the ladder.

Razor Ramon barrels into it.

- Oh.

- As Shawn is falling,

he spreads his legs apart over the top rope.

We've seen this since,

but no one had ever seen it before.

- Michaels, look at this.

His foot is locked in the rope.

- Let me help him out.

- Razor, trying to climb up now.

Michaels-

- Get out of there Shawn

He's out, he's out, he's out.

- Going up.

- No Razor.

Come on referee.

- Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[bell rings]

- Yes.

- When the Razor climbs the ladder and grabs the

Intercontinental Championship,

he completely falls off the ladder.

He finally made it and has nothing left,

and as the title goes down, Razor goes to the floor.

It's an awesome moment.

- Shawn being Shawn, told the referee.

Tell Razor to climb the ladder.

Otherwise I'd have laid there and sold.

Shawn went, "Go be a star."

- I'm so happy that I was able to witness that.

You know, that I was actually a fan at that point in time,

and I actually got to watch that as a fan.

You could watch it back and it's cool.

But living in that time frame,

what a special, special duo, those two guys.

- Some of the creativity and ingenuity

that they came up with,

I mean, it was one of the best matches.

I mean, it is a classic.

They set the bar for what a ladder match would become.

- I remember coming through the curtain

and looking at guys going,

"Follow that, follow that."

You know, "If you can,"

you know, "Bow down."

- The match between Shawn Michaels and Razor ended up

going longer than it was scheduled for,

which caused some ripple effects that lasted

through the rest of the show.

- I was advertised for a ten man tag at WrestleMania that year.

This match got- Shawn's ladder match

went over like 15 minutes-

- Yeah, they canned it.

- -or something crazy, and they canceled my match,

as we're sitting there, like, ready to go out, yeah.

- What a bummer.

- I was so broken hearted

- Yeah of course.

- I did not understand.

- Yeah.

- I did not understand that-that was something that happened.

- It looks like we're not going to have the ten man tag.

- Selfishly, that's one of those ones that you're a little bit

conscious of it, but you kind of say f everybody else and that's,

you know, just can't motor through something like that.

We're creating magic here.

[laughing]

You know what I mean?

So back off.

- Probably a number of guys were hot, but the only guy who was

man enough to, like, come say it right to our face

was Randy Savage.

You know, he came up and he said, "You know, first of all, I

want to say great match."

And second of all, you're very selfish."

And part of me was like, "Thank you,"

you know, "Thank, great match, thank you,

and you're very selfish."

And it was like, "You're right, you're right."

We cared about getting our match over.

If it cut into yours, we knew it,

and let's face it,

What do you guys really how great a match

was it going to be?

I mean, if we're going to talk business,

I'm not criticizing you personally, but

we had to make a call,

you know, we had to call a play out there,

and we called that like, yeah, we're cutting into your oops.

- We were young and just trying to have the best match every

night, but having no idea that it was going to be some

monumental thing from that point forward.

Shake hands afterwards like that-that went well,

you know what I mean.

You go to the you know, you go to the bar afterwards and we're

on to the next thing the next day, and you know what I mean?

And that's it.

- Something that I loved about wrestling.

when I was a kid growing up.

You had to wait for the matches that you wanted most.

Storytelling really took time back then.

- Shawn and Razor have this amazing, iconic ladder match,

and they don't have a match for an entire year.

- Razor would end up losing

the Intercontinental Title to Jeff Jarrett.

- Oh he hooked him.

- One, two, three.

Oh no.

- And then Shawn would end up winning the Intercontinental

title from Jeff Jarrett a bit later.

- Oh my goodness.

One, two.

Yes.

Yes.

- The anticipation makes 90% of that atmosphere.

You have WrestleMania 10.

You have this unification ladder match.

Everybody loves it.

Rave reviews.

Then you kind of get away.

You kind of take a break from it, almost to the point where

you want people to kind of forget about the magic and

forget how special it was.

- Summerslam is coming up.

Intercontinental title defense.

It will be a ladder match.

The Intercontinental Belt will be suspended

high above the ring.

The two combatants will be, well, the same two who were in

Madison Square Garden at WrestleMania 10,

in the greatest match ever witnessed in the history

of the World Wrestling --.

Shawn Michaels against the "Bad Guy" Razor Ramon.

- When you flip it back and you say, "Hey, we're giving this to

you again, this time at SummerSlam, different stage."

Immediately you bring back all those memories for people

and it floods back, and now they're starting to talk again.

- I have not had a good night's sleep

since the ladder match of '94.

- They say a ladder match one more time.

Are you crazy?

Maybe so, but I love to live my life in the spotlight,

and Michaels, I know you do too.

- And that belt is what it's all about.

These two men will actually face each other at SummerSlam.

- That sort of just kind of came about,

and it's not the same situation,

so we just didn't feel like it was going to be the same,

you know, it's like the sequel.

You don't do the sequel,

because it's never as good as the first one.

- Welcome, everyone to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

- They're getting ready to have another ladder match,

but how do you top that first one?

How do you make this one better than that?

- Amen.

And especially when you find out the handcuffs they got put

on 'em going into this thing.

They couldn't use the ladder as a weapon.

- You know, it was just somebody coming up going,

"Yeah, you can't hit each other with the ladder."

Like what?

That's the whole point of a ladder match.

[bell rings]

- Both men looking up.

The bell has rung.

- Sensors, standards and practices and people of that

nature had asked that we don't use household items,

so we had to use the ladder to climb

and use it a little more creatively

than actually hitting someone with it.

It as silly as it sounds, that was the ruling.

- Michaels.

Here we go.

- Have this match that was so fantastic,

But we're going to take away a lot of the things

that you can do and- and see how you do.

- But if you're able to have a great match,

despite the obstacles that are put in front of you,

it feels good to be able to overcome those challenges.

- And down.

- It was the coolest thing in the world watching them

even like with a base template,

take that and just turn it into something unbelievable.

- A right hand man.

Both men hammering away.

Oh my goodness.

- That's what I learned too.

A little bit about just letting go.

Like let it happen.

Let it flow.

- Hey, wait a minute.

Razor Ramon is pulling out that stand by ladder.

What's this.

- I introduced a second ladder.

I set it up.

- Shawn Michaels climbing his ladder.

Razor climbing the opposite ladder.

Who's going to get there first?

Who's going to get there first?

- Razor's taller.

- Razor, just got it.

Oh, a kick and Razor goes down.

- I don't know if you remember in the finish of-of this,

but it was like another,

mishap like the broken ladder in the first one.

- Michaels down.

Can he do it?

Yes.

- No.

- No.

He can't do it.

- Shawn climbed up and he tried to get the belt down,

and it wouldn't like the snaps wouldn't come out.

He's holding like he's hanging from there-

like eventually.

He's so pissed you can see the look of him.

He's so pissed.

- Michaels now, beside himself.

Look at this.

Can he do it this time?

Razor's starting to move.

And he got it.

He got it.

He got it.

- When they go through that war,

and, you know, one comes out as the winner, one's the loser.

You can't help but have respect for the other person

because you know exactly what it took to win.

- That's what it's all about.

- It was critically acclaimed.

And most people think they followed the first one.

- They didn't need to have all the bells and whistles, because

they knew how to bring all those other resources to the table.

- I think that's what we took from that second one,

were all of those challenges

and still finding a way to make it work,

learning and appreciating the story aspect of it and making

the psychology different.

It makes you better at your job.

I wanted to be better at my job than everybody else,

[laughing]

You know what I mean?

And hopefully, if I get enough people to recognize that.

and that's a good thing.

- Razor Ramon, in some ways

is remembered for his defiance of WWE.

Him and Kevin Nash jumped ship in the early days of WCW Nitro.

They both had major roles in creating the New World Order.

- Did everybody come to see the-

[crowd yells "NWO"]

- And if Shawn Michaels career had ended in 1995,

he would still be a very strong candidate

for the WWE Hall of Fame.

The career he had since then

it's on another stratosphere.

- Michaels chin mus-

He got it.

He got all of it.

The boyhood dream has come true.

- And that-

- Oh.

- Undertaker in trouble.

- Oh my God.

- Moonsault.

Moonsault.

Oh my God.

- In 2011, Shawn Michaels was inducted

into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately, Scott Hall couldn't be there,

reportedly because he was dealing

with some personal issues and substance abuse problems.

- You know, everybody knows my story with the drugs

and stuff like that.

I had come out of it.

At that time, Scott hadn't.

He was still struggling with it.

- Shawn was inducted.

I really wanted to be there, but

I wasn't in that good enough

place where I wanted to risk it.

Like to be around

all my friends and oh, you know,

so, you know, I backed out of it.

- I thank you.

I love my ring.

[crowd cheers]

And I love each and every one of you.

But there is going to be a time

when we're all going to be standing out there,

and then again, that's where this stuff gets to be real.

- Thankfully, by 2014, Scott Hall had cleaned himself up,

and got his own invitation into the WWE Hall of Fame.

- You can thank me for, you know, thank me for making yours.

You didn't make mine.

- I wanted to be able to look you in the eyes.

[laughing]

I didn't want to be going-

- I'm kidding.

- Do I look [bleep] up?

Yeah, you look [bleep] up.

- I'm just kidding.

- I heard an interview he gave about, it

and you said there'll be another time.

- Yep.

- And here it is.

And here it is.

- Thank you.

- Ladies and gentlemen.

Razor Ramon.

[crowd cheers]

- I found myself super emotional when I got up there.

That's why I was glad that I had chosen to only say a few words

anyway, because I could hardly get those out.

In my lifetime, I have learned-

- I've been to 17 Hall of Fames, which is crazy to think of, and

Scott's Hall of Fame speech is probably my favorite

Hall of Fame speech I've ever heard.

- Hard work pays off.

Dreams come true.

Bad times don't last,

but bad guys do.

[crowd cheers]

- Yeah.

- We were in the Gorilla Position

when he was giving the speech,

and when he dropped that line,

the whole Gorilla Position popped.

[clapping]

- Atta boy.

From our standpoint, we felt like we started out together.

And that's just something when you when you share that in this

line of work, it creates a bond that stands the test of time.

I'm so incredibly thankful and appreciative

that I've been able to have those moments.

- Seeing how happy they were together.

You're not human if you don't feel something watching that.

- The number one priority in Scott's life was his family,

but the second biggest thing by far in his life

was his business.

It was what held him together, and it was who he was,

and for all of us to be there together, I know how much it

meant to him just to be able to stand on that stage one last

time in that and be Razor Ramon.

It was everything.

- Scott Hall was really Razor Ramon

just without the accent, really.

You know what I mean?

He was very.

- Yeah, he just infused a lot of himself,

and I remember when he passed, I wanted to tweet about him and

just, you know, talk about him a little.

And all I could say was there has never been anybody cooler.

- Although this rivalry wasn't one that lasted years.

It was very short, but it was so impactful.

- And as short as a rivalry might have been,

out of it came two matches

that were still talking about 30 years later.

- Right.

They gave you every reason in the world to care about them.

- If you have a ladder match coming up, you go back and you

watch WrestleMania 10, you watch Razor Ramon,

you watch Shawn Michaels and you steal and you take ideas.

- From way up top.

- No.

- No.

Oh my God.

- I mean, 30 years ago,

and people still talk about it.

People still remember it.

- Today we do ridiculous stunts in ladder matches,

and we do it because it's the only way

for us to put on a match that can be special,

because they set the bar so high.

- No.

- Oh my God, with the Broken Arrow.

- To this day, I can watch stuff like that and learn.

Learn something from watching those two go at it.

- I'm sure there is a book somewhere that talks about the

perfect way to tell a story.

I would imagine if you were to compare that book,

and Scott and I's sort of story and or rivalry.

It probably touches on all of those.