Size vs Speed established straight away as Shawn rushes around the ring trying to avoid getting tangled in a fist fight with Taker. Unfortunately Taker is way too quick for his size for Shawn to do this.
Shawn gets thrown onto the turnbuckle and tells Taker to suck it. For all the Light vs Dark stuff he pushes, he's still the cocky prick that Taker had to deal with 11-12 years earlier. As evidence by Shawn faking an injury to gain the upper hand.
Taker breaks out the classics such as Old School and the leg drop on the apron. You go to your tried and tested favourites unless forced out of it.
Shawn goes for the kick at one point but Taker falls pre-emptively. Shawn immediately chases him into the inverted figure 4. Not a second waisted. Shawn never loses sight of the task at hand. No playing to the crowd, it's all business.
Taker throws up Hell's Gate in return, Shawn scrambles for the ropes. He doesn't give it a chance. Even with their minimal contact over the last 12 years, he knows what to look for.
Shawn uses multiple go for broke tactics throughout the match because A) the task at hand and B) hes the Showstopper. Here he goes for the moonsault to the floor where Taker just swats him to the ground. Taker goes for the top rope dive and Shawn throws a prone body in front of him, which ends up in Taker spiking his head.
Shawn then realises he has a chance to end the Streak. A countout is a win. That's all that matters. You can see the desperation in his face as Taker inches closer and closer to the ring and finally gets back in to Shawn's dismay.
I wrote this off the top of my head, this is the first half of the match, not one finisher is kicked out of.
There are 2 finisher kickouts in this match (3 if you still consider The Last Ride a genuine finisher, as I cant remember the last match he won with it). Shawn lands one genuine Sweet Chin Music and Takers first Tombstone gets kicked out of.
It irritates the shit out of me when people just write this match off as a kickout fest. If you dont like it thats fine, but disliking it for completely erroneous reasoning is pretty weak. It sounds like someone watched a highlight vid of the match and just decided that must have been what the whole 30 mins was.
