WRESTLING 20 YEARS AGO PODCAST

Listen to our October 1997 WWF podcast, reviewing the first ever Hell in a Cell match and an absolutely barmy month of television 

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All of the largely non-existent build for the Badd Blood pay per view at the beginning of October 1997 faded to nothing as the news broke of the passing of Brian Pillman. Pillman had worked the previous evenings house show in Minnesota, before going to bed, never to wake up following a heart attack. He was found shortly after midday on the day of the show, having missed the bus to the show.

While this isn’t a place to try and celebrate or quantify Pillman’s career, others with more knowledge and eloquence have already done that, it cut Pillman off at a time where his career was in a bit of a flux. While there’s no doubt that in his early 1990s light heavyweight matches and his 1996 unstable character were both ahead of their time, the after effects of a car accident in 1996 and a resulting ankle injury that had never fully healed meant that while entering possibly the prime earning years of his career Pillman had a character that few could match yet was struggling for an in-ring identity that could go with it.

That bought us to one of the major storyline builds ahead of the show, Pillman’s latest trick was a series of skits called “Pillman’s XXX Files” a series of handicam videos from his hotel room alluding to the presence of Goldust’s wife Marlene. The story was going to transition to Marlene leaving Goldust for Pillman (in an angle that would presumably be designed to breathe some life in Goldust’s failing character).

The match never takes place, neither does plans for Pillman wrestling Dude Love. Combine that with much of a roster that, a mere hours following the news breaking, really didn’t want to perform and also one that was walking wounded, meant that this card that already looked flat on paper was essentially turned into a one match affair. Fortunately, that match looked pretty good.

Quite what the WWF had in mind when they first came up with “Hell In A Cell” is anybody’s guess. The idea of a cage enveloping the ring had already been done by WCW (see their Thundercage) and a cage with a roof had already been done before (see WarGames). And it’s not the WWF had even particularly done a massive job in pushing it – the furthest they got was describing as a structure where “nobody could get out, and nobody could get in”.

Speaking of things the WWF had sorta forgotten to mention was Undertaker’s brother Kane. In 2017, with a similar angle, the WWE would’ve been ramming it down our throats that Kane was coming, in the WWF in 1997 it was a fair bit different. There was an argument they shot their load on the story, covering about 4 or 5 chapters in a barmy one hour of Raw, before the whole thing largely went away for a while. As WCW were finding out with Sting, if you tease something too hard fans will stop caring about your matches as they wait for the interference. In that sense, the WWF had played a great card – ensuring that the Michaels/Undertaker match would be able to go ahead without fans looking up the aisle way. They were all the better for it.
 

The Nation Of Domination (Rocky Maivia, Kama and D’Lo Brown w/ Farooq) vs The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)
Speaking of the walking wounded – this was a match that was also supposed to include Ken Shamrock – who got injured. So they went with 3 on 2 and this was… rubbish. If we’re clutching at positives, the crowd like chanting “Rocky sucks”, and the LOD are good at power moves. That’s probably it. There’s a pop when D’Lo inadvertently elbow drops Rocky attempting to break up a pin, but after a Farooq comes out with a distraction Rocky picks up the win with a don’t-call-it-a-rock-bottom-yet-uranage slam.  Not good.
 

Mozaic and Tarantula vs Max Mini and Nova
The minis are in an odd spot in the WWF in the sense that nobody particularly knows why they’re there – they’re the anthesis of the size that Vince McMahon looks for, and they’re so small they’re really difficult to take seriously. This wasn’t the only match thrown together at the last minute, and it showed – these four tried really hard but with no formula or plan very little stuck. The highlight of all of this is Lawler, who's having an absolute riot on commentary fighting every fibre in his being not to tell a series of short jokes. He sneaks in a few, Max Mini takes it with a cruicifix pin for the three.
 

We see a commerical narrated by Todd Pettengil advertising a Steve Austin shirt. Pettengil, by this point, actually no longer was with the company, instead he was shopping himself to WCW – apparently he wanted $300,000 a year, a salary I don't believe even Rey Mysterio was on at the time. Funnier still was Pettengil says the shirt costs $20, the graphic says $25...
 

The Godwinns (Henry O, Phineaus I w/ Uncle Cleatus) vs The Headbangers (Mosh & Thrasher) for the WWF Tag Team Titles
This was every bit as bad as you would expect – Phineaus gets dropped on his head at one point, the camera misses a headscissors by Thrasher (which very possibly was the best part of the match). Not much else happens until Phineaus catches Mosh coming off the top into a powerbomb and wins the match and the titles.
 

After a pretty drab Owen Hart interview we cut to the ring for a celebration of some of the legends from St Louis Wrestling. I suspect this was setup as something that wasn't planned to air that would sell tickets, but given that they had to shuffle the card around so much they decided to air it. It was pretty good, the video packages were really nice and it was a real nice boon for the live crowd. Nothing massively memorable, though. We see  presentations for Jack Brisco, Dory Funk Jr, Gene Kiniski, Terry Funk, Harley Race, Sam Muchnick and Lou Thesz.
 

Farooq vs Owen Hart for the Vacant Intercontinental Title
An absolute non-event of a match. Owen clearly isn't in the mood to do anything, neither really is Steve Austin (who becomes the focus of the entire match as he essentially dicks about on commentary). I cannot understate how little happened here, most of the match took place inside a split screen as Austin was messing about with the announcers. Owen may not have even thrown a shot in anger, the whole point of all this was to setup a finish where Austin cost Farooq the match (by hitting him with the title belt), so Owen wins the title back and gets the opportunity to go at it again
 

Los Boricuas vs The Disciples Of Apocalypse
I mean, these matches are absolutely terrible when they're planned out, and predictably they were even worse with they weren't. They tried, but there's so little heat behind either side literally the only thing that gets the crowd excited is when it's one giant unco-ordinated brawl. And for most of this match it wasn't... I'm not going to waste your time any more – Crush wins it with of all things a backbreaker and this rivlarly will never end. Remember the two weeks when this feud was interesting?
 

Bret Hart & The British Bulldog vs Vader and The Patriot in a Flag Match
So... it was actually a flag match, but they changed the rules earlier in the show so it was a flag match that could be won by pinfall or submission (as well as capture the flag). Apparently they worked out the flagpoles were nowhere near strong enough (particularly for a match involving Vader and Bulldog) - but the nearest this got to a flag match was just a set piece so people could get thrown off the turnbuckle etc...

This was almost surprisingly bad – even when you consider the circumstances of the day and the injuries they were seemingly all carrying (I believe they all came in with something). No heat, an uncoordinated but plodding brawl. The action is fine, Patriot reverses a sharpshooter, Bret hits Vader with a ring bell, Vader goes for a Vadersault, sees Bulldog move and somehow lands on his feet in the most impressive spot of the match. After a fan vaults into the ring and Bulldog sees him off, Bret rolls up Patriot for the win. Flat match, flat finish. Move on.
 

Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell Match
Where to begin with this one? I've always heard high praise about this match, but I never quite realised how right they were. This match may be as near to perfection as you might find in wrestling. The cell, for its part, looked great, they did a fantastic job putting that together (10x better than WCW's effort later in the month with their super cage). Once Shawn was locked inside the cage and it was just him, Undertaker and a referee I'm not sure how much acting was involved when it came to him being scared.

The opening portion of the match was Undertaker beating the piss out of Shawn. They started in the confinds of the ring but slowly expanded to start including elements of the cell into the match – firstly with a back body drop where Michaels' legs clipped the ceiling before they moved to the outside and the punishment continued as Undertaker found ways of using the cell walls as a weapon.

Michaels finally got a foothold in the match with a tope into the cage wall and an elevated elbow drop by climbing the cage. He finds the space to perform a piledriver onto the ringsteps, then gets a bit shirty with one of the cameramen for getting in his way. They make their way into the ring, Taker then sends Michaels flying over the top and straight onto the cameraman. Not content with that Michaels then hits him a few times for good measure.

That sets up the biggest spot of the match. Unlike WCW later in the month, who treated the confinds of the cage with the same security that they did the NWO membership, the WWF had a plan to lock the cage door and they meant it. Still, you couldn’t build a roof and not use it, right? So with the "injured" cameraman needing a way out they unlocked the door and Michaels and Undertaker followed and got onto the roof. Taker hits a bodyslam, then throws Michaels near the edge, Micheals falls over the side and Taker kicks him off sending him crashing through the Spanish announcers table.

We return to the ring, Michaels is now dripping blood from an earlier blade job, probably not helped when Taker smashes him over the head with a chair. Then the lights go out, an organ starts playing... and out comes "Kane" - Undertaker's storyline brother. And boy does he look shit-your-pants scary dressed all in red and black. He tombstones Undertaker, Michaels' lifelessly crawls over to Undertaker to pick up the win. And breathe...

What a bloody match that was – an absolutely insane eye for detail in a match that had everything. It's no wonder people like it so much.
 
Score Rating: 5/10
Go Back And Watch: The main event.

Listen to our September 1997 WWF podcast, looking at when Austin finally got to McMahon.

Subscribe to the podcast via: iTunes | RSS Feed | Email Newsletter

The Worst Stunner in History – After his neck injury had put Steve Austin out of in ring action for at least a few months, he was at least well enough to appear on TV and, seemingly, well enough to hit his signature move, even if nobody could attack him back. While it manifested itself as Austin taking out his anger on the likes of Sergeant Slaughter and Jim Ross, it was an angle on September 21st that would write itself into history. After Vince McMahon calmly laid out Austin's options going forward, Austin listened, then just hit McMahon with a stunner... which was great, save for the fact McMahon didn't take the move particularly well, going down in stages before convulsing violently on the mat. Still, it's a pretty iconic, "must-watch" moment.
 
Who's First? – It was pretty low key, but September 1997 marked the live television debut of former Atlanta Falcon Bill Goldberg. Built like a tank, with a 10/10 pro wrestling look, WCW quickly got Goldberg to television after a run in their powerplant and decided to just let him do what he was good at – kill people. In the first two weeks of his run Goldberg defeated Hugh Morrus and Barbarian in short order. While it's only gained value with the benefit of history, it was clear early on WCW had plans for him. On  a product where wins at losses really didn't matter (seriously, ask Hulk Hogan!), after he picked up his second win Tony Schiavone said "Goldberg is now 2 and 0 on Nitro".
 
The Worst Main Event In Raw History – I may be exaggerating... although I really may not be! I mean, bloody hell. So, a week out from the UK Pay Per View the soon to be DX get a pre-match beat down in on Bulldog (who can't get any help because he needs reasoning for being cheered vs Michaels at the PPV). Which took Bulldog out of the planned Triple Threat main event alongside Triple H and The Patriot. So rather than just do a singles they randomly throw Savio Vega in there and, you know what? It was *shit*. Like, crowd chanting "BORING, BORING" bad as all three men lumbered around for what must've been about ten minutes before the whole thing mercifully came to a conclusion.
 
Save A Bit For Me – After being taken out by Curt Hennig at the pay per view to cover for what (yes, literally) was Flair going away to have a face-lift, Flair phoned in on the final Nitro of the month making his first real noise of note since the show. Flair spoke at length, thanking Hennig for re-lighting a fire inside of him and stopping him getting complacent. Flair disbanded the four horsemen, telling Benoit and Mongo to go their own ways, before emploring the likes of Diamond Dallas Page, Lex Luger and The Giant to "get" the NWO, but "leave a piece for the Nature Boy". We wouldn't have to wait long for him to return.
 
Brian Pillman's XXX Files – A bit of a moot point given that Pillman would pass away before the next pay-per-view, but quite where this one was going we’ll never get to find out. After beating Goldust at the Ground Zero, Pillman got the right to have Marlene as his servant for 30 days… which began with Pillman bundling her into the back of a car and speeding off. On Raw itself we saw the “XXX Files” a series of segments taped from Pillman’s hotel room. Marlene’s presence was only implied, it should be said, but the whole thing was of questionable taste and, honestly, questionable benefit. The idea, it seems, was for Marlene to develop a form to Stockholm Syndrone for her captor, and rather than settle it with, I dunno, a lawsuit, we’d “sort-it-in the-ring”.
 
Not Your Dog Spot... Not A Liver Spot – So, the week after Arn Anderson's tearful farewell we got the encore, a shot for shot remake starring Syxx (as Ric Flair), Konnan (as Mongo), Marcus Bagwell (as Curt Hennig), Kevin Nash (as Anderson) and, well, nobody for Chris Benoit but at one point a mannequin was considered for the role. Anyway, in an attempt to build towards Fall Brawl, the quartet did a largely amusing if incredibly long remake which hit a bit to close to home for Arn, regarding his mother and drinking issues. Nash landed some good shots, and it was funny more than it was outright offensive, but by the time it was all over it was all a bit flat. The original plan called for Flair and co to come out and clean house, but this was rejected in the idea of "building heat"…
 
Third Face of Foley – History has kind of forgotten how bad the first iteration of the Mankind character was, or the flat attempts to replace it with Foley's "Dude Love". While there is little doubting Foley's ability (as there wasn't before this) his success as Cactus Jack hadn't replicated itself since arriving in the WWF. On the 22nd September Raw he was tasked with facing Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a Falls Count Anywhere match, but as he explained during an interview between Dude Love and Mankind (yes, both of them talking to each other) it wasn't really their bag. But they knew someone who might and, at MSG, out making his WWF debut, was Cactus Jack to a great reaction.
 
Killer Mark Curtis – Fan interaction had become as a big of an issue as it was a boon for WCW, frequently major segments involved fans chucking garbage and beverages at performers (including a situation outside at Road Wild, where rocks were thrown), but fan's stepping inside the ring hadn't up until this point been an issue. That was until September 8th, during a match between Dean Malenko and Psicosis where a fan (seemingly as a promise/joke for his wife) ran through ringside and climbed into the ring where Mark Curtis (all 5ft 7 of him) nailed him with a knee lift before seamlessly floored him with a reverse chinlock, completely neutralising him before security could come out and deal with him. As if you needed an excuse not to love Curtis before this point.
 
Sting Picks His Side – It had been a long time coming, for sure, but Sting finally unloading on the NWO was still a great moment. At the conclusion of a 5-show month of a show that was frequently going much longer than two hours, after the usual NWO run in Sting came out, dropped his baseball bat, then just went to work on the NWO. The start to Hogan vs Sting had truly begun. 

Listen to our October 1997 WWF podcast, reviewing the scarcely believable build to the WWF's biggest match. We also get to cover Shawn vs Taker - Hell in a Cell. Which is really good. 

Subscribe to the podcast via: iTunes | RSS Feed | Email Newsletter
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I start this piece from a position of weakness, and one of ignorance: at the time I writing, I have never actually sat down and watched the Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart match from Survivor Series 1997. I write that knowing at least 50% of people have already closed this piece and the rest of you are already very skeptical about it. For once, though, my ignorance is not an accident – as I write this nearly 20 years to the day of the event I want to approach this from a slightly different angle.

The “Montreal Screwjob” has taken on a bit of a mythical presence in the annals of WWE history – full of lies and misinformation, and facts that seem to make almost everyone look bad. It was undeniably an event that had consequences both good and bad for the industry. It’s placed Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart as a feud that sits at the very top of the top rivalries in the WWE and, indeed, wrestling history. But much like many things viewed through the WWE’s filter, it’s not quite what it seems.

The definition of a great feud, like most things in wrestling, is ultimately in the eye of the beholder. If you enjoy WWE’s current product, if you’re a fan of Roman Reigns then you are entitled to hold that opinion – however unpopular. But there are certain objective things that most would agree define a great wrestling feud: great matches, great moments and its impact on the business. Did Michaels and Hart have even any of these things?

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Looking at the matches, to begin with. If you exclude house shows, according to ProFightDB the pair actually only wrestled five televised/to-video singles matches in their time in the company. Once in 1990, twice in 1992, and their matches in 1996 and of course 1997. Focussing first one the pair of matches in 1992, both are extremely well received – the first a bizarre taped for Wrestling Challenge match that was actually the first ever ladder match in the WWE. While like most ladder matches from the nineties it’s hard to really appreciate 20 years on, it’s undeniably a very strong and innovative if, as I say, a little basic compared to what would follow.

The second was their WWF Championship match at Survivor Series in 1992, one seemingly universally praised for its standard, a 25-minute main-event that showcased the best that the two have to offer. Was it a "great" match? I'd argue not, it lacked drama and excitement to put it into those annals (although, no doubt, being 25 years removed from it doesn't help). In that sense, both of these matches cement and seal the case that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels have had very good matches together. Were they "great"? I'd argue against.

Look hard enough and you’ll find plenty of pairings who managed to string a couple of good matches together – Michaels and Scott Hall had two great matches in 1994-5, Bret and Owen probably had two in the space of four months in 1994. It’s not to attempt to deride 1992, or to simply ignore it for the sake of the piece, but when people talk about Bret vs Shawn being one of the great rivalries – the pair of matches in 1992 are merely an introduction as part of a larger backstory surrounding the pair that began in the 1980s with their tag team run against each other.

And between 1992 and 1996, again according to ProFight DB (which I believe excludes House Shows unless they were released on video tape) the only time the pair stepped in the ring together was at Survivor Series in 1993 where at the last minute (following Jerry Lawler falling into legal troubles) Shawn Michaels stepped in to oppose a team of Hart brothers. That match went 30 minutes, it was not a classic. But given the nature of the circumstances, and the fact it included Bruce Hart, it would be wrong to hold it against either guy.

As for why the never faced off in 1994 and 1995 – it’s more just illustrative of Vince McMahon’s priorities at the time. Even when Champion in 1994, Bret often wasn’t the focus as firstly Lex Luger and later Diesel were given top billing, and Michaels at the time still wasn’t really seen as a headline act – stuck in a tag team with Diesel. Even with that he was still involved in a classic with Scott Hall and a typical litany of other very watchable matches.

1995 was a different story – Bret’s run as Champion in 1994 ended at the hands of all people Bob Backlund – although Backlund’s run was just a few days to get the title onto Diesel (I’ve written about the topic to death here). Shawn got his big shot at Wrestlemania against Diesel but it just didn’t really click (if you’ll pardon a pun) and realising the fans were just dying to cheer Shawn they turned him and all of a sudden Bret, Diesel, Undertaker and Michaels were all babyfaces (as also, inexplicably, was Bam Bam Bigelow) – which not only left Diesel with no opponents but also both Michaels and Hart with no upward mobility.

That all solved itself when Vince finally gave up on Diesel, giving the title back to Bret and (after a well-done collapse angle involving Michaels) putting him on a collision course with Michaels at Wrestlemania in 1996. This match was different – even though they’d headlined at Survivor Series four years before that was still a promotion that carried Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and even Ric Flair. In 1996, and with Luger and Diesel both busted flushes (and funnily enough both about to become significantly bigger babyfaces in WCW than the WWF ever could make them), this was 1 and 1a on the most important show of the year. You can fight over which one was which.

The build I’ll talk about later, the match itself though was chosen to be a one hour “Iron Man” match, a bizarre idea but one in theory a perfect fit for the two best in ring performers in the company. But the execution was bizarre and, of all the possible outcomes, an almost shockingly-average, completely unmemorable 62 minutes of action seemed almost like the worst of all worlds. The pair wrestled with a sedate pace with very little drama or big moments as Bret bemoaned a lack of impact finisher and Shawn bizarrely never even attempting to go for a superkick. Fans left in quite significant numbers throughout as the pair couldn't hold their attention. It’s no surprise that no Iron Man match since has ever dared to go for a 0-0 – Shawn eventually picked it up with a superkick in overtime. You can’t help but feel that they denied themselves the chance at an all-time match.

Bret, in his own words “fucked off for a while”, creating space for Shawn as champion. That run was a mixed bag: Shawn wrestled a series of show saving main events throughout the summer but seemingly became isolated without his friends and wore himself out. Indeed, by the time it came to Survivor Series 1996, not only was Sid’s title win not a surprise the New York fans were actually cheering him against the babyface Michaels.

That was all a bit of a reset and a stopgap, Shawn won the title back at the Royal Rumble in front of a drought-defying 60,000 fans in San Antonio. Bret… almost won the Rumble, being eliminated last by the already eliminated Austin setting up what was in theory a number one contender’s match at February’s pay-per-view. But by the time they’d got there Shawn had relinquished his title after “losing his smile”. And the natural Wrestlemania rematch was over.

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The “great moments” one, is a real interesting question. That probably starts in 1996 – the pair had crossed paths before but never really on the same level as singles acts. Had Shawn had stayed heel in 1995 it’s not inconceivable they’d have been paired off then, but once Shawn turned it let them both out of pocket. It was the road to Wrestlemania XII where they first faced off as what you might call contemporaries.

The segment, which must’ve looked a little bit odd at the time, looks absolutely ridiculous with the benefit of even 12 months of hindsight, let alone 20 years. Shawn and Bret did a promo exchange mid-ring, talked about their respect for each other, about how their match would be about who had the best conditioning and about how it was about the biggest prize in wrestling. By the time Survivor Series 1997 came around the pair had properly legitimate backstage heat between each other but at this stage it barely seemed to show. Bret was getting ready to leave (with his contract actually about to expire) and seemingly was happy to put Shawn over on the way out to setup for the rematch and, presumably Shawn returning the favour, at a later time.

At the conclusion of the Wrestlemania main event Shawn whined and moaned for Bret to get out of the ring so he could have his moment. What seemed like typical Shawn reportedly was the pair trying to make it seem like there was some legitimate beef between the two. Bret aided that cause by bee-lining it straight for his car and uttering the famous “I think I’m just going to fuck off for a while” line that appeared bleeped on Raw.

For the rest of 1996 they didn’t really cross paths. Bret entertained a contract with WCW before signing a 20-year deal with the WWF and, initially putting himself with a program with Steve Austin. By the time 1997 had come around all seemed set for the rematch between Bret and Shawn at Wrestlemania. Bret would get his win back, regain the title then setup a likely summer program with Steve Austin. Of course, that never happened – once again the pair never really got that close.

Instead Michaels arrived on a Thursday edition of Raw with his tail tucked between his legs and a tear in his eye. The segment has gained a lot of notoriety but really didn’t make much sense. Shawn in theory was ducking out thanks to a knee injury (that was legit but many suspected he could’ve worked through) but also cited “losing his smile” – whatever that was supposed to mean. It says a lot that as Michaels tearfully left the ring the fans were chanting for Sid. 

The cynic though, would suggest that Shawn’s primary reason for handing back the title was as a way to avoid having to lose to Bret. There seemed to be a lot of possible causes for Michaels’ hiatus but if he was knackered after a brutal road schedule he could’ve worked through the next 5-6 weeks then taken a period of absence – it’s not like he legimitately wouldn’t have deserved one and nor was it all that unusual. In fact, one thing that had become quite the coincidence was Michael’s inability to actually lose titles – since we’ve started this timeline he was stripped of the tag titles and  forfeited the Intercontinental Title – one suspects the only reason he was willing to drop the WWF title to Sid was a guarantee he’d have it back two months later.

It really killed Wrestlemania dead in its tracks. Three nights later at the February per-per-view Bret won the run off against Vader, Undertaker and Austin as planned – but this one was for the WWF Title. Bret, then more randomly still, lost the title on Raw the next night to Sid as the Wrestlemania reshuffle was complete as the main event was now Sid vs Taker and Bret vs Steve Austin was given a second outing. Michaels, for all of his problems and talks of “losing his smile” was back bloody quickly once he worked out he wasn’t going to be losing. The change did at least give us the all-timer of Bret against Steve Austin that cemented Bret's heel turn and takes me nicely to the next chapter in this piece.

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It was really from Wrestlemania onwards which is the only time you could formally consider the pair in a feud for any length of time. With Bret now an anti-American heel, it was left to Shawn to seemingly play the voice of reason, running his mouth on Bret in a way that he never had before – and in 1997, the era where everyone was shooting, seemingly nothing was off limits. Shawn accused Bret of deliberatly leaving in 1996 to ensure he failed on top.

The newly turned Bret on the newly two-hour Raw created an interesting dynamic. Everyone seemingly was expected to talk and, while Bret's promos had improved a lot over previous years, he was still hideously out of his depth when asked to talk for any length of time. Hideously so, unless the subject was Shawn Michaels. One of the things that's revered so much about the rivarly was how true to life it was, hatred built on genuine, person dislike, and that seemed to bring the best (or the worst) out in both of them.

Two of hours of Raw and an undercard barely willing of the name meant that Bret, Shawn and Steve Austin were on television a lot, and they were talking *a lot*. That left a lot of time for shooting, something that there seemed to be an unspoken agreement about but, as we'll see later in the year, never underestimate Shawn Michaels' ability to be a right prick if he needs to be. In May 1997, Michaels famously said that Bret had been experiencing "Sunny days", something that – like many shoots at the time – seemed to fly over most people's heads. Also, a reminder that Michaels at this point was still a face.

Still, that promo was a setup for the first match between Bret and Shawn in over a year, slated for King of the Ring in June. Bret offered up a challenge to Shawn that he could beat him ten minutes or he'd never wrestle in the US again – which was obviously the setup for an absolute cluster fuck of a finish but one that we'd never get to see, although at least this time the injury was Bret's and we're more inclined to believe his was real. Michaels paired off against Austin in a match that nobody really wanted to see and, shockingly, didn't really go anywhere. Michaels fighting Austin made no sense and the crowd knew it too.

The dividing line between all of this is really one thing: most of the interaction between Shawn and Bret was compelling if you were tuned in enough to understand what they were saying, but it's really hard to tell whether it was actually any good. During a promo on Raw at one stage, Bret went on so long ranting about Shawn that the show went off the air before Shawn had a chance to superkick Bret out of his wheelchair.

Again though, if you were tuned it was thrill a minute, the night after King Of The Ring Michaels and Bret got into a fight that at one point looked like it might be Michaels' last involvement in the company. It did, however, provide Michaels with another opportunity for some time off to sulk and Bret the opportunity to face-off against Austin in a ten-man tag in Calgary in July. Suffice to say, that was one bloody well received pay-per-view.

Michaels' hiatus bought him back with some apologising to do, as he did in-ring with Vince McMahon during July. July bought about four very interesting weeks of promos from him and Bret – not that they ever crossed paths but given that two of the shows were in Canada and two in America, it gave both of them a chance to cut a home promo, and an away promo.
Bret, unsurprisingly, thrived in home territory. Shawn wasn't quite as strong even in Texas, but his interaction with Vince who was conducting the interview illustrated a lot about his position and autonomy within the company at the time. There really was a growing perception at the time that Michaels could say and do whatever he wanted, such was the concern that he might down tools or worse attempt to appear on Nitro – even if his contract would've made this an impossibility. In truth, the WWF hadn't have worried about Michaels joining WCW at the time, the second he'd have left them it may have killed them dead anyway. That's what they were worried about.

It was the away promos that really illustrated the difference between them. Michaels was absolutely in his element in enemy territory, cutting a heat filled promo just stoking the crowd and their anger against him. Bret in American territory was... a bit different. Given nearly ten minutes on the mic, other than a nice line about the home city Bret's promo fell a long way short.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was leading to a match. I mean, it was, but the match is was leading to was Bret against The Undertaker – Michaels' back and forth with McMahon was enough to get him made special guest referee for the match, but will certain stipulations. Bret offered that if he couldn't win the title he'd never wrestle in America again, something that Shawn also had to agree to if he didn't call the match down the middle.

The match at Summerslam was very enjoyable. It probably denied us a chance of a great Undertaker/Bret match (not that I'm convinced those two were capable – they'd had chances before). Plus, Bret really only knew one way to wrestle as a heel – some say he's still working the leg to this day. The match, while not an in-ring classic, was certainly one of the company's better storytelling efforts – Michaels' desperate attempts to be impartial were great to watch, as it was to watch them slowly unravel as Bret increasingly took liberties and Shawn innocently made mistakes. It ended with Bret goading Shawn by spitting in his face, Shawn finally snapping by swinging a chair only for it to hit Undertaker, not Bret, who'd ducked. The story was complete with Shawn's reluctant, stare-Bret-directly-in-the-eye three count that would seal his fifth and ultimately final WWF title win.

It was with that Michaels' heel turn was complete. I think they bought him out the next night on Raw in an attempt to finish the job but in all honesty they needn't have bothered – Shawn was booed before he even started talking. But with both Michaels and Bret now heel, there was only one place they could do the match – only one place where you could guarantee one would be cheered and one would be booed. Fortunately, they had the perfect location – and three months to build it...

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If there's a parallel to draw at this point, it would be one down in Atlanta. They were building to their own mega match in Hulk Hogan vs Sting. It didn’t always necessarily feel like they were doing a great job of it: Hogan would lose and it wouldn’t matter, people faking being Sting was being done to death and WCW’s inability to plan more than a few weeks ahead meaning that their idea of doing the match in December felt suicidal. And Hulk Hogan, much like Shawn Michaels, had a reputation of a guy traditionally difficult to work and compromise with.

The WWF had a long term plan too, in the summer reports came out that Bret vs Shawn was being slated for Wrestlemania 14, or at least that Bret had been asked about doing the match. Bret, perhaps quite rightly, was non-committal – why commit to a match where (presumably) he would be relying on Shawn to “return the favour”?

Which is something, perhaps, that Michaels had in common with Hogan. Hogan was a bit more overt about it – no need to be a dick about putting someone over when you just have the power to veto it. And perhaps the one major difference between the pair at the time was their primary goal: you sensed Michaels was about glory, Hogan’s was more about money. And while there were a lot of things that Hulk Hogan certainly wasn’t, Hulk Hogan knew to put country before party. And the one thing you could absolutely say about watching WCW in 1997: you absolutely knew they were building to a big match. In fact, they were building to it so hard that a planned 2 month expedition of having Sting being offered different members of the NWO for his return match, only to reject each on in turn before *finally* getting to Hogan had to be cut short as fans basically tied WCW’s hands and kept chanting Hogan’s name during the segments.

Which isn’t something that you can quite so easily say about the WWF and the build to their big match. Sure, in WCW’s case the three month build of their big show could involve Hogan skipping two of those shows and Sting all three – a luxury that the WWF couldn’t afford. Between Summerslam and Suvivor Series they had two months of PPVs and with Steve Austin out (possibly permanently) with a neck injury both Bret and the returning Michaels were required to fill and often save shows. Michaels had some unfinished business with Undertaker to deal with and Bret had a slightly crowbarred feud with The Patriot for his new title.

But, that doesn’t necessarily prevent them from interacting on TV, right? And interact they did, the newly turned Michaels now aligning himself with bestie Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Chyna and (somewhat randomly) Rick Rude in a group that would soon become known as Degenaration-X. That is text speak, of course, for Michaels being able to act like an absolutely massive dick and nobody being able to stop him.

That being said though, despite the petty comments there was never any really direction about building towards a big match. DX occupied themselves with Undertaker, Bret with just about everyone but largely Vader and The Patriot. It’d be a weird criticism to point that the WWF were too focussed on building to the next pay-per-view, and not enough on the bigger picture, but it’s hard to make a case that they weren’t. Never mind the fact that now with both Michaels and Bret heels it made it quite difficult to pair them off anywhere without the segment falling flat. Meanwhile, even with an injured neck and an uncertain future, Steve Austin was enjoying a run competing with no other top babyface and being able to attack whoever he liked without fear of retaliation.

Eventually though the WWF got the message. September’s pay per view was largely a non-event, October’s (which looked flat going in) was completely overshadowed by the passing of Brian Pillman earlier in the day, but was still a memorable one as Michaels and Undertaker had a 30 minute classic in the first ever Hell in a Cell match that is near to perfection as wrestling may ever produce. With Undertaker now occupied with Kane and Bret clear of Patriot and Vader – there was nothing stopping them.

Again though, while the heel vs heel dynamic setup perfectly for the Canadian backdrop – it didn’t really help them with the build on American soil. With Shawn just starting to act like a bit of a cunt, Bret couldn’t really do anything (in part because Shawn didn’t really let him) but also because he was also still the heel. The WWF’s solution to all of this, was a bit bizarre.
On a Raw during October they cut the Michael Cole in the Nation of Domination locker-room. The locker-room had been absolutely done in, bags emptied, the whole room ram-shacked and walls sprayed with increasingly xenophobic and racist statements. The Nation, quite rightly, were pretty pissed off about it, and complained to Vince McMahon about the overt racism in the WWF. Not exactly idea #1 when it comes to “things we can make a storyline about”. Farooq essentially accused the Hart Foundation or Steve Austin of doing it and…

Well… in politics there’s a term called a “non-denial denial”, essentially where being asked a question the person answers it by skirting around the issue and broading saying the right things without actually saying anything. So when Bret Hart was asked about what happened to the locker-room, his response of “Where I’m from, we treat everyone equally” – which was meant to tie into the anti-American thing but wildly missed the mark. Bret couldn't denounce it, seemingly, as it would cause sympathy. In some ways Bret summed it up best when he just mouthed "stupid" during the segment. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough Michaels butted in on the Titantron and this complete dead end of a story continued. He called Bret the “Grand Wizard” and the Hart Foundation “The rest of the KKK” before Helmsley butted in and said that while they were destroying the Nation’s locker-room someone had overheard them using the “N” word. This, if anything, was a reminder that not-all-things-can-be-settled-in-the-ring.

Which is where things were headed but honestly, watching Raw in the lead-up to Survivor Series it wasn’t exactly that obvious. The WWF title was barely mentioned, and when it was at one point it was Michaels calling it a “piece of tin” – the matchup wasn’t really talked about all that heavily, certainly not one befitting of one a decade in the making. Come the episode of Raw six days before the show (which Bret didn’t appear on) it was like someone remembered that they actually needed to promote a match as a five minute long preview clip (using footage mostly from the year before) was put in during the middle of the show. The only thing that seemed certain leading into the show was something Jim Ross said: “Enjoy it on Sunday, because this match will never happen again”.

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He, of course, was right. Stories had broken about Bret’s decision to sign with WCW. But it’s a testament to the builds of Hogan vs Sting and Michaels vs Hart about how well they did at the box-office. Michaels and Hart managed around 250,000 buys – whereas Starrcade 1997 did nearly 3x time. While it wasn’t exactly an apples for apples comparison – WWF’s big showdown match for one of their “great” rivalries had failed to produce where it mattered.

And maybe that’s what makes it so great. Hogan might have been a twat but he knew when to show some give to fill his own pockets. What if the greatest rivalry in wrestling is the one that’s so intense and heated that the pair literally cannot work together for their own benefit? Bret and Shawn can look back on that night in Montreal and know that whatever the circumstances that the pair cemented their legacies in the history books. It was probably a piece of good fortune that it ended that way, as nothing they did before that particularly lived up to the moniker that history has given them since. Iconic feud? Very possibly. But 20 years on, I’d question whether a feud between two of the best performers of their generation that didn’t produce any great matches, any great moments or any great impact at the box office should be given that billing.