The Hart Foundation vs. The United States (Mar 1997 – Nov 1997)

Background

Bret Hart came into 1997 as the WWF Champion and the promotion's steadiest top-tier performer, a company man who had carried the title through the lean stretch after Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage left for WCW.[12] Steve Austin was on his way up, a cocky younger heel who had just won the 1996 King of the Ring and cut the "Austin 3:16" promo that made him a merchandise draw before the fans had fully decided whether to like him.[3]

Their WrestleMania 13 match was built as Hart's return to the main event after a mid-90s stretch of odd booking, and it was scheduled as a no-disqualification submission match with UFC fighter Ken Shamrock, then a legitimate outside attraction, as special referee.[2] Hart was the storyline good guy going in and Austin the heel.[2]

Away from the angle, Hart's family situation was doing real work for the story before a word of it was written. His younger brother Owen Hart and his brother-in-law The British Bulldog, married to Bret's sister Diana, had feuded with each other through the winter, a genuine-feeling program between two men who were genuinely related.[7] Brian Pillman, a close friend of the Hart family who had signed with the WWF in June 1996, was working through the aftermath of a nearly fatal car accident the previous year that had fused his ankle and ended his high-flying style for good.[6]

Build-up

The Sharpshooter finish at WrestleMania 13 on March 23, 1997 at the Rosemont Horizon did the opposite of what a normal submission finish does. Hart made Austin pass out from the pain rather than tap, Shamrock called it for Hart, and Hart kept attacking an unconscious man anyway.[2] The Chicago crowd, which had come in ready to boo Austin, turned on Hart mid-match instead; Austin came to, hit a Stunner on the assisting referee, and limped out to his own ovation.[2] It is remembered as one of the cleanest double turns the promotion ever pulled off, formally recognized by WWE as the first "Immortal Moment" inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2025.[2]

Hart needed a reason to be a heel in the United States without becoming one everywhere, and his family supplied it. On the March 31 Raw is War, Owen Hart and British Bulldog were in the middle of a no-contest brawl when Bret Hart came out, stood between them, and talked them down as brothers rather than opponents.[7] The three reformed the Hart Foundation on the spot with Jim Neidhart and Brian Pillman joining them, a pro-Canada, pro-British, anti-American stable built out of Bret's actual relatives and closest friend.[1][7]

The group started collecting titles almost immediately. Owen Hart beat Rocky Maivia for the Intercontinental Championship on the April 28 Raw is War.[7] Bulldog was already WWF European Champion, having won the belt's inaugural tournament final against Owen himself in February, before either man's allegiance had changed.[7] The one loss in the run came on May 26, when Owen and Bulldog dropped the WWF Tag Team Championship, held 246 days, to the odd pairing of Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels, two men with little use for each other outside a shared opponent.[7]

Hart worked the promos hard, telling American crowds their heroes were fakes and their country was arrogant, while the same words made him a conquering hero the moment the group crossed into Canada or the United Kingdom.[4] He has since described the writing process as deliberate: "I've got to say something smarter than that. I can't just go out there and say stupid stuff."[4] He credited Vince McMahon's direct involvement for how sharp the promos were through the spring and summer, and said the angle lost its edge once that attention moved elsewhere later in the year.[4]

It reached its peak on July 6 at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome in Calgary, the Hart family's hometown building, for In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede.[5] The full Hart Foundation, Bret, Owen, Bulldog, Neidhart and Pillman, took on an American team of Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and the Legion of Doom in a ten-man tag match in front of 12,151 fans who had waited their whole lives to see it.[5] Owen pinned Austin with a rollup, and the wider Hart family climbed into the ring to celebrate afterward while the crowd chanted "Austin sucks" at a handcuffed Stone Cold.[5][8] The show drew a 171,000 buyrate and is still regarded as one of the strongest entries in the In Your House series.[5]

SummerSlam on August 3 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford wrote the nationalism directly into a contract. Bulldog retained the European title over Shamrock by disqualification in 7:26.[9] In the main event, Hart defended the WWF Championship against The Undertaker with Shawn Michaels as special referee, under a stipulation that a loss, or any bias shown by Michaels, would cost Hart the ability to wrestle in the United States at all; Hart won.[9]

Hart has since said the promos had a cost outside the arena: "I would have hillbilly guys in trucks follow me for miles, shaking their fists at me and trying to drive me off the road," and that he raised safety concerns with McMahon about traveling between shows.[4] He also flagged one specific line he was uncomfortable delivering, targeting Pittsburgh: "Geez, that's a bit strong," while noting he genuinely liked the city.[4]

The Matches

There was no single blow-off match. The Hart Foundation vs. USA angle didn't end with a decisive pinfall between the two sides; it ran out of new ground through the late summer and then was overtaken by two separate tragedies within five weeks of each other, one real and one a work.[4]

Canadian Stampede functioned as the closest thing to a culminating event, a ten-man tag with no title on the line where the result mattered less than the setting.[5] Owen Hart pinned Steve Austin at the Saddledome, the extended Hart family, not just the five men advertised, filled the ring afterward, and the Calgary crowd got the one night the storyline was built to deliver: a hometown celebration instead of a nationalist argument.[5][8]

By late summer, the promotional engine behind the angle slowed. Hart has said the sharp, specific writing that carried the spring gave way to repetition once creative attention moved on after SummerSlam, and the feud drifted rather than escalated into a defined finish.[4] What replaced a clean ending was real-world tragedy: Brian Pillman's death on October 5, and five weeks later, the Montreal Screwjob, an angle that started as a working relationship between Hart and Michaels but ended the year, and the Hart Foundation, for good.[1][11]

Aftermath

Brian Pillman was found dead in his room at the Budgetel Motel in Bloomington, Minnesota on October 5, 1997, hours before Badd Blood: In Your House aired that night.[6] An autopsy attributed the death to a heart attack caused by previously undetected atherosclerotic heart disease, the same condition that had killed his father; painkillers and muscle relaxers were found in the room, along with nonlethal traces of cocaine.[6] He was 35. The remaining four members of the Hart Foundation continued as a group for about a month afterward.[1]

The angle's actual conclusion came at Survivor Series on November 9 at the Molson Centre in Montreal, where Vince McMahon had referee Earl Hebner call for the bell while Shawn Michaels held Bret Hart in his own Sharpshooter, a submission that never happened, and awarded Michaels the WWF Championship.[1][11] Hart left the company for WCW within days, and the Hart Foundation disbanded without a proper on-screen ending.[1]

Owen Hart stayed with the WWF and kept working, including as the Blue Blazer, until his own death during a stunt at Over the Edge in May 1999. British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart continued in the company into 1998 before Bulldog's run there ended; both later worked other promotions. Steve Austin, the man Hart had turned the whole angle around, kept climbing and became the WWF's top drawing star through the Attitude Era that followed.[3]

Behind the Scenes

The Hart Foundation's roster was not a booking coincidence. Owen Hart and British Bulldog were feuding as themselves, brothers-in-law with real friction, when the storyline repurposed that friction into a family reunion instead of a resolution.[7] Brian Pillman was not a Hart by blood but had been close to the family for years and was already limited physically by the 1996 car accident that fused his ankle; joining a stable built around promos rather than high-flying offense suited what his body could still do.[6]

Hart has been direct that the anti-American character was a writing exercise he took seriously rather than a lazy heel turn, crediting Vince McMahon's hands-on involvement for the quality of the material through the spring and summer of 1997 and saying specifically that the promos got weaker once that attention lapsed later in the year.[4] He has also described the offscreen cost as real rather than theoretical, citing being followed by angry fans in trucks and raising travel-safety concerns directly with McMahon.[4]

He has since offered a more measured read on the premise itself than the character ever gave on television, describing Canadians as "the more gentler, laid back version of Americans" and Canada as "the bastard child of Britain and America," a far cry from the character's contempt for American fans.[4]

Pillman's death landed in the middle of a company that had built its hottest angle of the year around his stable, and the broadcast that night went on without acknowledging what had happened earlier that afternoon.[6] Five weeks later the same promotion staged the Montreal finish, an angle that began as a storyline between Hart and Michaels but that closed out the Hart Foundation era along with it; Hart's account of that night and the years afterward is documented at length in his own autobiography and in the WWF's own retrospectives.[11]

Legacy

Canadian Stampede is remembered as one of the strongest entries in the In Your House series and one of the best crowd-reaction shows of the decade, built entirely on the premise that a wrestling angle can be sincere and cynical about the same fact at once: that the Harts really were from Calgary, and the promotion really was selling that.[5][8] The show's 171,000 buyrate and the Saddledome's sellout of 12,151 backed up what the tape already showed.[5]

The nationalist framing gave Steve Austin a face turn he arguably would have earned anyway, but the WrestleMania 13 double turn specifically is the moment historians point to as the hinge between the WWF's mid-90s New Generation period and the Attitude Era that followed, formally recognized decades later as the first WWE Hall of Fame "Immortal Moment."[2]

What kept the angle from getting a clean finish is also what made it hard to look back on simply. Brian Pillman's death and the Montreal Screwjob landed five weeks apart, at the tail end of the same storyline, and both are remembered on their own terms far more than as the Hart Foundation vs. USA angle's ending.[1][6] Bret Hart has continued to discuss the angle in interviews for decades afterward, treating it less as a career highlight and more as a specific, complicated piece of writing he is still willing to defend the craft of.[4]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Hart Foundation — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Foundation
2. WrestleMania 13 — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_13
3. Steve Austin — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Austin
4. "Bret Hart Looks Back At Canada vs. USA Comments From 1997 WWF" — Fightful. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/bret-hart-looks-back-canada-vs-usa-comments-1997-wwf/
5. In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Your_House_16:_Canadian_Stampede
6. Brian Pillman — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Pillman
7. Owen Hart and the British Bulldog — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Hart_and_the_British_Bulldog
8. "How The USA Vs. Canada Feud Captivated WWE Fans In 1997" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/usa-vs-canada-feud-captivated-wwe-fans-1997/
9. SummerSlam (1997) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SummerSlam_(1997)
10. Bret Hart — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart
11. Montreal Screwjob — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob
12. Survivor Series (1997) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1997)

Further Listening

• Bret Hart's Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling — his own account of the Hart Foundation angle and the family dynamics behind it
• Wrestling with Shadows (1998 documentary) — filmed contemporaneously through 1997, covering the Hart Foundation run and its collision with the Montreal finish
• Dark Side of the Ring: 'Brian Pillman' — the loose cannon's life and death in the middle of the Hart Foundation's biggest year
• Stampede Wrestling and the Hart family's own oral histories on the Calgary scene that the Canadian Stampede crowd was drawing on