Bret Hitman Hart vs. Shawn Michaels The Heartbreak Kid (Jul 1992 – Nov 1997)

Background

Bret Hart came from wrestling's most decorated Canadian family, the son of Calgary promoter Stu Hart, and had worked his way up from the tag ranks into a singles push built on technical precision rather than size or charisma. He won the Intercontinental Championship from Roddy Piper on April 5, 1992, positioning him as the WWF's next singles star coming out of the tag division.[1]

Shawn Michaels arrived from the opposite direction. He and Marty Jannetty had been The Rockers, a high-flying tag team that never fully broke through, and the pairing ended for good in early 1992 when Michaels threw Jannetty through a barbershop window on a Brutus Beefcake segment, launching Michaels as a singles heel built on flash and arrogance.[2]

The two had been tag team rivals from 1989 to 1991 before both went solo, and for a stretch they got along well. Hart later said, "Shawn and I always got along," and called him one of his better friends in the locker room.[3] It was the ladder match era of their careers, not yet the grudge it would become.

On July 21, 1992, at a Wrestling Challenge taping, Hart defended the Intercontinental title against Michaels in the first ladder match in WWF history, the belt hoisted above the ring, and retained it.[4] Hart then vacated the Intercontinental Championship that August to move into the world title picture, beating Ric Flair for the WWF Championship on October 12, 1992, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in a match that aired only on a Coliseum Home Video release rather than television.[5]

Michaels picked up the vacated Intercontinental title that same summer, which meant that by the fall of 1992 the WWF had two new champions, and it put them on a collision course for a rare champion-versus-champion main event.[6]

Build-up

Hart and Michaels met as titleholders at Survivor Series on November 25, 1992, at the Richfield Coliseum in Ohio, Hart's WWF Championship against Michaels' Intercontinental title. Michaels controlled long stretches by working Hart's shoulder after Hart missed a corner charge, and Hart battled back with a superplex and a series of near-falls before Michaels missed a middle-rope dropkick attempt and Hart grabbed his legs for the Sharpshooter. Michaels submitted, Hart retained, and Dave Meltzer rated the match 4.5 stars in the Wrestling Observer.[6]

The rivalry then went quiet for years while both men climbed. Hart held the WWF title on and off through the mid-1990s; Michaels won his first WWF Championship from Hart in the first-ever 60-minute Iron Man match at WrestleMania XII on March 31, 1996, at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. The match went to a scoreless draw after an hour, WWF President Gorilla Monsoon ordered sudden-death overtime, and Michaels finished Hart with Sweet Chin Music roughly two minutes later. Meltzer gave it 4.75 stars.[7][8] Hart took an extended leave afterward to rest his body, while Michaels carried a title reign through a rough stretch of business for the company.[3]

The real animosity has a specific starting point. On February 13, 1997, during a special "Thursday Raw Thursday" from Lowell, Massachusetts, WWF Champion Michaels forfeited the title, telling the crowd he had a knee injury serious enough to threaten his career and that he needed to "find his smile again." The Pro Wrestling Torch reported on the story as it broke, and Hart and others in the locker room were skeptical, since Hart said he'd seen Michaels doing backflips without a limp shortly before the diagnosis came down.[9][10] To Hart, it read as a calculated way to avoid dropping the title back to him at WrestleMania. Retrospective accounts have called the speech ground zero for the real animosity that followed.[11]

Six weeks later, at WrestleMania 13 on March 23, 1997, Hart wrestled Steve Austin in a Submission match refereed by Ken Shamrock, and the two turned the entire audience's sympathies in a single bout: a bloodied Austin refused to tap to the Sharpshooter and passed out instead, and Hart kept the hold on well past the stoppage, walking out of the building a heel for the first time in his career while Austin left a made star.[12][13] Hart used the heel turn to reform the Hart Foundation with Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, and Brian Pillman, an explicitly pro-Canadian, anti-American stable that carried a Canadian flag to the ring and needled American crowds into throwing debris.[14] Michaels, by contrast, was building D-Generation X with Triple H and Chyna, an irreverent, American faction that made the Hart Foundation its first real rival.[15]

The personal side escalated fast that spring and summer. On the May 19, 1997 Raw Is War, Michaels delivered his "Sunny days" promo, looking into the camera and telling Hart he'd been having "some Sunny days," insinuating an affair between Hart and WWF valet Sunny (Tammy Sytch); both Hart and Sytch have always denied it happened, but the line caused real strain in Hart's marriage.[16] Three weeks later, on June 9, 1997, the tension turned physical when Hart and Michaels got into a real backstage fight at the Hartford Civic Center that had to be broken up by other wrestlers and officials.[17]

The story kept escalating through the summer on pay-per-view. At SummerSlam on August 3, 1997, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Hart challenged Undertaker for the WWF Championship with Michaels as special guest referee, under a stipulation that Hart could never wrestle in the United States again if he lost. Michaels pulled a chair out of Hart's hands, Hart spat in his face, and Michaels swung the chair back only to accidentally clock Undertaker with it, handing Hart the pin and the title.[18][19] Michaels then spent the fall chasing his own championship opportunity, beating Undertaker in the first Hell in a Cell match at Badd Blood: In Your House on October 5, 1997, in St. Louis, a match capped by the debut of Undertaker's storyline brother Kane tearing the cell door off its hinges. The win earned Michaels his title shot against Hart at Survivor Series.[20][21]

Behind the angle, a real contract dispute was accelerating toward a breaking point. Hart had signed an unprecedented 20-year deal with the WWF in October 1996, turning down a three-year, $8.4 million offer from WCW, but by the fall of 1997 the WWF was in financial trouble ahead of a planned stock offering and Vince McMahon told Hart the company could no longer honor the 20-year contract.[22][23] McMahon began deferring Hart's pay that September and quietly encouraged him to talk to WCW rather than fight the deferrals; Hart signed with WCW on November 1, 1997, for roughly $3 million a year starting that December.[23][24] On October 12, Hart told Michaels he'd drop the title if McMahon asked him to; Michaels told Hart he wouldn't do the same in reverse, a moment Hart's camp says deepened his refusal to lose to Michaels specifically, and especially not on Canadian soil, with WCW-bound weeks away.[23][25]

The Matches

The two men closed the story at Survivor Series on November 9, 1997, at the sold-out Molson Centre in Montreal, with Hart's WWF Championship on the line against Michaels for the third time in five years.[22] Michaels rubbed the Canadian flag on himself on his way to the ring, drawing heavy heat, while Hart heard a mix of cheers and "you sold out" chants from fans who already knew about the WCW deal.[23]

Hart, Michaels, and agent Pat Patterson had gone over a finish beforehand: Michaels would lock Hart in his own Sharpshooter near a moment when the referee was down, Hart would reverse the hold onto Michaels, Owen Hart and the British Bulldog would run in to break up a fake submission, and the match would end in a disqualification that let Hart leave Montreal still champion.[23][26] Hart trusted referee Earl Hebner enough that Hebner had reportedly sworn on his children's lives he'd never turn on him; unbeknownst to Hart, Michaels had only told Hebner the real plan the night before, and Gerald Brisco had pulled Hebner aside to make sure he'd go through with it.[23][27][28]

The match ran just under twenty minutes. In the closing stretch, Michaels shoved Hebner into Hart as Hart came off the top rope, all three went down, and Michaels raked Hart's eyes before grabbing his legs for the Sharpshooter, exactly as planned. What wasn't planned was what happened next: Michaels held the hold tight instead of easing up for the reversal, Hebner scrambled to his feet and called for the bell, and timekeeper Mark Yeaton rang it on Vince McMahon's shouted order before Hart had ever tapped out.[23][29] Michaels' music played, the WWF Championship belt was handed to him at ringside, and he left through the crowd with Triple H and Brisco as the broadcast cut away.[23]

Hart, realizing what had happened as the bell rang, spat directly in McMahon's face at ringside, then tore up the timekeeper's table, the ring bell, and nearby monitors while the sold-out building turned on McMahon and the finish. Before heading to the back, Hart traced "WCW" in the air for the crowd, then "I love you," while Owen Hart, Neidhart, and the British Bulldog came out to walk him away from ringside.[23]

Aftermath

The confrontation followed Hart backstage. McMahon arrived at Hart's dressing room with Shane McMahon, Brisco, Patterson, and Bruce Prichard to explain himself; by Hart's account and Brisco's own later retelling, McMahon told Brisco he'd let Hart have one free shot, and Hart's right hand caught McMahon in the temple and dropped him to the floor.[30][31] McMahon came away with a black eye and a sprained ankle, though accounts differ on the ankle: Hart has said his punch lifted McMahon off his feet before he landed on it, while McMahon and Brisco have said Brisco accidentally stepped on McMahon's foot in the scramble afterward.[31][32]

The following night on Raw from Ottawa, Michaels carried the belt out and bragged about winning it in Hart's own country, and Jim Ross interviewed McMahon on camera, drawing the line that has followed McMahon ever since: "Vince McMahon didn't screw Bret Hart. I truly believe that Bret Hart... screwed Bret Hart."[23]

The locker room came close to a mutiny. Wrestlers were furious that a fourteen-year veteran had been double-crossed on his way out the door, and some talked about boycotting Raw entirely; McMahon held a meeting to explain the financial stakes, and Hart himself told the roster not to walk out over it.[23] Mick Foley skipped that Raw in protest before returning under his contract; Rick Rude, close with Hart, quit outright and turned up on both a taped WWF Raw and a live WCW Nitro on the same night, November 17, 1997, tearing into McMahon, Michaels, and DX on WCW television, the only time that happened during the Monday Night War.[33]

Hart made his WCW debut on Nitro on December 15, 1997, from the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, revealed as the special guest referee for Eric Bischoff's match with Larry Zbyszko at Starrcade; the same broadcast saw Nitro's announcers openly criticize McMahon and Michaels while nWo members sang the Canadian national anthem with Canadian flags in hand.[34][35] Michaels kept the WWF and European titles through the rest of that reign but tore two discs and crushed a third in a casket match against Undertaker at the January 1998 Royal Rumble, then lost the WWF Championship to Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV that March while still hurt, beginning a four-year break from full-time wrestling.[36]

Of Hart's Hart Foundation, only Owen Hart stayed with the WWF, held to his own contract. Owen was reportedly torn about it; his widow Martha Hart has said Owen tried to reassure Bret that wrestling didn't matter as much as his health, his family, and the money he'd banked, while Vince Russo has claimed an angry Bret threatened to disown Owen if he didn't leave too.[37][38][39]

Behind the Scenes

The friendship the two men once had didn't survive the buildup. Hart and Michaels had genuinely liked each other through the tag-team years, and even into the early 1990s Hart called Shawn one of his closer friends backstage; by 1997, that had curdled into real dislike on both sides, not just a well-worked program.[3][40] The "Sunny days" line, whatever its truth, did real damage to Hart's marriage, and Hart has said he never forgave Michaels for saying it on television regardless of how the story played out afterward.[16]

The screwjob's root cause was financial, not personal. The WWF was preparing a stock offering and losing the ratings war to WCW through much of 1997, and McMahon's own account is that the company genuinely could not afford to honor the twenty-year contract he had given Hart the year before.[22][24] McMahon was reportedly haunted by the 1995 Madusa incident, when the departing WCW-bound Women's Champion dumped the WWF's title belt in a trash can on live WCW television, and did not want a repeat with his male World Champion walking out the door still wearing the belt.[23]

The two men's own accounts of who actually proposed the finish don't agree. In his autobiography, Michaels wrote that he told McMahon, "I'll do whatever you want. We'll just take it off him. I'll just swerve him or whatever I have to. You tell me what needs to get done… My loyalty is here with you," framing the screwjob as his own suggestion rather than something done to him as a performer.[23] Hart's own telling, in his autobiography and in Wrestling with Shadows, treats it as a betrayal engineered entirely by McMahon, Patterson, and Brisco, sold to Michaels rather than originated by him, with Hart himself kept in the dark until the bell rang.[23]

Earl Hebner's account has shifted over time. He has said Hart bought him a first-class seat on the flight to Montreal specifically so the two could talk, and that Hart asked him directly, "You won't count me out?" to which Hebner said no.[28] Years later, though, Hebner said, "At that time, I really didn't think it was a work; today, I think it was," a line Hart has flatly rejected every time it's been repeated to him.[41] Hebner and Hart didn't speak for years afterward but have since reconciled.[41]

The Hart family's reaction split along different lines. Owen stayed under contract and kept working for WWF, appearing in the DX-mocking dwarf skits that followed the screwjob on television even as his own family fumed at the company.[42] Bret's anger at his brother staying, and Owen's own quiet insistence to Martha that health and money mattered more than any of it, sat uneasily side by side for years.[37][38]

The rift with Michaels and McMahon eventually closed. Hart stayed away from WWE programming for over a decade, and it wasn't until January 2010 that Hart, Michaels, and McMahon settled things on camera on Raw, shaking hands after twelve years of real animosity; Michaels later said the last time the two spoke in person was backstage at a WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, when he helped Hart put on his suspenders before the show.[43][44]

Legacy

Survivor Series 1997 drew a sold-out 20,593 fans to the Molson Centre and posted the highest WWF pay-per-view buyrate of the year, a number that had nothing to do with the wrestling and everything to do with what happened at the finish.[22] Industry writer Mike Johnson has called it arguably the most talked-about match in the history of professional wrestling, and it remains the moment fans and wrestlers alike default to when the phrase "worked shoot" comes up.[23]

Its effect on the business was immediate. The screwjob unintentionally created the villainous "Mr. McMahon" character once McMahon began playing an unapologetic version of himself on television, and that character's program with Steve Austin became the engine of the Attitude Era, the run that turned around the WWF's fortunes against WCW.[23] Without the events in Montreal, there's no clean version of the McMahon-Austin rivalry that followed within months.

For Hart, the fallout cost him the clean send-off he'd earned over fourteen years with the company, and his WCW run that followed was never able to recapture what Montreal had built around him. Michaels, for his part, spent four years out of the ring recovering from the back injury he suffered soon after, a physically costly coda to a title reign that began under such contested circumstances.[36]

Owen Hart, who stood by his brother's side at ringside in Montreal and stayed loyal to the WWF afterward, died on May 23, 1999, when a stunt harness failed and he fell from the rafters of Kemper Arena in Kansas City during the Over the Edge pay-per-view, a tragedy that has nothing to do with the screwjob itself but is inseparable from any account of the Hart family's WWF years that followed it.[45][46]

Hart and Michaels eventually made peace, reconciling in 2010 and going on to work a match together at WrestleMania XXVI that spring, closing what Hart himself called a chapter that had been left painfully open for far too long.[44] The screwjob is still argued over today by nearly everyone who was in the building, with Hart maintaining it was a real betrayal and Michaels and Hebner each, at different points, suggesting the whole thing amounted to a work Hart was never let in on.[23][41]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Bret Hart — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart
2. Shawn Michaels — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Michaels
3. "Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels: 10 Explosive Backstage Stories" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/bret-hart-shawn-michaels-rivalry-history-explosive-backstage-stories/
4. "Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels: The Defining Rivalry of the 90's (Part 1)" — ProWrestlingPost.com. https://prowrestlingpost.com/bret-hart-and-shawn-michaels/
5. "Bret Hart and his Often Overlooked First Championship Reign" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/bret-hart-champion/
6. Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels (1992 Survivor Series) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bret_Hart_vs._Shawn_Michaels_(1992_Survivor_Series)
7. WrestleMania XII — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_XII
8. "(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels — WWE WrestleMania XII" — TJR Wrestling. https://tjrwrestling.net/feature/match-review-bret-hart-shawn-michaels/
9. "He Was Polarizing And Volatile: Jim Ross On Shawn Michaels Losing His Smile" — ITR Wrestling. https://itrwrestling.com/news/he-was-polarizing-and-volatile-jim-ross-on-shawn-michaels-losing-his-smile/
10. Torch article on Shawn Michaels' knee injury and title forfeiture, February 1997 — Pro Wrestling Torch (reproduced). https://www.angelfire.com/rings/passion_and_pain/Shawn/1997/ShawnTorch297.html
11. "Shawn Michaels Loses His Smile" — WrestleCrap. https://www.wrestlecrap.com/inductions/shawn-michaels-loses-his-smile/
12. WrestleMania 13 — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_13
13. "Bret Hart vs Stone Cold: 15 Untold Stories of Their HOF Feud" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/bret-hart-stone-cold-steve-austin-wrestlemania-13-wwe-hall-of-fame-untold-stories/
14. Hart Foundation — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Foundation
15. D-Generation X — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Generation_X
16. "The Awkward Relationship Between Sunny, Shawn Michaels And Bret Hart, Explained" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/awkward-relationship-sunny-shawn-michaels-bret-hart-explained/
17. "Jim Ross Remembers Bret Hart And Shawn Michaels Backstage Brawl" — ITR Wrestling. https://itrwrestling.com/news/jim-ross-remembers-bret-hart-and-shawn-michaels-backstage-brawl/
18. SummerSlam (1997) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SummerSlam_(1997)
19. "WWE SummerSlam 1997 Review" — TJR Wrestling. https://tjrwrestling.net/review/wwe-summerslam-1997-review/
20. Badd Blood: In Your House — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badd_Blood:_In_Your_House
21. "TJR Retro: WWF Badd Blood 1997 Review (First Hell in a Cell Match)" — TJR Wrestling. https://tjrwrestling.net/review/tjr-retro-wwf-badd-blood-1997-review-first-hell-in-a-cell-match/
22. Survivor Series (1997) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1997)
23. Montreal Screwjob — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob
24. "It's the 25th Anniversary of the Most Significant Moment in Pro Wrestling History" — Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2022/11/09/montreal-screwjob-anniversary-bret-hart-vince-mcmahon-shawn-michaels
25. "The Montreal Screwjob: REAL Truth on Who Screwed Bret Hart" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/montreal-screwjob/
26. "TJR Retro: WWE Survivor Series 1997 Review (Extended Montreal Screwjob Thoughts)" — TJR Wrestling. https://tjrwrestling.net/review/tjr-retro-wwe-survivor-series-1997-review-extended-montreal-screwjob-thoughts/
27. "Gerald Brisco Recalls Pressuring Earl Hebner Into Refereeing The Montreal Screwjob" — ITR Wrestling. https://itrwrestling.com/news/gerald-brisco-earl-hebner-montreal-screwjob/
28. "Earl Hebner Opens Up And Tells All About WWE's Infamous Montreal Screwjob In 1997" — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1287829/earl-hebner-wwe-montreal-screwjob-1997/
29. "The Infamous Montreal Screwjob Explained" — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1461124/infamous-wwe-montreal-screwjob-explained/
30. "WWE Hall Of Famer Bret Hart Addresses Punching Vince McMahon Over Montreal Screwjob" — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/1694056/wwe-hall-famer-bret-hart-addresses-punching-vince-mcmahon-montreal-screwjob/
31. "Bret Hart Recalls Knocking Vince McMahon Out After Montreal Screwjob" — Fightful. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/bret-hart-recalls-knocking-vince-mcmahon-out-after-montreal-screwjob-story-vince-gave-me-free-punch/
32. "Bret Hart Reveals Truth About Vince McMahon Punch After Montreal Screwjob" — Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/fannation/wrestling/wwe/bret-hart-reveals-truth-about-vince-mcmahon-punch-after-montreal-screwjob
33. "25 Years Later: Rick Rude Appears on WWF Raw and WCW Nitro on the Same Night" — Last Word on Pro Wrestling. https://lastwordonsports.com/prowrestling/2022/11/17/rick-rude-raw-nitro-same-night/
34. "On this date in WCW history: Bret Hart debuts on Monday Nitro" — Cageside Seats. https://www.cagesideseats.com/2012/12/15/3769382/on-this-date-in-wcw-history-bret-hart-debuts-on-monday-nitro
35. "'Everybody Lost' When Bret Hart Joined WCW Says Eric Bischoff" — TJR Wrestling. https://tjrwrestling.net/news/everybody-lost-bret-hart-wcw-eric-bischoff/
36. WrestleMania XIV — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_XIV
37. "Martha Hart Recalls Owen's Mindset After The Montreal Screwjob, Says Owen Requested WWE Release" — Fightful. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/martha-hart-recalls-owen-s-mindset-after-montreal-screwjob-says-owen-requested-wwe-release/
38. "Bret Hart Reportedly Threatened To Disown Owen After The Montreal Screwjob" — ITR Wrestling. https://itrwrestling.com/news/bret-hart-threatened-to-disown-owen-montreal/
39. "Bret Hart issued ultimatum to Owen Hart after the Montreal Screwjob (Exclusive)" — Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-bret-hart-issued-ultimatum-owen-hart-montreal-screwjob-exclusive
40. "The History Of Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart's Friendship" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/wwe-history-shawn-michaels-bret-hart-friendship-explained-friends-kliq-rift-rivalry/
41. "Earl Hebner Says He Believes The Montreal Screwjob Was A Work" — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2020/05/earl-hebner-says-he-believes-the-montreal-screwjob-was-a-670362/
42. "How The Hart Family Reacted To The Montreal Screwjob" — TheSportster. https://www.thesportster.com/wwe-hart-family-montreal-screwjob-reaction/
43. "WWE's Shawn Michaels Reveals Last Time He Spoke To Old Rival Bret Hart" — Wrestling Inc. https://www.wrestlinginc.com/2156041/wwe-shawn-michaels-rival-bret-hart-hall-of-fame/
44. "Shawn Michaels speaks openly about the Montreal Screwjob 25 years on" — Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-shawn-michaels-speaks-openly-montreal-screwjob-25-years
45. Over the Edge (1999) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_the_Edge_(1999)
46. "The loss of Owen Hart and the family, friends and fans who loved him" — CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/the-loss-of-owen-hart-and-the-family-friends-and-fans-who-loved-him-1.5146777

Further Listening

• Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling (Bret Hart autobiography) — Hart's full account of the buildup, the finish, and the fallout
• Heartbreak & Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story (Shawn Michaels autobiography) — Michaels' version of proposing and carrying out the finish
• Wrestling with Shadows (1998 documentary) — the Bruce family-commissioned film that captured Hart's side in real time through 1997
• Dark Side of the Ring: The Montreal Screwjob — a retrospective episode featuring interviews with several people who were in the building