March 23 1997
WrestleMania 13: Undertaker vs Sid
Steve Austin Austin vs Bret Hart.
The main event scene in 1997 was interesting, to say the least. Originally scheduled to headline Mania 13 was a re-match from Mania 12: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart. Shawn won at 12, and the plan was for him to return the favour and lose to Bret at 13. But Shawn being Shawn in the 90s, losing didn’t come easy to him.
Throughout the 90s HBK found a way of dropping titles without actually losing a match. In 1994 Shawn and Diesel vacated the tag team titles after they split as a team while holding the belts, and in 1995 he relinquished the Intercontinental title after being “injured” after he and several WWF stars were involved in a bar fight in Syracuse, New York.
So when the build to Mania 13 was in full swing and the Bret vs Shawn match was scheduled to main event the show, Shawn had a change of heart and decided he needed a break from wrestling and cut his famous “lost his smile” promo on Raw in February and relinquished the WWF title. On camera, he said he needed time away to have potential career-threatening reconstructive knee surgery and find his smile again. He blamed the tough schedule of the previous year, and that’s what he told everyone backstage too. The knee surgery was supposedly legit, required, and urgent enough that he would not be able to compete at WrestleMania six weeks later.
So the script was torn up, and a new card was created. The February pay per view main event only three days after Shawn’s speech (Raw aired on Thursday) was originally to be for the WrestleMania title shot after the controversial ending to the Royal Rumble match that year. But instead of being for the Mania title shot, it became a four-way match for the title itself. Bret Hart beat Steve Austin, The Undertaker and Vader in an excellently exciting match, but then lost the title to Sid on the next Raw episode after Steve Austin interfered. The Undertaker was then granted the #1 contender for Sid’s title at Mania, and Bret Hart vs Steve Austin in an I Quit match was booked for the biggest show of the year too.
The Sid vs Undertaker match at Mania was uneventful with Taker’ leaving with the gold. But the match of the night and one of the best Mania matches ever was Hart vs Austin. They stole the show with a brutal, bloody and exciting I Quit match. Ken Shamrock refereed as Austin and Hart brawled at 100mph around ringside, Austin was bleeding from the forehead, weapons were scattered throughout the arena.
The match closing visual will be remembered forever. Heel Steve Austin, blood pouring down his face, was locked in babyface Hart’s sharpshooter. Austin was fighting and fighting and wouldn’t give up. His energy was fading, but he still wouldn’t give up. He gave one last heroic push and as he raised his body off the mat and screamed in agony, the blood accelerated from the wound on his forehead and poured over his eyes, his mouth and down to the mat. The relentless Hart, who had become more and more frustrated with Austin, Vince and Shawn Michaels in recent weeks (on and off camera) kept the hold locked on tight, and eventually when Austin passed out from the pain and Hart was declared the winner, he kept the hold on, punishing Austin more than he deserved. This blatant act of thuggery was the turning point for Hart as he finally snapped and would continue to become the heel Hart Foundation leader for the remainder of his WWF run. The heroic battle that Austin put in placed himself as a firm babyface in the eyes of the audience and turned him face in the process.
To make matters worse for Bret, before the main event started, Shawn Michaels came out for commentary and looked as fresh as he had ever been. Prancing around, dancing and show-boating for the fans, striking his pose and seemingly showing no effects of the supposed “career-threatening” knee injury that caused him to vacate the title only a few weeks prior. This would only infuriate Hart more, as it was obvious to him that Michaels was either playing up his knee injury in order not to do the job and drop the belt to Hart or even faking the whole thing (including “losing his smile”) from the start. Either way, this incident would be one of the steps towards the Montreal Screwjob that took place at Survivor Series 1997, the last time Bret would appear in front of a WWF crowd…until 2010 and the build to WrestleMania 26.