March 28 2010
WrestleMania 26: Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker
Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon
A lot can happen in 13 years. A lot.
Bret left the WWF for WCW in November 1997, he was misused from his first day before suffering a career-ending concussion from Goldberg at Starrcade 1999. Bret sat out the remainder of his WCW contract, making only sporadic independent appearances over the years but did not wrestle again. Shawn Michaels injured his back at Royal Rumble 1998, took years off from in-ring action where he found religion, changed his ways and returned to WWE in 2002. He became one of the company’s top performers and stole the show at WrestleMania 25, with a re-match set for Mania 26 on March 28, 2010. Vince McMahon used the real-life consequences of the Montreal Screwjob in 1997 to become professional wrestling’s most hated villain. A few flutters into the babyface side happened throughout the years, but Vince’s best and most prominent role has and will always be the evil owner of the biggest wrestling company in the world.
Rival upstart wrestling group TNA was also making moves in 2010. They had brought in Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff to try and revive the Monday Night Wars and go head-to-head against the WWE. Their first Monday night show going head-to-head against Raw was scheduled for January 20201, so to counteract this Vince and the WWE sent an olive branch and reached out to Hart who agreed to appear and settle the grudge he had with Vince and the company since the screwjob in 97. In the years leading up to Hart’s return, he had sporadically worked with WWE on different media and DVD ventures, however, he had always stated he would never show up on WWE television or in a WWE ring again, but time does often heels old wounds.
The night Hart returned was a special moment. In the ring he hugged Shawn Michaels and shook hands with Vince, agreeing to let the bitterness be a thing of the past… only for Vince to low blow him and signal that he wanted to face Hart at WrestleMania that year.
WrestleMania 26 will be remembered for two main reasons. The amazing Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker main event that ended Michaels’ career in storyline (until Crown Jewel in 2018 but the less mentioned of that disaster the better), and the awful Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon match.
Michaels and Taker is my third recommended match of the week and it will go down as another WrestleMania classic. Maybe only bettered by their match a year prior, but it is still an absolute classic and one HBK should have been proud of to be his last.
But the Hart vs McMahon match was a disaster.