20 Years Later... 10 Reasons Vince McMahon Was STILL RIGHT To Screw Bret Hart

10. Youthful Exuberance

The eight years that separated Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart in 1997 might as well have been a lifetime. At 32, 'HBK' was mentally unravelling but keeping his demons from the door with some of his career's best works. Only a month earlier, he'd reinvented the wheel with a Hell In A Cell match against The Undertaker that remains one of only two matches in the last two decades awarded five stars by Wrestling Observer supremo Dave Meltzer.

40 and feeling it, Hart was reaching the wrong age at the right time. He'd stamped more holes in his bump card during tumultuous times for the industry he loved, riding out a financially barren spell for WWE as a spiritual leader, loyal soldier and reliable Champion. His age dictated his attitude towards the company's direction at large which again flew in the face of freewheeling rebellious Michaels.

As it turned out, Shawn only had six more months on his own clock, but in a company not big enough for both, McMahon chose with both his heart and head.