10 Classic Wrestling Rivalries That Would Have Flourished In The Attitude Era
1. Bret Hart Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin
Their rivalry was the first to successfully harness the hallmarks of the Attitude Era, and their WrestleMania 13 match was the unofficial kickoff for it altogether, but it remains a crying shame that Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret 'Hitman' Hart weren't afforded the opportunity to revisit their incredible battles in more profitable circumstances.
For somebody with significant ethical protestations to the changing landscape of the company at the time, Hart was in many ways the physical architect of it all. His matches with Austin captured the important link between the chaos of the future and the controlled in-ring drama of the past. He was a tacit proponent of blood in an era where claret was still outlawed. Bret famously bled for his art twice in 1992 and 1995, and sliced open Steve Austin for the good of their legendary March 1997 battle.
His heel turn was some of the company's most magnificent long-form storytelling, expertly nuanced by his subtle shifts from conquering hero to miserable whiner. Simultaneously, Austin's reputation as a wicked, unrelenting attack dog was reframed to express his resilience and never-say-die attitude. They were traits he'd rely on in his box office-busting tenure with Mr McMahon. 'The Rattlesnake' ended the decade as the poster boy for the era, whilst Bret's post-Montreal move south froze him out of WWE's better days.