10 Most Memorable WWE Raw Moments From 1996

6. Turning Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart Into Iron Men

http://youtu.be/Ypsi0xe6vNA?t=24m11s Date: February 26th The build for the Bret Hart VS Shawn Michaels match at WrestleMania 12 was already doing nicely, but when interim WWF Commissioner Roddy Piper made it a 60-minute Iron Man Match, it changed the game, so to speak. There had been two Iron Man Matches televised to audiences before, but both were in WCW, and both were 30-minute bouts. Still plenty of time to deal with, of course, but a match being announced beforehand as going 60 minutes was something that immediately brought up questions. As good as Bret and Shawn were, would they be able to handle wrestling for 60 minutes? As into the match as fans were, would they be able to handle watching for 60 minutes? Kudos to Vince McMahon for trusting a full hour of his company's biggest yearly event to a single match, and kudos to both Bret and Shawn for giving Vince reason to trust them. The match turned out great, and it helped to not only launch Shawn Michaels into the stratosphere, but because of the 60 minutes ending in a draw, only for Gorilla Monsoon to order a sudden death overtime period against Bret's wishes, we got to see more creation of the "whiny Bret" character that carried him for the rest of his WWF career.