10 Wrestling Grudges That Changed The Business
9. Stone Cold Steve Austin Vs Bret Hart
Not all industry-altering grudges have to be real. The very best ones rarely are.
The very best one wasn't.
Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin's 1996/97 rivalry is so much more than what mostly gets discussed about it. And that's possibly because what mostly gets discussed is the greatest WWE match of all time. But their WrestleMania 13 classic doesn't happen without months of carefully-constructed character work, the willingness of Bret Hart to get wrestling's next big thing all the way over, and a keen eye from the promotion to finally catch up with pop culture.
Hart returned as a hero at the 1996 Survivor Series, but was the first to notice that heroes weren't cool anymore. In a genius bit of storytelling, he was simultaneously telling the truth and in denial. He tried to brush off Austin's attacks, Shawn Michaels' attitude problems and The Undertaker and Sid's thirst for the title, but those conflicting factors kept screwing him out of his one noble goal. By the time he snapped in the go-home angle to the 'Show Of Shows', fans had been given long enough to get used to disliking their former favourite.
The Submission Match was the elite-level icing on a perfectly prepared cake.