10 Wrestling Storylines Totally Different To How You Remember

6. The Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels Worked Shoot

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WWE.com

How you remember it:

Fascinating.

You're a sh*tty husband!

Well, you're a toxic sh*thead!

In the exceptional year of 1997, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels barely worked a rivalry. They loathed one another in a very pissy and prideful away. Keenly felt on a personal level, Hart resented Michaels for his toxic, unprofessional approach to leading the sanctity of the locker room in addition to his vision of wrestling. Hart wished to keep it family friendly; Michaels wanted to break promises made to dying family members of his peers to get heat. The palpable animosity elevated this tense real-life feud into something that threatened to mutate into an outright shoot.

What it was actually like:

Ugly, is the word. In almost every way, Hart and Michaels brought out the worst in one another. Hart, an otherwise wonderful man too good for his life's work, reacted to Shawn's negging with unpleasant homophobic outbursts. The cheap pursuit of race-baiting undermined the real heft of the feud, missing the point entirely.

This extends to the ring, too; they preferred to lay on their ass than show any to the other at WrestleMania XII, and only really clicked (when they legitimately despised one another) in a single match: the wild Survivor Series brawl that nobody remembers for its ferocious quality.

 
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Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!