15 Stages Of Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart's Infamous Heat

14. WrestleMania XI

This is the event where the smallest seed of unrest was planted, the 11th edition of WrestleMania. During their early singles careers, Shawn and Bret were on opposite sides of the fence. Shawn was a heel and Bret was the fan-favorite babyface. Ironically, while they were positioned competing for the same spot during their on-screen feud in '92, the reality is that the true competition didn't begin until they were fighting "on the same side" as "good guys" in 1995. At WrestleMania XI, the heel challenger Heartbreak Kid showcased his amazing athletic and wrestling ability against the babyface champion Diesel (Kevin Nash), and by the time the match had concluded, the crowd was cheering for the bad guy because of the way Michaels worked the match. It threw a monkey wrench into the company's plans for the rest of 1995 and Michaels was quickly turned babyface on the RAW after WrestleMania XI. Bret saw this match and was of the opinion that Shawn had the clear intention of turning himself babyface for his own selfish reasons. Bret was in a similar position just one year before at WrestleMania X. The Hitman was in the middle of a feud with his younger brother Owen and the two were scheduled to meet in the opening bout. While the two Harts had a match all planned out, several days prior to the event Bret realized the danger in working the style of match they had planned. Bret's concern was that once the New York crowd saw Owen's abilities and his high-flying, flashy moves they would begin cheering for the younger underdog Hart brother. So at the last minute, Bret had a chat with Owen, scrapped the original match and came up with a new one. If Owen was cheered, it would have put the plans for the next year in jeopardy and likely destroy the upcoming SummerSlam cage match main event rematch between the siblings. So when Shawn went and "turned himself babyface" as Bret called it, the Hitman was none too pleased with Shawn "going into business for himself". In addition to the distaste Bret had for Shawn's supposed lack of professionalism, the shift in Shawn's character trajectory also created something that had not been true since both men's days as predominantly tag team wrestlers: they were now both babyfaces.