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

7. Return Of The Excellence Of Execution

Bret's first match back was against Stone Cold Steve Austin at the 1996 Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden, but the company was slowly building towards the planned Shawn vs. Bret rematch for WrestleMania 13. In what was becoming apparent to anyone that watched, the rivalry between Shawn and Bret felt more real than anything previously done by the WWF and there seemed to be legitimate animosity between the two. Even though Bret and Shawn both agreed to be stiff with each other in their promos, they were both so damn good at playing their characters and their delivery was so believable that the men behind the characters started to get p***ed, especially Shawn. In a cliché that is often misused, they worked themselves into a shoot. Brother. In reality, Bret's opinion of Shawn had begun to deteriorate following WrestleMania XII and continued to spiral downward upon his return in the Fall of '96. Prior to winning the title (and before news broke about Nash and Hall's defection to WCW), Shawn divulged his plans to Bret about working strictly with his Kliq buddies following his WrestleMania XII victory. To Bret, this was another example that Shawn lacked the professionalism required of a true champion. Once dubbed the Leader of the New Generation, a title he truly took to heart, Bret viewed himself as a locker room leader (a title many others have verified) and claims to have had many fellow wrestlers, including Steve Austin, confide in Bret that Shawn wasn't the right man to lead the company. These whispers got back to Shawn and the idea of Bret passing judgment, combined with the fact that Bret had not been on the road supporting Shawn's run as champion for the whole Summer of '96, began to eat away at Michaels. At the same time, the two were scheduled to work together on-screen as rivals in a worked environment, but by this point, the heat was building rapidly and it would soon become an uncontrollable fire.