7 Secret Versions Of Classic WWE Matches
4. Bret Hart Vs. Owen Hart - Iron Man Match
The first (canonical) WWE Iron Man match is perhaps the most divisive ever presented by the company.
The last 15 minutes were fire, but that fire was lit on piss-soaked tinder; Bret entered a logical but staunchly dull defensive performance that bored the arena senseless and, in the end, was rendered meaningless; the 0-0 match simply restarted, and Shawn won in overtime. Fascinatingly stiff is about the only positive superlative to apply. At various points - far too many - were Baron Corbin and Jinder Mahal to wrestle an Iron Man bout on RAW next week, it wouldn't look at all dissimilar to this dire chinlock festival.
Shawn was like a woodpecker to Bret Hart's psyche, and tensions simmered long before 1997; Shawn developed a habit of breaking Bret's heart by adapting his secret house show raves onscreen, the most intriguing of which saw the Hitman battle his brother in Iron Man matches over the summer of 1994 before the WWF settled on a steel cage stipulation at SummerSlam.
Reports of those matches promise an unseen technical wrestling utopia. In one Nassau Coliseum match, Owen took two falls over Bret in as many minutes via figure-four leg lock. The idea of Owen going back to the leg, relentlessly, and Bret's graduating comeback, is such stuff as selling dreams are made of.
That steel cage match was incredible for the way in which Bret and Owen worked around a stipulation unsuited to the PG arena. A series of matches in which their awesome chemistry was not inhibited, but enhanced, marks it as another Holy Grail.
Hart's genius was both timeless and endless.