Bret Hart's WrestleMania Matches - Ranked From Worst To Best

3. Vs. Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania XII

Bret Hart Shawn Michaels WrestleMania 12 Iron Man.jpg
WWE.com

By some margin the longest match in WrestleMania history, Bret Hart took on Shawn Michaels in the main event of WrestleMania XII in an Iron Man match. The two battled for one whole hour without either managing to pick up a fall, leading to the late great Gorilla Monsoon coming down to move the match into overtime. 61 minutes after the first bell, Michaels manages to deliver Sweet Chin Music and pick up the sudden death pin. The boyhood dream had been realised. 

This match comes with a certain level of mythology, and most definitely won't be to the taste of everyone. The first two-thirds in particular are pretty slow, which is to be expected considering the story they were telling. The last 15 minutes or so are absolutely fantastic, however, true mastery in storytelling and professional wrestling as an art form.

The match comes with a certain level of dirt too, as the relationship between the two performers was pretty shoddy at the time. Michaels sullies the entire thing a little by telling Earl Hebner to remove Hart from the ring (in slightly more violent words) so he can start his celebration. Still, this stands out as one of the most important WrestleMania main events of all-time.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.