Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels Complete History | Wrestling Timelines
February 11, 1990 - A Challenge
Not at the very first attempt, anyway.
Bret Vs. Shawn I gets thrown out when their respective partners hit the ring to tease a big upcoming TV tag match. For how long it lasts - roughly five minutes - it’s solid. Incredibly basic, but solid, highlighted by a wicked Bret combo. Bret strikes Shawn with an atomic drop, which Shawn sells like his entire nervous system is on fire, before Bret wallops him with a snug lariat.
It’s only the briefest glimpse, but the match nonetheless explores the height of the dynamic. It’s infinitely better when Hart is playing the aggressor.
April 23, 1990 - A Tag Team Thriller
The Hart Foundation and the Rockers do battle once again on Saturday Night’s Main Event.
By the standards of the time, it’s a blistering effort. The objective of the match is to dazzle the crowd with athletic prowess displayed at a rollicking pace. This informs the range of WWF cards, often headlined by basic, lumbering main events powered by megastar charisma. This is true, but there’s a determination here to go all out.
This is fought at warp speed. Michaels and Hart battle with their primary weapons - aerial ability and technical intelligence, respectively - and this is explored in a great sequence. Shawn attempts to floor Bret with a high cross-body block, but Bret is clever enough to anticipate it. In one seamless motion, Bret catches Shawn and executes a backwards roll into a pin attempt. The relentless, seesawing drama is wonderful, and escalates beautifully. The Rockers demonstrate that they can get it done without taking to the skies with a double Russian leg sweep, from which they each kip-up. The match is brief, a typically abbreviated SNME special, and the double disqualification finish is a let-down. Still, this is the sort of pulsating action that makes lifelong devotees of the viewers who stick around after the fad.
Considered one of the very best tag team matches held under the WWF banner at the time, nowadays, you’d watch it and forecast stardom for Hart and Michaels in particular - but it’s 1990. This is not how it works.
It will take nothing short of a profound cultural paradigm shift for that to happen.