One MIND-BLOWING Secret From EVERY WWE WrestleMania
30. WrestleMania 12 | The Disturbing Truth Behind The Iron Man ‘Classic’
Right.
The Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels Iron Man match is immortalised as a forever WWE classic. It regularly tops Best Of lists and the like. Bret himself, who has no shortage of cracking choices, cites it as his best ever match. How good was it, really?
Like everything in pro wrestling, it is subjective. Some people love it. Others decidedly do not; they even see it as the match with which they became more discerning for not rating that highly. Things aren’t great just because companies, wrestlers, or even critics tell you they’re great.
If there is one vaguely objective method of appraising a pro wrestling match, it is the response of the crowd. Orchestrating an intense, oscillating, loud reaction is the goal of wrestling psychology. Agent and finish genius Pat Patterson would celebrate the success of a match if the fans were to “go banana”. More recently, on WWE Unreal, you’ll see footage of Triple H issuing instructions to wrestlers when he senses that the crowd might come up a little more. It’s all about getting the loudest pops at the right times.
In the Iron Man match, you hear about one pop for the first 45 minutes, and that’s when Shawn accidentally strikes Tony Chimel with Sweet Chin Music. The closing sequences are a lot better and louder, but even then, it wasn’t blow-away fantastic.
While visible, it wasn’t too obvious on camera, since Kevin Dunn used to know what he was doing - but according to Dave Meltzer, who attended the show live, several fans left as it dragged on. “There were probably a few thousand empty seats by the time the match reached its climax,” Dave wrote.
The fans didn’t go banana. They went home. Some classic.