Why Bret Hart Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin Transformed The Wrestling Business
4. Steve Austin Turns Face
While Bret's exit from the babyface camp would indirectly lead to his exit from the company several months later (ironically helping create Steve Austin's next important rival), Stone Cold's official anointment as a fan favourite following the contest strapped a rocket to the rapidly ascending star.
If Hart's slow-burning heel turn had been by design, Austin's growing support had merely been a fortuitous side effect of the feud.
Booked as the traditional heel and still acting up to it, Stone Cold was inadvertently capturing the zeitgeist of a wrestling audience raised on Hulkamania and unknowingly searching for a new hero to suit their teenage leanings and the scattered post-Generation-X era of pop culture.
Matched against Bret's entitled whinging, fans were overlooking Austin's rule-breaking thanks to a strong work ethic buried in the roots of the gimmick and repeated cases of Stone Cold fighting as good a game as he talked. He was believable and relatable, and the climax of the engrossing war imbibed him with the final ingredient.
Though he didn't ask for it, and he certainly wouldn't thank fans for it, he had also earned their sympathy. Now firmly attached to Austin's cause in bloody defeat, he had achieved almost universal support.