WWE: 8 WrestleMania Main Events That Almost Happened

5. WrestleMania XIV: Bret Hart vs Steve Austin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkTNLTyfHHo Following a championship match with The Undertaker at SummerSlam 1997, Bret Hart was once again in the driver€™s seat of World Wrestling Entertainment. However, Vince McMahon€™s inability to fulfill the financial terms of Hart€™s contract led to the chairman advising Hart to pursue employment with World Championship Wrestling. What followed was one of wrestling€™s most legendary behind-the-scenes stories, culminating in one of the most famous matches of all time €“ Bret Hart versus Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series, where Vince McMahon came to the ring and ordered referee Earl Hebner to ignore the agreed-upon match ending and falsely declare that Hart had submitted to Michaels, costing him the title before his departure from WWE. What came to be known as the €œMontreal Screwjob€ would be Hart€™s last WWE match until 2010. However, what if Hart had not had to leave WWE? The tentative plan was for him to defend the championship against Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV in a rematch of their epic encounter from the previous year. This time, Austin would claim the title by defeating Hart, something he had never managed to do. Despite the catharsis of seeing Austin overcome the Hart Foundation once and for all, reality managed to outdo possibility: while the actual encounter between Michaels and Austin was far from legendary, the build-up involving Mike Tyson was the catalyst for WWE€™s Attitude Era popularity. How Tyson could have factored into an Austin-Hart program is unknown, but in this case, €œWhat If?€ was likely not as interesting as what was.