WWE In 1997 | Wrestling Timelines

WrestleMania 13 is a one match show. That one match happens to be the very best ever held under the company’s banner. 

The undercard is largely awful. The Headbangers win a rubbish Fatal 4-Way tag over the New Blackjacks, the Godwinns, and Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon. Where so much of 1997 is an incredible precursor to the Attitude Era, this is a grim premonition of the tedious brawling that defines the 1998 PPV undercard. Rocky Maivia, an athletic if very corny babyface prospect, is booed when retaining the Intercontinental title over New Generation hangover the Sultan. Hunter Hearst Helmsley beats Goldust in the sort of lifeless and overlong match that defines Helmsley’s career. Given the talent involved. Owen Hart and the British Bulldog’s double count-out with Mankind and Vader is a weirdly interminable match with no discernible structure to it whatsoever. Ahmed Johnson and the Legion of Doom beat Crush, Faarooq, and Savio Vega in a fun weapons match. In the main event, one of the worst in WrestleMania history, the Undertaker defeats Sid for the WWF title. Legend has it that Sid defecates himself mid-match; this might not have happened, but Sid figuratively sh*ts the bed at least. 

Bret Hart beats Steve Austin when the latter passes out in the agonising throes of Bret’s Sharpshooter. The match is a level above perfect. The most sophisticated match in company history, Bret turns heel as a result of his nasty, repetitive strategy where Austin turns face through his sheer guts and “intestinal fortitude”. Wrestling can be anything. It can be funny, violent, athletic. It can be as basic, even soft, but also magic, if the workers involved are charismatic enough - but if the pure art is in convincing fans that the pain is real and that the wrestlers truly despise one another, no match has ever perfected the themes of anguish and animosity like Bret Hart Vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. An amazingly intense crowd brawl - which becomes the Attitude Era’s stylistic backbone - mutates into a selling masterclass that ends with the iconic Sharpshooter spot. Austin is bladed in secret by Bret to put the finish over the top. Bret fools McMachon by circumventing the blade ban in another illustration of the match’s unprecedented artistry. 

You can watch this moment forever - years and decades after you first learn that wrestling is worked, and so many times that the effect should wane - and it will never not feel like Steve Austin, as the blood drips onto and stains his teeth, is in a state of abject agony. It is the single-most convincing display of pro wrestling selling ever. Austin doesn’t become a crossover main event mega star until a year later, but this is the moment where it all begins.