WWE: Ranking Bret Hart's 14 Matches At WrestleMania

3. WrestleMania 12 vs. Shawn Michaels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3CRkW16a4g It's the longest match in WrestleMania history as Bret defended the WWE World Title against Shawn Michaels in a face vs. face match. Everybody knew Michaels was going to win because it was time, but Hart was also still performing at a high level in his fourth year as a main event level performer. Since WWE knew these two were their best performers and the roster at that point in 1996 wasn't great, they decided to make this match a 60 minute Ironman Match. Most falls in 60 minutes wins. They went one hour with no pinfalls. Neither guy could get a victory. I don't know if it was the best way to do the match because the first 20 minutes or so were pretty boring. The last 40 minutes of the match were excellent. As a result, it felt like an amazing match for 2/3 of it, but the extra 20 minutes hurt it a bit. To their credit, they had a very competitive back and forth match for nearly 62 minutes. That's not easy. It's not like every wrestler could do that especially on a big stage like WrestleMania. They deserve a lot of credit for putting on an entertaining match like that. I'm sure that if you asked a lot of wrestlers, they might say this is the best match of Bret's career simply because it's not easy to have a match that long. The finish was very exciting. Hart had Michaels locked into the Sharpshooter as they approached the 60 minute mark. Michaels was able to hang on without giving up. Two minutes into the overtime, Michaels hit his Superkick twice and was able to win his first World Title. What I would have liked are some falls because the 1-0 finish wasn't as good as something like 3-2 or even 2-1. They should have each got a countout win if they weren't willing to take pinfalls. As for their work in the ring, both guys worked at an extremely high level. Michaels showed off everything by using his speed, taking some big bumps, hitting some big offensive maneuvers and even using technical wrestling to help the flow of the match although I do think he went to the armbar a little too much. Hart was fantastic by working more of an aggressive heelish style although not going all out in terms of being a heel. As good as their matches were, if they got along better and didn't have clashing egos there's a chance that they really could have put on the best match ever. That's not taking anything away from this match. I just wish it could have been booked a little better.