On Raw we saw the conclusion of a story that spanned not only kayfabe, but reality as well as two icons of the business, who have had one of the great rivalries in wrestling history and who's backstage hatred of each other is equally legendary, brought a conclusion to a story that noone though would or could ever end. Bret Hart is one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time. When Hogan and his friends left the wwe it was Bret Hart who picked up the torch and lead the wwf to survival and when the time came passed the torch to the most popular wrestler of all time Stone Cold Steve Austin and helped Austin get over by innovating a new kind of heel.
Austin was not Hart's greatest rival though, it was a man by the name of Shawn Michael's. What made this rivalry great is that neither Shawn or Hart were playing characters. They were being themselves. Bret Hart was raised basically wrestling royalty. His father was the legendary Stu Hart. Bret Hart's family owed everything to wrestling and he took the business very seriously. To Shawn wrestling was his second favorite game only after messing with people. Shawn by all accounts, including his own, was an asshole. He thrived on being the center of attention which had the twin effects of pushing him to be a show-stealer and pushing other people around. It's easy to see where the animosity comes from. They however, put on some of the best matches of all time.
Their final and most important match occurred Survivor Series 1997. Prior to this match Vince McMahon was unable to negotiate a deal to keep Bret Hart with the wwf and Bret was going to the wwf's main competitor the wcw. However, Vince and Bret had a short term deal where Bret wouldn't leave with till he lost the wwf championship. Bret offered to loose the belt to several people including Ken Shamrock, but due to personal animosity he didn't want to drop the belt to Shawn Michaels even though they had at survivor seris 97 coming up. Vince promised Bret that he wouldn't have to drop the belt to Shawn. Vince lied. Not only did he lie , he neglected to tell Bret. Instead he waited till the match was going on and when Shawn had Bret in Bret's signature submission hold, The Sharpshooter, Vince called for the ref to ring the bell. Let's just say Bret was pissed. This was the end of Bret and Shawn's storied in ring rivalry, the beginning of the real life feud between Vince and Bret and the birth of the infamous Montreal Screwjob.
Shortly after Bret left the wwf, his brother Owen Hart was killed in a stunt gone wrong and Bret faced had his career ended by injury where the down syndrome afflicted Goldberg f'ed up a mule kick resulting in Hart suffering a concussion and eventually a stroke. He would never wrestle again. Shawn Michaels also called it a career shortly after due to back problems, but he later found Jesus at rehab and returned a few years later.
Bret Hart was understandably bitter about the whole situation and never shied away from voicing his discontent to the media. Vince never shy himself had no problems in using the screwjob to elevate his character as possibly the greatest antagonist in wrestling history and has countless times repeated the screwjob in story-lines. Vince didn't stop there. After the success of the dvd The Self Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior Vince McMahon set his sights on a follow up which was to be called Screwed: The Bret Hart Story which obviously wasn't going to exactly be a positive look at Bret's career. After seeing a kid playing with a Bret Hart action figure at the dentist office Bret realized he didn't want to be remembered for the Montreal Screwjob so he came to an arrangement with Vince McMahon that he would work with Vince on the DVD.
Now that a working relationship established between the two Vince wanted to try his luck and inducted Bret Hart in the wwe hall of fame hoping he could rope Bret into a storyline at WrestleMania. Well, not a whole story just put an end to a story. Bring an end to what is probably Vince McMahon's favorite story. Bring an end to the Montreal Screwjob Story.
Shawn Michaels was set to face Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 22. In the lead up to the match Vince kept pressuring Shawn about the screwjob and Shawn said he just wanted to put it behind him which lead to a storyline which McMahon challenged Michaels conversion to Christianity. The plan was for Bret to return and help McMahon defeat Shawn at WrestleMania. Bret declined. While he may have forgiven McMahon, he still refused to work with Shawn Michaels. It wasn't a total bust though the match did become PWI match of the year and we got this...
After WrestleMaina 22 it became a forgone conclusion that we would never see a conclusion to montreal Screwjob. Bret couldn't get past Shawn Michaels actions in the past. Remember, the Montreal screwjob wasn't the start of their mutual ill will, it was just the exclamation point. Shawn politicized and tried to hold down Bret's protege The Rock while trying to elevate his own, HHH. There was also the afore mentioned personality clash and as afore mentioned Shawn Michaels was an ass.Bret also seemed to be weary of the wresting business.
The wwe's largest competitor TNA has recently announced not only the signing of Hulk Hogan but that Hogan would debut on a live 3hour Monday night special for the first time in the company's history going head to head with the wwe. Dixie Carter, tna's President, called this the "first shot" in a new Monday night war. The wwe's response was a special celebrity guest host. Bret Hart.
This is probably the longest post I've written on this site, but it's important to the know the story before you know the ending. Bret Hart was indeed the guest host Monday. The show opened with a video package showing the clip-notes version of Bret Hart's career. His music hit. He walked down to the ramp. He then called Shawn Michaels down to the ring. We saw something no one ever thought they would see again. Shawn and Bret were standing in the same ring. And they didn't kill each other. They shook hands. They hugged. They hugged!
Professional Wrestling isn't known for ending story-lines. Mainly because it rarely happens. Writers get bored, egos get in the way, injuries and other things prevent many if not most story-lines from reaching a resolution. Thats to be expected from a weekly tv show with the amount of physicality involved in wrestling. Most of these story-lines are forgotten. Not this one. There are few story-lines less likely of seeing resolution then this one. But it happened.Even more rarely is that ending two enemies finding coming to terms and even more rarely then that two real life enemies burying the hatchet. After 12 years of fermenting this long and winding journey has finally reached its destination.
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