5 Reasons why Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold was one of the greatest feuds of all time

#2 The proxy feuds

Austin and Hart created entertaining feuds around them.

Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin was, in and of itself, a tremendous piece of storytelling that produced superb matches. Better yet, though, it also gave performers surrounding these two a lot to do. The preceding entry referenced the Canadian Stampede ten man tag team main event, which represented so much of what Hart-Austin did by way of fueling proxy feuds. In that match, not only Hart, but his brother Owen, brothers in law Jim Neidhart and Davey Boy Smith, and friend Brian Pillman all felt like top-shelf stars—beloved faces in Canada and vile heels in the States. Meanwhile, guys like Ken Shamrock, Goldust, and The Legion of Doom on the other side of the match got more meaningful material to work with than they otherwise would have.

A good feud can do a lot of the careers of the two core performers involved. One of the signs that Hart vs. Austin was a truly great one was how much it did for a number of other performers. The Hart Foundation faction was a huge success and added heat to a number of high profile stories in their orbit.