WWE: Five matches that changed the business

1. Bret Hart vs Steve Austin (WM 13, No disqualifications submission match)

This is perhaps the best example of the point I tried to make with this article. The background of the match is interesting. After losing to HBK the previous WM, Bret spoke out how the next WM was going to be HBK’s ‘giving back’ match, so to say. But it turned into a Bret – Austin feud, with them going at it since the SS ’96, and then escalated when Hart eliminated Austin at RR ’97, but the refs didn’t pay attention, and Austin came back to eliminate Bret, and win the RR. Austin then cost Bret the WWF title on numerous occasions. The blow off match at WM also featured the MMA legend, Ken Shamrock, who was the referee for the bout. Going into the match, Bret was the good guy and Austin was the heel, but by the end of the match, that changed.

Austin considers this match, and rightly so, the best match of his career. The match was simply sensational and would make the top 5 of the greatest WM matches of all time, and might even go on to win it! The subsequent ‘double turn’ came when Austin, in spite of losing a lot of blood, didn’t give up, and when Hart applied his finisher, the Sharpshooter, Austin passed out due to the pain instead of giving up and the match was awarded to Bret Hart. But Hart still didn’t let go, attacking the lifeless body of Austin, and Ken interfered. And the fans started to cheer Austin and boo Bret. And this was when Hart became ‘The bad guy’, and the rise of Austin began.

http://youtu.be/stGzIBIaTRM