WWE’s Greatest Rivalries: Bret Hart versus Shawn Michaels DVD Review- Disk 1

Back in 1997, when I was relatively new to the world of wrestling, there were two men I had an intense amount of respect for, two wrestlers who helped bring me into this world of spandex and colorful costumes. They were Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Before I was connected online, I had no clue the real life story of how these men came to loathe each other. Only later after reading the Wrestling Observer and watching shoot interviews with both men did I come to understand the real life rivalry that existed. If you had asked me in 2000 or 2001 if these two men could ever resolve their differences, I’d have said, “No way” and laughed in your face.

But time has a way of softening people. Shawn Michaels radically changed his life while being out of wrestling for four years. After his return, he became a changed man. No longer was he the brash, cocky youngster. Here was a man who actually evolved and became a better man.  Bret Hart may not have had nearly the drug problems or emotional baggage of Michaels, but he dealt with a series of heartbreaking losses in the 2000s, losing family and friends in that time. Through all of their personal changes, Michaels and Hart never resolved their differences until January 4, 2010 when Bret Hart made his first appearance on Raw in some 14 years. According to the end of the interview, the on-camera reunion between the two was very much real.

The subject of WWE’s latest DVD were two subjects who’ve already had a handful of DVDs created to honor them. This one was different. Michaels and Hart sat down for a two hour interview with Jim Ross to discuss their careers and the most famous screwjob in the last 100 years. Indeed, Michaels and Hart had one of the best in-ring rivalries of all time. Sadly, it turned into a real life rivalry that overshadowed the incredible accomplishments both men accrued over the years.  Thankfully, both men have seemingly put their long rivalry behind them. Although they’re older (and grayer), Hart and Michaels were given the chance to sit down-together-to talk about everything that’s happened between them the last 20 years.

Jim Ross moderated the conversation, and boy was he helpful in bringing everything together and asking the right questions. Even i fyou had no idea what actually happened between the two men, this DVD would give you a pretty good taste. In addition to Ross serving as an excellent moderator, WWE’s crack production staff put together multiple packages that served as a video Wikipedia of their careers. The video packages are interspersed throughout the interview and always come at a point when Ross is moving the interview into another section.

The interview starts when both men were in tag teams. I always enjoy hearing conversation about the infamous Saturday Night’s Main Event disaster where the top rope broke in a two-out-of-three falls tag team title match between The Rockers and Hart Foundation. This lead to a disastrous second fall where Bret Hart completely lost all semblance of being in character. The Rockers actually won the belts, but the match never aired on NBC. The belts were in fact given back Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart while The Rockers never held the belts again. After briefly talking about being in tag teams, they move on to a conversation about their singles careers.

Hart of course met singles success first with an Intercontinental championship victory at Summerslam '91. Ross asked both men if they felt Hart’s victory was a sign of the changing tide in WWE. Was Hart getting a singles' title a sign WWE was moving away from the Hogans and Warriors? It’s in this section of the DVD where Hart showed a clear distaste for that kind of repetitive, clunky style of WWE in the 80s and early 90s. Michaels, on the other hand, talked about Hart winning the WORLD title was actually a sign WWE could give a smaller guy the chance to carry the company. Incredibly, the body fetish is something WWE still deals with to this day. Both men came off a little bitter, but if I were in their situation, I might feel the same way.

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, Hart and Michaels tal

k about the build-up to the Iron Man match and where the problems between the two started. Hart feels that his third title reign was only used as a transition to Michaels, and that he was really only holding the belt until Wrestlemania. Essentially, he felt disrespected about his treatment in late '95 and early '96. I’ve never understood how Hart could feel this way. As long as Michaels could recover from his injuries in Syracuse, there was no possible way Hart would be leading the company into 1996 and beyond. Michaels had clearly shown himself to be ready for the world title. And if Hart’s title reign was “ignored,” he still had two of the greatest matches of his career against Diesel at Survivor Series 1995 (when he won the belt) and The British Bulldog at the In Your House in December 1995. Hart calls those two of his best matches, and even the match he lost the belt in was one of the best matches in Wrestlemania history. Michaels and Hart battled for a full hour in a technical masterpiece. This is where the heat (supposedly)started. Hart abruptly left the building without shaking Michaels’ hand. Hart mentions how some of the other wrestlers thought there was a rivalry between the two men. That wasn’t the case…yet.

The next 30-45 minutes are of course spent on 1997 alone as the two men really did come to hate each other because of how they talked about each other in promos. The back and forth led to increasingly hard feelings between the two. Hart called Michaels out for appearing in Playgirl. Michaels made a comment about Hart having “sunny” days in reference to an alleged affair with Sunny (better known to some as Tammie Lynn Sytch). Hart phrases is best when he calls it “a work that turned into a shoot.” I called this part of the DVD a therapy session as both men clearly illustrated their problems with each other and showed how their situation deteriorated. They talk about Michaels’ knee injury in February 1997 that caused him to turn over the world title without having to actually lose. Michaels talks about really believing his career was over. Hart doesn’t seem as sure. This really felt like the only point where Michaels came off as disingenuous. Otherwise, he made sure to point out how much of an asshole he was during this time period. He took full responsibility for his actions and discussed his emotional problems throughout the interview.

One of the issues they didn’t talk about was what role Vince McMahon and the office played in egging this feud on. I can’t believe Hart and Michaels went from feelings of friendship and respect for each  other to then despising each other to the point where they had a physical confrontation at a Raw taping in the summer of '97. I also wondered how much of a role McMahon played in Montreal… other than the whole “Ring that fucking bell” and screwjob deal. Hart mentions not wanting to put Michaels over until the favor was returned. Michaels talked about wanting to earn Hart’s approval and respect. I have to believe that their feud becoming a shoot could in some ways be good for business, and that's where I wonder how much their feud was manipulated by outside sources. But what was good for business wasn’t good for Bret Hart's WWE career as he exited under very unfortunate circumstances after Survivor Series 1997. No one should feel too bad for him since he signed a multimillion dollar deal with WCW. Unfortunately, his WCW career didn't work out, and he had his career ended courtesy of Bill Goldberg's leg at Starrcade '99.

The irony of the match in question, a match that has been analyzed like the zapruder film, is Hart indicated to Michaels that he was putting the sharpshooter on the wrong leg DURING THE ENDING. I’ve never heard this story told on any other DVD, so this nugget is the type of thing that makes this DVD a must purchase. Both guys seemed genuine and honest. There was a lot of emotion expressed by both men toward the end. In a DVD where banned words like “belt” and “wrestling” were used quite liberally, I actually felt like I was watching something worthy of being on my wrestling DVD shelf. WWE has put together a number of questionable DVD collections in the last year, but I’m hoping more of WWE’s “Greatest Rivalries” can be showcased in a very similar format. Even without two disks worth of matches, I can tell you right now that this is a thumbs up DVD based on the interview alone. All I did was summarize these two hours. There’s a lot more contained in the interview worth watching.

I've got a second PWG show to review for next week, as well a special column to write, so because of that, I'll be reviewing disks two and three in two weeks.