Were You Team Bret or Team Shawn?

[The Brain]

All the discussion of Team Rock vs. Team Cena has reminded me of another legendary feud in wrestling history. Rock vs. Cena has divided the fans in a way we haven’t seen since the Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels feud of 1997. Like now the feud was a battle of eras. Bret was looked at as the leader of the new generation which was quickly becoming old in the eyes of many. Shawn was looked at as the leader of the new attitude era before any of us ever heard the term. Bret was old school when it came to attempting to be a role model for his fans and his morals and values. Shawn was the edgy one who was pushing the envelope (sorry for the cliché) with his antics. The feud was interesting because both were faces when it began and they seemingly brought out the worst in each other as they both turned heel along the way while maintaining their feud. Another interesting aspect was how, like Rock vs. Cena, this feud was all talk for a long time without a match between the two. We’ve seen countless threads about Bret and Shawn refusing to work with each other, allegedly faking injuries, the Montreal screwjob, etc. This thread is more simple. Take yourself back to 1997. The screwjob hasn’t happened yet and we don’t have as much knowledge of the things that went on behind the scenes. My question is a simple one. Were you Team Bret or Team Shawn?

I was Team Bret. Bret was a hero in the WWF for years. After many years on the road he took a well deserved hiatus from wrestling after WrestleMania XII. When he returned seven months later the WWF was a different place. A lot had changed in a short amount of time. The fans who had loved Bret for years had turned on him for no reason. Bret was the same guy he always was. It was the fans and the business that had changed. It was like the fans had gone from sweet kids to wild and rebellious teenagers and Bret was the parent they were rebelling against while Shawn was the bad influence. I sympathized with Bret. He spent years building a legacy, took seven months off, and it’s like his legacy was forgotten in that short time. Eventually Bret had to fight fire with fire. He turned heel and formed the Hart Foundation. He had to or the new WWF was going to eat him alive. I stuck with Bret during the heel turn. After all, he was only heel in the US. He was still a face throughout the rest of the world. Even though I’m an American I found a lot of truth in the things Bret was saying. Shawn always said he wished people would let him be himself. That’s all well and good but to me he seemed like a little prick that was going out of his way to antagonize Bret no matter what he did. I’m not saying Bret was always a boy scout but I found myself siding with him a lot more than Shawn in 1997.

So were you Team Bret or Team Shawn? Please only look at this as if it were 1997. Don’t use information that you’ve gathered since then. No books, no shoot interviews, no dvds. I want to know how you felt at that time.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

Easily, I was team Bret. My explanation is quite simple, as a kid growing up in Canada Bret was my idol. Back then I didn't care about backstage BS and politics. I simply thought that Bret could do no wrong and Shawn was a pompous arrogant prettyboy punk. Time may have changed my opinion, but I will not deny my allegiance in 1997 was 100% team Bret

 

[covieo81]

i was easily team bret. my parents would never buy ppvs when i was a kid so i would dink with the old school cable boxes and watch in fuzz o vision. could never really see the pic but the audio was clear. i would go ape shit when harts music played and i would walk thru my room with my arms out to my side like bret. i was not a fan of michaels back then although 98 i would say was when i started liking him. i was all bret thru their feuds.

 

[Narsat]

In 1997 I was torn, they were tied as my two favorite wrestlers. Up to this point my favorite match was WrestleMania 12, Bret vs Shawn in the first Iron Man Match. At the time Bret had the better career, winning more title, having better matches and going up against better opponents. I think HBK's best work came after he returned in 2002. It was hard for me to choose because Bret was my hero until HBK came along, I never was able to choose between these two but if I have to I'm going to go with HBK. One of my favorite moments in wrestling was when Bret finally came back after the Montreal Screw Job and they hugged it out in the ring and finally put it behind them.

 

[pepentorresHHH]

Pre montreal..... i was team shawn and team bret, they were both entertaining, good in the ring and delivered in all programs they were put in even thought they were so different... although ive always liked shawn more

post montreal....whoever stayed on the WWF at the time, althought i dont neccesarily agree on how the situation was handled i side team shawn michaels because he was the one who stayed on the wwf and continued to carry the company while hart left.....

 

[xxxdaniel_ariesxxx]

I was with out a doubt, 100% Team Shawn. And I can tell you the exact moment that I became a fan of HBK; The promo he gave prior to his Champion vs Champion match with Bret Hart at the 1992 Survivor Series. After that I was hooked.

While I always enjoyed him better as cocky heel, I was still a HUGE fan all throughout his face run in 95 and 96. In my eyes Shawn could do no wrong. Even though I thought that Bret made some pretty valid points during his anti-American heel run, it didn't matter because he was Bret Hart. While I always enjoyed both men in the ring, I found the Bret Hart character out of the ring to be inhumanly boring. Shawn was just as good in the ring, if not better (in my opinion) and his character out of the ring was just so damn entertaining that it was hard not to like him.

Even after Montreal I was still solidly behind Shawn, and still am today, because I fully believe that Bret Hart was wrong to refuse to drop the belt to Shawn on his way out. He let his personal issues get in the way of doing business, and that in itself tarnished his legacy a great deal.

 

[Syborgg]

As you can tell by my avatar, I was team Bret the whole way. Living in Canada, and only 2 hrs from Calgary where Bret grew up and learned his craft, I was a Bret Hart fan way before Shawn was "HBK". I was thoroughly entertained by the "Hart Foundation vs. DX" storyline and I can honestly say, that was the last time I was truly emotionally invested into a fued. Sure others have been entertaining, but with the way Bret defended Canada, and the dispicable things that Shawn did to the Canadian flag, how could I not hate HBK for that?

I was so Team Bret that when he left for WcW and the screwjob happened, I stopped watching WWF/E for a short period of time. I watched Nitro and Thunder and WcW PPVs. I soon found out however, that they would completely miss-use Bret in WcW and that the show's production values were well short of what WWF/E brought to the table. (OFF TOPIC I came back to WWE just in time for the rise of The Rock). But until Bret and Shawn had their reconciliation on Raw in 2010, I still got a bad taste in my mouth everytime Shawn Michaels was on my t.v. screen. His in-ring performances were top notch, but I almost always looked at him as the guy that screwed Bret.

 

[Wolf Pac]

I liked both guys, they were and still are in my fave five but I was more on Bret's side. Like you said, he had been a hero in the WWF for years, you can't just forget that because of one heel turn. I really didn't care if he was a heel at the time though I couldn't really take him serious as a heel cause everything about him screamed babyface and he was only heel in the US. To me, he was like Batman and Shawn was his Joker. And it also helps that I'm not a fan of assholes and I prefer tradition over attitude, so I was easily on Team Bret.

 

[fenfool]

I was watching WCW a lot more at that time, but no question it was Bret. I never liked Shawn...just too cocky and kind of creepy for me. I respected his talent, but I would rather have watched a Bret match than a Shawn match. Bret was not a great promo, but he looked fantastic in the ring, and you just truly believed that he was always in control, and could take down anyone.

 

[Krossbreed]

i was team bret ...when shawn won his first wwe title in the 60 minute iron man match on one hand i was happy for shawn and inspired by the whole "boyhood dream" storyline... but on the other hand ...i knew bret in some way was giving shawn the ball and it had allot more to do with backstage politics to build shawn...if that were today i believe shawn wouldnt have gotten the belt because he was doing all sorts of drugs and alcohol back then. but ye im team bret...even seeing bret older today still makes me say i was team bret...and when he went to wcw i was still team bret, we got to see bret vs sting, bret vs hogan in a tag match, bret face goldberg, benoit, chris jericho, and the list goes on. I think if wcw did better to build the company around bret thy wouldve done better.

HBK to me however is the guy who rose to the top and kept things in wwe together, then stone cold, then rock, etc etc... so they both took different paths...would i have liked to see hbk show up on nitro as a member of nwo...yes...but on the other hand i had so much love for wwe...and there product was so better lit and better tv.

 

[TripleCrown]

Team Bret but especially after the first "official' response from SM after Montreal SJ. Firat Shawn says he was sorry for what happened. Then, in another interview 2 days later, he said he would do it all over again. Well, how sorry could he be if he would do it again? All Bret wanted was to not lose the strap in front of Canadian fans, which was not too much to ask of WWE and VKM. Then, when Bret and Shawn reconciled, Shawn says Bret deserved it. I don't believe Shawn is sorry for anything, he's a brown-noser, and as you have probably guessed, I'm team Bret.

 

[HBsam31]

In the beginning and throughout the early to mid 90's I was def a Bret Hart fan. It was the emergence of HBK that slowly took my support away from Bret. I loved the cocky arrogant Shawn, and I liked the face turn which carried him to the main event of mania 12. By 97 I had been team Shawn for a while and I only liked him more after the screwjob. Bret just got kinda stale to me, and when he started his whining routine I could barely stand him. I stayed tea Shawn until the day he retired.

 

[rage72]

I was Team Shawn all the way. I loved DX and the Clique at the time (still do) so I was on his side. Add to the fact that Bret didn't drop the belt knowing that was his last match in the WWF was unprofessional and I expected more from him. I didn't like him bitching about it for year's afterwards either. It's a shame Brets ego kept him off of WWE TV for so long.

As far as I am concerned Bret and Shawn could of given Montrel one hell of match that both men would be proud of and Bret could of had his swan song to the crowd after the PPV was. Instead Vince was forced to end the match the way he did because he feared Bret would pull a Madusa and show up on Nitro with the WWE belt and throw it in the trash. With the Momdat Night War going on Vince couldn't take a chance.

I like Bret but I felt he let his ego/hatred for Shawn effect him in not putting Shawn over in his last match.

 

[HBKperfect23]

I may get some heat for this but I still consider Brets best time as a wrestler 1992. I just wasnt overlly into him as world champion like I had been Hogan or would later be for Michaels. At this point im still a Bret fan but Im a bigger Shawn fan. Rooted for Shawn in the iron man match and was a huge Shawn mark

1997 comes and you pretty much have to choose a side. The night after WM13 is when I started to despise Bret. I was without a doubt team Shawn. I hated the Hart Foundation. Shawn was now my favorite and Bret was my least favorite. I consider this one of the best times in wrestling. I really enjoyed this angle. Looking back, I think Bret is underestimated as a heel at this time.

Even after Montreal I was still a Shawn mark being the only guy rooting for him as Austin was coming into the main event. Even rooted for HBK at WM14.

i was easily team bret. my parents would never buy ppvs when i was a kid so i would dink with the old school cable boxes and watch in fuzz o vision. could never really see the pic but the audio was clear.

HAHA. Brings back memories. I watched pretty much every ppv like that from Survivor Series 91 to Summerslam 97

 

[JJ15776]

Team Shawn all the way.

I was Team Bret up until the mid 90's, and Shawn never seemed like anything special to me. He won me over with his ladder matches against Razor Ramon, and from that point on I was a fan of both. But when it was Bret vs. Shawn, I was definitely cheering for Shawn.

 

[Pingu66]

Team Bret... used to watch Stampede Wrestling on CTV when little

 

[Youngsleez]

I was team Bret for years on top of years. I really disliked HBK more and more over the years because of the whole Montreal Screw Job incident and everything, I really didn't become a fan of Shawn until his match with Flair at WrestleMania. Like HBK was an awesome performer, but I could never be a fan of him due to Bret. Yet when he had that match with Nature Boy I was like, man Shawn is awesome, I can't hate the dude no more.

 

[trashboy]

I was always for Bret Hart. He was my favorite wrestler since the early 90s, even though I rarely watched it then. During the late 90s is when I really started paying attention to wrestling and Bret was still my favorite. I was also a huge DX fan during that time, but every time Bret got in the ring, he was the one I cheered for, whether he was heel or face. So yeah, when that screw job happened, I was seriously pissed. And I don't care about backstage politics, what happened or happens in real life. I just watched the shows and enjoyed it.

 

[KevinCarsner]

Though I will always admire what HBK could do in the ring, I found suspending disbelief when Bret was in the ring almost seemless. Whereas Shawn was entertaining, I always felt he flipped and flopped and over sold a bit too much to believe. When Bret would sell an injury (say someone worked on his ankle) I would wince when he limped, and believed the painful look he put on his face. The way Bret moved in the ring, to me will always be the closest to legitimate competition that pro wrestling has ever looked like, which really sold me on him. Couple that with all the rumors and stories pointing to Shawn being a horrible person behind the scenes, and the fact that Shawns gimmick mirrored a male stripper, and it's a no brainer for me. Bret all the way. Also to the people who disagree with Bret wanting to walk out of Montreal with the strap, that is not an incorrect way to do business when your contract states you have creative control. Bret was acting well within his legal right in Montreal and took the moral high road in not taking legal action when he very well could have. Another reason I will always have more respect for him.

 

[GameOver]

I was on the fence i liked both and what they could do in the ring.
Loved HBK's look and his persona and Bret was truly the excellence of Excecution and when he was heel he was pretty good on the mic.

When Bret went to WCW that was the end of it, his career there went nowhere fast meanwhile HBK rose to the top and tried to hold the ship.

Team HBK for me - HBK has done so much more that was noteworthy and he did everything well (other then being a prick) meanwhile Bret was just an awesome wrestler and nothing more and was still a self righteous diva too which he blasted other performers for being.

 

[dd23beatlesfan1]

Truthfully, I was Team Stone Cold lol.

In all seriousness, I would say that I was Team Bret back then, still am, and always will be.

Back then, I was still a kid, and thus was a complete mark. Bret and Undertaker were my favorites back then (and they're still 2 of my top 3 favorites along with Stone Cold). I always loved Bret Hart. I loved his style of wrestling. And even though everyone now talks about how boring his personality was, not so for me. I identified with Bret. Bret was no-nonsense, serious, all business. I really identified with that because that's how I was as a kid and still even am to this day in a way. I wasn't your "slacker" kid that never cared and was like "whatever" about everything. I always worked my butt off in school, always gave a 100% effort, and was very serious about my school work (which as a kid was the most important thing. It's not like I had a job or career at 10 years old, lol). Bret Hart was a hero to me, and even to this day he is a man I admire very much (and I don't say that about a lot of people, I typically focus on myself and not everyone else). I fell in wrestling-love with the man once I saw his I-C title matches with Curt Hennig, Roddy Piper, and the British Bulldog. From that point on, him and Taker were my favorites (Taker much moreso for his character).

Then Shawn Michaels came along. I disliked him of course as a bad guy, because I was your mark kid that hated all the bad guys (except Bam Bam Bigelow, I refused to boo him, he was amazing). Then when he turned babyface, I jumped on board and became a fan of his too (though I always respected his in-ring ability and always knew I would see a good match with him, even if I didn't like the guy). But as a heel, I disliked his arrogant attitude.

Fast forward to 1997, Bret and Shawn, and Taker are the three biggest babyfaces. Your top heels are Vader and Stone Cold, with Sid as a tweener. Of course once Bret and Stone Cold started feuding I was with Bret all the way. I remember being absolutely livid when Stone Cold screwed Bret Hart out of the Royal Rumble, I was actually screaming and getting angry at home, lol. But then as January of 97 ended, and then February and March came along, I found myself like many of the American fans getting tired of Bret Hart coming out every week and "wining." I found myself thinking this isn't the Bret Hart I loved. The old Bret Hart wouldn't have bitched and moaned, he would've worked harder and kept going and win. Granted he has some valid points, but the same things happening to him (people interfering in his matches, costing him titles and title opportunities) were happening to everyone else and no one else was complaining about it. Plus I was kind of disappointed that he won the Final Four match as I really felt it was time for Taker to win the belt (remember at that point Taker had only had one championship reign that lasted 6 days back in 1991). So like many fans I found myself getting kind of tired of Bret and gravitating towards Stone Cold who was cursing, rebelling against authority, and I was becoming a teenager at this point (I was around 12-13 during this time frame), which are things that are cool to all teenagers. The match at Wrestlemania XIII pretty much solidified me turning on Bret and becoming a Stone Cold fan.

At this point I was also getting tired of Shawn Michaels. He was still obnoxious, arrogant, and I did find it odd that in a matter of months we went from Shawn's career ending due to a serious knee injury, to winning the tag titles with Stone Cold just 2-3 months later. Obviously I didn't know the backstory (HBK assumedly refusing to take on Bret at Wrestlemana, or at least that's the most popular theory/story), but I found it odd.

And then something else even weirder happened. As Bret's heel turn was in full swing in America, I started loving the guy again. His anti-America rants I pretty much agreed with. I loved the whole Hart Foundation stable. It was fresh and exciting to see the whole Hart clan (well, Bret and Owen) on the same side after years of feuding. I loved their war with Stone Cold and the rest of the Americans.

Suddenly, I think I turned into a smark. I began to appreciate the brilliantness and innovation in Bret's duel babyface/heel character. I began to not necessarily just go with whatever WWE molded the fans into going with. I was a huge Taker fan, a huge Stone Cold fan (like we were supposed to be), yes. But as an American I was also a fan of the Hart Foundation stable (which we weren't supposed to be), and up until HBK turned heel at Summerslam 97, I was kind of "eh" on him. He was still putting on great matches obviously, but as a character, I was kind of "meh" on him (which I wasn't supposed to be).

So even though I had a somewhat short period where I started disliking Bret, I was still always more of a fan of Bret than Shawn, and still am to this day.


So to give a short, sweet answer to your question Brain.....Team Bret all the way!

 

[kidmetal24]

Team Bret for sure. I am all good with the boyhood dream stuff but Bret Hart was the best wrestler the WWE had seen in quite some time. HBK is a great in ring performer but at the time I felt he was very overrated. Shawn wasn't ready to be the champion and Bret wasn't ready to loose it. Shawn will yes always be Mr. Wrestlemania but in an actual wrestling match, he cannot hold a candle to the best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be.

 

[DeathClutch]

I always was, and always will be a Team Bret guy, I apperciate what Shawn did since his 2002 return but before that I always thought Bret's body of work was just that bit better than Shawn's, and the whole screw job deal I just thought Shawn was a backstabber along with HHH (I saw the Wrestling with Shadows doc).

I'm a fan of the wrestler who connects with fans, wheather it be via slapping hands, giving out shades and putting on the best wrestling match of the night, or the guy who doesn't insults the fans intelligence and throw up a huge divide between the adults and the kids. I'm a Team Rock guy, but I was around from before he debuted and what his evolution in WWE and was always a fan of his.

 

[The Idiot]

I can see comparing Hart/Michaels to Rock/Cena, both babyfaces going at it in the main event....but I think the WM 28 main event more closely resembles Hogan/Warrior.

Hart/Michaels didn't seem split 50/50 to me. It seemed like there were WAY more Bret Hart fans and Michaels was still trying to climb out from the mid card. At WM 6 I was Team Hogan. At WM 12 I was Team Michaels...and this year I am Team Rock. I have a 1-1 record...so anything goes LOL.

But back to the original topic....I wanted Shawn to win badly, but I was having a hard time seeing him as WWF champion, and I didn't think it was going to happen. Bret always seemed to get the best of Shawn up until then and I always thought he was the superior man. Nowadays you see a buildup like that and it's pretty obvious who's going to win, but this was before the internet smart days for me.

I guess that's why I liked that match and I rank it up there in my all time favorites, because I was so happy to see Shawn do something I never thought he could do....and by beating the guy I never thought he could beat.

*Edit* I want to apologize...I was looking at this as if it were 1996 going into Wrestlemania. Since I'm suppose to look at this going into 1997, as Shawn is a full fledge main eventer and the top 1 or 2 guy in the company....I was still team Shawn. He was my favorite wrestler when he was in the Rockers (something I don't think many people can say) and I followed him his ENTIRE career. Heel or Face.....didn't matter, I was always on Team HBK.

 

[Pedigree1]

Most definitely team Bret!! Bret always has and will be my hero!! He has always cared for the business and the fans. Shawn at that time had an attitude problem with everyone disrespected people at that time and only was in it for himself!! I know this because well i tried to meet him once upon a time and he was a complete dick!!

I wanted so bad for bret to beat him but we all know what happened!! My loyalities will always be with Bret Pink and Black attack baby!! That man was a wrestling machine