wrestling / TV Reports

411’s WWE Rivals Report: Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart

April 23, 2023 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Steve Austin Bret Hart WWE WrestleManias Image Credit: WWE

-It’s double feature night for Rivals on A&E as we have this episode and right after they are airing an episode about Austin and Shawn Michaels. I will try to get the second episode done before I turn in the night. A quick plug as you can find my Retro Review of In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies right here. Also, a few weeks back I hit 15 years writing for 411mania. Thanks to Ashish, the late, great Larry, and Jeremy for guiding me along the way. Thanks to anyone who has ever taken the time to read anything I have written. Also, thanks to my friends Brian and Kent for pushing me to submit a writing sample. Here is to year sixteen. Let’s get to it!

-Freddie Prinze Jr is our host and he is joined at the roundtable this week by Kevin Owens (good call), Johnny Gargano, JBL, and Renee Paquette.

-Kevin says that Bret at that time was the definition of a pure good guy. Renee talks about being Canadian and they were all ready to make Bret The Primer Minister of Canada. They put over what Bret meant to Canada. Austin says Bret was huge and a cool guy that was seen as a everyman. We see video of Bret on Regis, The Simpsons as he was seen at the face of the company in the post Hogan era.

-Austin says he looked up to Bret and that Bret was lobbying to get Steve into the WWE. We get WCW footage of Steve and everyone talks about how incredible he was in the ring. Bret told Vince to get Steve and Bret says it was probably a coincidence, but right after Steve had signed with the company.

-Steve was brought in as The Ringmaster and there were no plans for him to be a star. Foley says it was good for someone was good, but wasn’t the thing for someone that had greatness written all over them. Soon after Steve turned into Stone Cold with black boots, black tights, and a shaved head. Montez Ford calls Steve “the baddest mug around.” Truth! 1996 STONE COLD IS AWESOME!

-King of The Ring 1996: Austin wins The Tournament and cuts the Austin 3:16 promo and everyone goes on about how it was the light switching moment and the shot in the arm Steve needed. JBL says the entire business changed that day in Milwaukee and no it didn’t. Austin was wrestling on the SummerSlam pre-show and it took the Bret feud 5 months later to really launch his career. Hogan’s nWo formation promo was a moment where everything changed. Austin’s promo was legendary after the fact, but it was more what he and Bret did. We will get to all that soon though.

-They mention that post King of The Ring, Austin was on fire and yet it took 3 months before he issued the challenge to Bret Hart. Bret says he took time off after The Iron Man match at Mania with Shawn. During his time off, Austin started to get momentum and ran his mouth against Bret.

-In Your House: Mind Games: “If you put the letter S in front of Hit Man, you have my exact opinion of Bret Hart.” Steve says he had that idea, but didn’t tell Vince because he knew it wouldn’t fly. Austin running down Bret week after week on TV is just fantastic.

-Bret makes his return on RAW in late October 1996 and announces he is back and will face Steve Austin at Survivor Series. Pillman celebrating while Austin gives him a death stare is great!

-Commercials!

-Survivor Series 1996: MSG: Austin calls it his first real high-profile match. “Bret cliches are cliches and an ass whipping is an ass whipping.” Again, 1996 Stone Cold is awesome! Owens says he automatically sided with Steve as he was not a Bret Hart fan. Jim Ross was just perfect on commentary as you could easily hear the excitement in his voice. Austin mentions he blew Bret up in the match and takes pride in that. Bret notes he wasn’t blown up, but was a little parched by the end of the match. Amazing match! Austin goes for The Million Dollar Dream, but Bret kicks off from the corner and rolls over for the pin in a famous finish. Austin notes the story was that Bret out-smarted him and didn’t out-physical him. Bret says the match was good for Steve and gave him credibility.

-Gargano says the match happened and it made him go all in on Stone Cold. Freddie asks if Renee flipped, and she says she is loyal to Bret, but it made her interested in Austin. The feud wasn’t over as Austin jumped Bret pretty much anytime they were in the same building.

-Royal Rumble 1997: A star making performance as Austin controlled The Rumble and ran through people one by one until Bret enters. It gives us the great sell by Austin as Bret’s music hits!

-Commercials!

-Royal Rumble 1997: Austin gets dumped by Bret, but the refs didn’t see it, so he gets back in and eliminates Vader/Taker and then Bret to win The Royal Rumble. This gave Bret a chance to complain about being screwed and it made Bret and Austin hate each other even more. Austin notes they made people believe they hated each other. Again, it was great because it was on sight when they were anywhere near each other. Austin costs Bret the WWF in a match with Sid and it made Bret cry more and the fans started turning on Bret.

-“FRUSTRATED ISN’T A G** DAMN WORD FOR IT. THIS IS BULLSHIT.” I love it! Vince gets shoved on his ass and continues his tirade. Oh, so great! Bret continues to look like a whiner and Austin looks like a badass. This was all masterful and they were just taking the fans on a ride. Bret says he could tell people were getting tired of him being the hero and a change was needed.

-Austin says he was watching RAW at home and it was announced he would face Bret in a submission match at WrestleMania. “That’s news to me. Nobody told me.” He notes he is not a submission wrestler, so he was annoyed by it. Bret says Steve had no submission holds and he only had The Sharpshooter. He saw it as a challenge and didn’t know it was going to go down as one of the greatest matches of all time.

-Commercials!

-Austin was happy to be working with Bret, but he was worried they would stink up the joint because of the stipulation. Austin’s promo before the show was amazing “Do I know a lot of wrestling holds? Hell no I don’t, but I will beat the hell out of you until you do say, I Quit.” Bret compares it to school yard fights he had as a kid and he told Steve this was going to be a school fight.

-WrestleMania 13: Rosemont Horizon: Austin calls it his favorite building because of the way the sound hits the wood ceiling and comes back to them. Ken Shamrock is the special ref as he makes his WWE debut. The bell sounds and they start beating the brakes off each other. Austin talks about how they took the fans on a ride. No kidding! Shawn Michaels says they were two guys that could make small things mean a lot. Drew McIntyre calls it a perfect match and a match that anyone who wants to be a wrestler should study. Again, no kidding! Now this was a business changing moment and this is the moment more than the Austin 3:16 speech that made Steve into one of the biggest stars in the history of the business. Foley says they were all watching in the back and they were wondering how the match was going to end.

-Commercials!

-Back to WrestleMania 13:Austin and Bret talk about discussing the match the morning of the show and Bret told Steve that he needed to bleed. Rosenberg says that in 97 the WWF was attempting to do away with blood. Austin is just pouring blood from his head and then we get the iconic shot of Austin in the sharpshooter with blood running down his face as he refuses to quit. I remember watching the show at my friend’s house and everyone there believed it was real. My mom’s friend got squeamish and wanted the match stopped. Bret talks about Austin nearly breaking the hold, but he broke the fans hearts by maintaining it. “That’s how you make Steve Austin.” Austin passes out from the pain and Shamrock stops the match. Just a beautiful match and one of the greatest of all time.

-The talking heads at the table are just giddy talking about the close of the match. We are all wrestling fans! Austin says that match did so much for him and showed that while he may be a piece of shit, he will never give up. Bret says Steve would have been a big star without that match, but it helped. He calls it the best match of his career.

-After the match, Bret beats on Steve some more to cement his heel turn and everyone is curious where this is going to go.

-Commercials!

-Back to WrestleMania because really you could do an entire hour long show just on this match. Shamrock stops Bret from attacking Austin and Bret bails because that’s what heels are supposed to do. Bret gets booed out of the building as he says he came into the match the hero and left the villain. “All I did was give this guy what he had coming. It’s like the people who feel sorry for the shark in Jaws.”

-Meanwhile, Austin walks out on his own two feet with blood still pouring down his head and he is now the biggest face in the company. The greatest double turn you will ever see and nobody has been able to match it since and plenty have tried. The table calls it a piece of art. KO says when you pick the three greatest matches in WrestleMania it’s Hogan/Andre, Shawn/Taker (25), and Austin/Bret.

-The next night on RAW, Bret complains about the fans abandoning him and cheering for Austin who has been tormenting him for months. Austin and Bret continue to torment each other and we just skip their match the next month and jump to Steve becoming WWF Champion at WrestleMania XIV.

-Bret notes that he and Steve are pretty good friends. Austin says he loves Bret and calls him one of the best he has ever worked with in the ring. Bret says Austin will text him at times saying he is watching their WrestleMania match. The talking heads put over both men. Bret says again that Steve was going to be a massive star no matter, but Austin says without Bret there may not be a Stone Cold.

-This was a wonderful trip down memory lane. I was disappointed they skipped over their match post WrestleMania and all the chaos that happened with Austin terrorizing Bret throughout the summer. In a alternate universe somewhere, Montreal never happens and Austin finally gets the win over Bret at WrestleMania XIV for the WWF Title. I have no clue where Shawn fits in, but the story should have been Austin finally getting a win over Bret. This was an easy show to watch as always, and nostalgia is what carries things. This is definitely one that could have used more time, but they high the main points and I don’t blame them for spending most of the time on WrestleMania 13. I’ll be back later tonight with Austin/Michaels. Until then, thanks for reading!