Bruce Prichard Recalls Shawn Michaels And Bret Hart Backstage Fight

– On the latest episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson rewatched the June 9, 1997 episode of Raw. The show was infamous for the off-screen backstage fight between rivals Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Here’s what Prichard had to say:

On The Immediate Aftermath: “Cornette and I were in Vince’s office when Shawn burst into the room holding two huge clumps of hair. We’re thinking, ‘What the hell is that? A small animal?.’ Shawn went on to talk about ‘unsafe working conditions’ and ‘he’s not going to take it anymore’ ‘he’s gonna go home,’ ‘Bret Hart attacked him.’ I don’t know if there were any witnesses to see how the fight actually started. That’s something that I think only those two really know what happened. Both have told the story that they got into a hockey fight with Bret putting Shawn through a false wall and they fell into a shower and Pat Patterson walked in and got in-between them. I don’t know if there were a lot of punches thrown. A lot of hair pulled out.”

On Shawn Threatening To Leave: “I think it was Shawn being Shawn. At that point, we had to get through it. Bret and Shawn went back-and-forth all the time. It was another chapter in that story. Vince and Shawn had several meetings where both were unhappy. Those seemed to be ongoing all the time. With Bret too. A lot of ‘the other one is gone or I’m gone.'”

On The Heat Between The Two: “If we had gotten Bret and Shawn together and nipped it in the bud — I don’t think anyone on the outside really understood how far it had gotten. There was animosity and if we really knew it was really that bad — we looked at it as it was much ado about nothing.”

On Punishment For Bret And Shawn: “I think both guys were reprimanded and scolded but I don’t think there were any monetary fines Vince just want to get beyond it. ‘Move on and get over yourselves.'”

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