Original subtitles

They're perfect for each other. They hate each other, but they were perfect

each other. When you look at long -term rivalry, Shawn Michaels versus Bret Hart

will forever live in infamy.

Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels loathe one another, whether it be out here or

back there.

Neither one of those guys wanted to be number two. They both wanted to be

one. Brett was more vulnerable than Shawn. That was sort of the seeds of

to come.

You're nothing but a degenerate.

I don't think there's ever been a rivalry that has been talked about as

this issue between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

It made things interesting to go to work because you never knew. Like, he was a

powder keg.

You know, we started out pretending to be real, and then it got real.

I was the bad guy.

It wasn't fun to do.

I could have killed him with my bare hands.

When two legends collide, their

rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories behind the greatest

of all time.

I'm Freddie Prinze Jr., and this is WWE Rivals.

One of the most heated and celebrated rivalries in the history of the

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Both of these men are on a collision course, and

we're at a time where the larger men of the WWE are now giving a little bit of

room for the smaller wrestlers to get over. This is the land of giants.

When I told people that I wanted to be a WWE superstar, I got laughed at because

I wasn't 6 '8", I wasn't 300 pounds.

And for me, it just drew me in more because it made me feel like maybe I do

a shot. Because these guys aren't as big as the other guys, but I like watching

these matches more so than the big guys.

I want you to take a good look at the wrestler of the 90s.

In the early 90s, the shift was to a more athletic, in -ring -based

where you were getting guys that could really go in the ring and have great

wrestling matches.

It was the opportunity for us because a lot of the stalwarts, I guess, from the

early WWE days were starting to leave.

Hulk Hogan is here in the WCW.

People can say what they want about Hogan and all the talent they had over

WCW and what they were doing. But to be honest, there's no comparison to what

Sean was doing and what I was doing.

There are certain ones that you get in there with, and it's hard to describe,

but you just recognize the real comfort level there.

You felt like you could probably do it with your eyes closed.

I had that with Brett.

Looking at Sean, looking at Brett, they're both flag bearers of the new

generation.

We are witnessing the blast -off of the next decade in the World Wrestling

Federation.

It was vital for our success that those guys were at the top of their game and

brought what they did to the table.

I grew up very much snowballed in with

the Hart family since I was a 10 -year -old boy. Growing up in Calgary, he

definitely came across as a Canadian hero.

I always had a crush on Shawn Michaels.

People always laugh when they're like, you had a crush on Shawn Michaels?

He just had that charisma about him. He was the heartbreak kid.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Bret and Shawn were like the epitome of what WWE was trying to be.

I'm going to be carrying the flag for the new generation.

Who is a better wrestler?

I would say Brett Easy.

Brett was just very

good and fluent.

Almost everything had a purpose and a reason.

You could give Bret Hart a pail, and Bret Hart could go out and have an

entertaining, realistic match.

Just a skilled technician in the ring.

There are no holes in his in -ring work at all.

I mean, he had the mat game.

He could brawl. He could do it all.

He was something special inside the ropes, for sure.

I think I was in my prime at that time.

That's what I think of Shawn Michaels sometimes.

He kind of reminds me of me.

Sean was just a really talented athlete.

I don't know of anybody ever having a bad match with Sean.

I was a better performer.

Once the term sports entertainer came out,

I felt like I embodied all of that. You will not ever.

See a man more charismatic, more flamboyant, or more talented than the

heartbreak kid, Shawn Michaels.

In my opinion, Shawn Michaels is the most talented in -ring performer of all

time. And he knew it.

Back when I came in, Shawn Michaels was a spoiled brat.

It was Shawn's world, and the rest of us were just playing in it. In the ring,

there's probably no one that I'd rather work with than Shawn.

That's how good he was.

Personally, it was a whole other issue.

I think initially there was friction professionally that way.

Shawn Michael, I think you're one of the greatest wrestlers I've ever had the

privilege of watching.

Shawn and me were really good friends once upon a time. It's important to know

that Shawn was a really close and dear friend of mine.

I consider Shawn Michael a friend.

Somebody I invited to my home and had in my house and somebody that played with

my kids.

Remember a live event in Calgary?

Razor, Sean, Diesel, they all were at Brett's house. They put milk in super

soakers and were like all shooting each other with milk for like hours and like

having fun. You know, they're all just having a fun day at Brett's house before

going down to the Saddledome and working. So I knew they were friends.

He would talk about Sean and, like, you know, how much he admired him and how

great he was in the ring. But, like, he didn't like it in some of his ways,

maybe his attitude sometimes.

He was unprofessional a lot of the times.

He had an attitude to me, and I think more like it was all about him and

nobody else mattered.

Basically,

here's this punk kid who's really good, can back up everything he says.

Can you believe the performance of Bob?

But he doesn't have that maturity.

Even though I was an absolute hell to deal with, I was just so passionate

doing this and was not going to be happy unless I could fulfill absolutely

everything.

John Michaels going to WrestleMania to face the WWF champion.

The Raptors are battling as of WWF.

Brett was the champion.

And that was, you know, one thing that Sean wanted. For Sean, he was fixated on

the title at that point in his life. This was it.

You know, you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

The quest of a 12 -year -old boy from San Antonio, Texas, officially begins.

The two greatest athletes in the history of the World Wrestling Federation going

at it at WrestleMania.

Going into WrestleMania, they had had rivalries in the past.

This was different over the championship.

Shawn and Bret's style complemented each other perfectly.

So the story was simple. It was organic. It was easy to get to.

We expect to see the single greatest athletic event in World Wrestling

Federation history. This match is going to be 60 minutes long.

A 60 -minute Iron Man match is one in which, at the end of that, the one that

has got the most balls becomes champion.

You could have offered an hour match to anybody in wrestling back then, and I

don't think anybody would have taken you up on it. Even though you can be on the

pay -per -views, like, uh -uh, I'm not going to go out there for an hour.

It was kind of thrown out to us like a challenge. Can you guys do it?

Brett and I, being the main event, we knew it was a big chance, but he and I

felt confident we were the guys to do it.

It'll be maybe the greatest match of all time, and I'll be proud to be part of

it. You know, we were both just in our peak. I would say we were both, without

doubt, for sure, the two best wrestlers in the world.

I knew Shawn Michaels three or four years ago. I said, this is going to be

guy that's going to try to take my spot.

Fortunately, I'm not ready to leave yet.

The vignettes were awesome because you saw Shawn doing these, like, handstand

push -ups. I thought that was so cool.

The story's already being told of Shawn's going to use his speed and his

quickness, and Brett's going to use his hard -hitting, submission, technical

style. The stage was set.

Who's better, me or Shawn Michaels?

You. It just made it feel like Rocky and Drago. You remember the montage of them

both training, and they have different training styles.

Drago's is more modern.

And then you got Rocky over here running up mountains and carrying logs.

Shawn Michaels is very good, but he is not, and he never, ever will be the

They both thought they were the best, and we're going to prove it.

Neither one of those guys wanted to be number two. They both wanted to be

one. I think tomorrow in the 60 -minute Iron Man match that I'll prove beyond a

shadow of a doubt that I'm everything that I say that I am. I'm the best there

is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.

This contest is the special Iron...

If you look at the Ironman match, no match has ever been more calling for

type of matchup than those two in Ironman match.

You're not

undecided coming into that match.

You're either a Bret Hart fan or you're a Shawn Michaels fan.

But you are aware.

and respect the other.

You talk about, like, Bret and Shawn, and you have to appreciate the fact that

these guys really genuinely want to be the best.

The best are nothing else.

We were kind of sitting near the top. I just remember being like, I wonder if

this match is going to be boring, because earlier in the day, we were

this WrestleMania breakfast in the hotel, and I remember we see Shawn

and he said, I'm really nervous.

I just remember being so blown away that here's Shawn Michaels about to be in

the main event of WrestleMania, and he's saying he's nervous.

We were excited about it, and always a little bit of that excitement is nerves,

you know, and anxiety.

But to make somebody competitive, that's what you live for, is overcoming and

achieving in the face of some of that stress and that anxiety.

The man who wins the most decisions will be declared the winner and...

the World Wrestling Federation champion.

Here we go, 60 minutes on.

You know, as the match goes, it's really important to make sure we didn't lose

the audience.

How in the hell is anybody going to keep their attention span for 60 minutes on

a wrestling match?

That's what made the match so special, that there was a certain pacing to that

match. You didn't know who was going to win. It was so back and forth and real.

Those guys were able to tell a story

over the course of 60 minutes.

If anything, they didn't slow down, they sped up.

Trying to outshine each other for 60 minutes.

I've called a lot of matches.

There are very few that really stand out.

I've never seen two more determined individuals.

Both individuals not wanting to be the one who makes the mistake.

When Sean came off the top rope in the last minute of the match, that blew

everybody away.

I just thought it was so

neat to be in this hole.

about to give up.

We

ended

it at 60 minutes.

No one had defeated anyone.

It was a draw. It was unprecedented.

I was like, okay, now what do you do?

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

This match has been ordered to continue.

In a lot of ways, I could argue, like, I got through the 60 -minute Ironman

match, and there should never have been an overtime.

It was a great little swerve in the storyline.

I can tell you right now, Bret Hart does not like this decision, and he's going

to take it out. Want Shawn Michaels?

It's a match that's so vivid, it's just left etched in your mind.

Michaels, he got it! Shawn Michaels got it!

So many people have said, that is a match that made me want to be a

I look back on it as a match that I'm proud of. I thought it was monumental.

I could never have done that match with anybody but Shawn Michaels.

Honestly, I don't know that I could have done it with anybody else.

So for all the differences he and I had after that, not a other dude that I

would rather be out there with, and certainly not at that time in my life.

I remember seeing Shawn Michaels repelled from the ceiling that night and

that incredible Ironman match and thinking afterwards, you know what?

I don't think I belong here. It was that good.

Masterpiece, one of the greatest matches of all time. Those guys performed in

the ring together masterfully, even though they disliked each other very

They were very professional.

But it tells you how great they both were. They put magic together.

The boyhood dream has come true.

Rashawn Michaels.

My immaturity and my hot -headedness took over at that point.

And Shawn Michaels being awarded the WWF title right in front of Preston Hitman

Hart. Shawn, you can see him right on camera. Tell me to get the F out of the

ring.

He's yelling at the referee who comes over and tells me to get out of the

And I'm like, I just gave you an hour match of everything I could give you.

Pass the torch to you.

And you disrespect me like that on my way out.

I definitely noticed some animosity. And then at the end of that match, it

almost boiled completely over.

It's almost a blur now, honestly.

What I remember is Earl trying to put the belt on him. He snapped at him and

fumbling around and fumbling around. And that's one of those moments where you

go like, this is not turning out like I thought it would.

We call it a cluster.

Brett's walked back to the locker room where he's like visibly pissed off. Like

that's iconic, you know, like I have the visual in my head so clearly.

I just thought it was part of the show. I didn't think it's any kind of actual

personal thing going on. I later found out that it was.

Brett didn't go to the WrestleMania after party. The talent one, he wasn't

there. Sean was.

Get out.

Get out.

Get out.

It just all added to the real tensions between us as professionals.

And Sean.

At WrestleMania 12, the babyface is telling the other guy to get the F out

the ring.

The whole story is filled with the backstage coming alive.

Get out!

John and me buried the hatchet two or three times when we had started to get

tense.

And I don't want anybody else. I want you at 100%.

Brett and I always tried to catch ourselves. We knew that it was getting

control. It's steamrolling. And we would try to pull ourselves back.

And every time we would do that, something would happen.

The World Wrestling Federation needs a hero. They need a role model. They need

somebody they can look up to.

Not somebody that poses for girly magazines.

In my mind, you have two choices.

I can either...

crawl inside myself and fold, or I'd come back guns a -blazin'. By the way,

how'd you know I was in that girly magazine?

You couldn't help yourself, could you? You had to flip through the pages just a

little bit.

There's a lot of times when you have personal tension that it translates well

television. I think the whole thing added to the mystique and to the rivalry

itself.

Hitman, when I get a hold of you, I am going to tear you to pieces. I guarantee

it. It was really great television, and they were the best.

Shawn Michaels, I will kick your ass.

Shawn Michaels, they were pushing the envelope, and Bret wasn't about that. He

wasn't about pointing at your crotch or pulling your pants down.

You're a disgrace to wrestling.

You're nothing but a degenerate.

It took on a life of its own. It was very, very personal.

You were seeing real life drama play out on television.

I can't stand you and you make me sick.

That was different than the rest of the things happening on the show.

To me, coming from down in Tennessee, we used to have a sign on the wall in our

office that said, personal issues draw money.

You're nothing but a punk.

I think it was the first time that we were trying to view the product as a

little more reality -based, that there are human beings behind the characters,

and that the human beings have feelings. Sometimes those feelings get hurt.

I'm not going to lie to you.

Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels loathe one another, whether it be out here or

back there.

Bret was way more vulnerable than Shawn, and Shawn had the gift of gab.

which bothered Brett, and I think that was sort of the seeds of things to come.

Let's start with the role model stuff, because, hey, man, I've seen you on the

road, and, bro, you ain't no role model.

I'll say anything on television. I have no shame.

The real turning point was the promo that Sean cut on Raw about Brett having

sunny days.

Even though lately you've had some sunny days, my friend, you still can't get

the job done.

That was implying there was something going on between Brett and Sonny, who's

valet. Look at Sonny. He looks great, doesn't he?

Basically said Brett slept with Sonny.

The sunny days that are supposed to have happened, they never happened.

He crossed the line that nobody should ever cross.

You know, those are the kind of things that could topple my marriage.

When I came home the next day, my son Dallas had been at school.

First thing he asked me, he goes, so what's going on with you and Sonny?

I got really mad then.

Breaking the fourth wall, peeling the curtain back, it's everything.

It's breaking every rule.

At that time in my life, single, successful, without a care in the world.

I used to tell everybody all the time, dude, you are bringing a freaking spoon

to a guy with a freaking shotgun.

I got nothing to lose.

Two words which every fan remembers.

Sunny days.

Sean had nothing to lose.

Sean's single.

Right. You know when two guys are on a collision course for a fight at some

point. We knew it probably wouldn't happen in the ring because they're both

professional. We knew it probably happened backstage. We were just hoping

all get to see it.

Yes, indeed.

We are ready for action tonight on Raw.

I flew in for the TVs for Hartford.

I made up my mind that I was going to snatch Sean.

I was really ready to kill him when I saw him.

Walked right up to him, pushed him with my hands against the wall.

All of a sudden, these two guys burst through the wall.

Some other people came and pulled us apart.

As he did that, he ripped out a huge clump of hair.

It was one of the wildest things that I've ever witnessed in all the years

been in the business.

These two men were done being professional.

They had an actual fight.

That broke down in the locker room. They just didn't, genuinely didn't like each

other at all.

It's much tougher to work with somebody that you don't like because you don't

trust them.

It must have been miserable for everybody to go through, too, in the

and the drama and your two main guys constantly at it.

It made things interesting to go to work.

Because you never knew. Like, he was a powder keg.

Brett was still kind of unhappy, and this was also during a time that Brett's

contract was coming to an end.

WCW, our competitors, were offering guaranteed contracts.

They made their offer to me, and I finally got it in my fax machine, and it

right there, and I was like, all I have to do is sign it, and then I called

Vince.

The story of Bret leaving WWE is actually pretty complicated because

been a bidding war between WCW and WWE.

Bret was negotiating on the other side, seeing if the grass was greener down

south at WCW.

This was right at the height of the Monday Night Wars.

People had jumped ship, but nobody of the stature of Bret the Hitman Hart

because he was the champion.

It was very hard for me to picture the WWE without Bret.

I just figured it would get worked out.

Brett was being offered the highest contract of all time.

Yeah, I think I got offered about $2 .6 million a year.

And I remember Vince pretty much said, you better take the WCW contract.

Is he going WCW? Well, I'll tell you exactly what situation I'm in right now.

I've given my 30 -day notice.

It is common knowledge at this point that Brett is going.

But at the same time, he's WWE champion, so you have to figure out, okay, how do

you maneuver through that?

I've got you in the Survivor Series, and when that day comes, I'm going to kick

your little scrawny ass.

I found out I was wrestling Shawn.

It was me and Shawn at Survivor Series in Montreal.

I remember I said, hey, Sean, I know we're wrestling at Survivor Series, and

just want you to know I don't have any problem whatever the finish is. If they

want you to win, I'm okay with that. I've always been a company guy, and I'm

professional. And I remember Sean looked at me and said, he goes, I appreciate

that, but I just want you to know that I would never do the same thing for you.

It's a dicey thing, but I don't have any recollection of it. At the very least,

I've never tried to run away from my very blatant unprofessionalism back

When I told Vince, I said, I can't drop the belt to a guy that would be that

unprofessional and tell me that he would never do the same thing for me.

Doesn't matter whether it's Sean or anybody else. This is what you do for

company that you help build.

Everybody was talking in the locker rooms. Can you imagine if Brett Jump

shows up at WCW and he's still our champion?

Brett couldn't be allowed to go to WCW with the championship. He had to drop

that title.

To somebody in WWE, there was no way we could allow Bret to go to WCW with that

championship.

You got to understand, Bret Hart said he was not going to leave with the title,

that he would not use it now in WCW. Bret Hart's a man of integrity.

I believe Bret.

Problem is, Bischoff had already done it.

And that's what it's all about, the current title holder.

Medusa goes down there and throws the Women's Championship in the trash.

And that's what I think of the WWF Women's Championship belt.

We are losing one of our great champions. We can't lose the

it.

There

were

rumblings as far as how are we going to do this from Brett for the entire week.

There was a documentary that was there and they secretly recorded the

conversation. I mean, I don't have to be Sean. We can have a schmoz or whatever

you want.

I would think it'd be a run -in type thing. I'm opening you. The championship

does not change hands on a disqualification. In order for a

change hands, you have to win by a pinfall or a submission.

There was lots of things we could have done that would have been okay.

That's not Brett's choice.

And it's not what we wanted from a creative point of view, what we wanted

Brett was unwilling to do what he needed to do, which was make sure that Shawn

left that night as the champion.

I want to say the Wednesday before that pay -per -view, I was in Texas on a

telephone with Vince McMahon discussing about the belt not leaving the WWE.

And, of course, sort of talking around the whole, like, do we want to...

You know, we want to frickin' get that thing by hook or by crook. And Vince was

like, what are we talking about? And I, you know, look, I'll do whatever it is

you want me to do.

Sean seemed like he didn't want any problems with me.

We had a big talk in the dressing room for maybe at least an hour about how we,

the story that things got the way they did and the story that I was leaving.

You know, how did we get here?

Because at one time, X amount of years ago, you know, we were pretty decent

friends, you know, and we really liked each other. And it really did. I mean,

did suck.

This is what it's all about.

How many times have we heard Shawn Michaels say, I don't lay down for

Well, folks, this is very, very personal. This match is going to be

The Survivor Series is a masterpiece of a match.

Poured my heart out in that match.

And Sean's working his heart out.

It's just a down and dirty fight between two guys that hate each other's guts.

We're 10 minutes into the actual match.

The match was going to go 40 minutes.

It's in Montreal, so I'm there in person.

I didn't know Vince was the owner. I didn't know that. I just thought Vince

McMahon was a commentator.

So then, at one point during the match, he comes out in this suit, and I'm like,

what is going on? And I was so confused, like, why is Vince McMahon there?

He wanted Bret to see him there.

He wanted Bret to know that whatever went down was his decision to have it

happen.

Sean put them in the sharpshooter, Brett's in it, and he never tapped.

And all of a sudden the bell rang.

And that's when I knew they screwed me.

Look at this!

Oh, you're kidding me.

Michael, are you going to try to beat Brett Hart with a sharpshooter?

Sean put Brett in the sharpshooter and Earl Huebner rang the bell.

Sean went and they just act like Brett tapped out.

Vince was doing what was best for business.

All of a sudden, Brett just looked at me right in the eye and went.

I said, did he just spit in Vince McMahon's eye?

That's the moment for me that I knew everything had gone off the rails.

Brett just disrespecting Vince.

He didn't really care. You know, it washes off.

What he did to me was a huge betrayal to me.

It's all a blur to me and was out of there like it's calling a dog.

I was at the gorilla position, which is the last bastion before you walk out to

the curtain. At that point, Davey Boy looks at all and goes,

I was by myself in Vince's office watching it on the monitor. It goes down

I'm just like, holy crap.

This is about to blow up.

We were just as stunned as everyone else. We had no idea what had just

The entire arena could tell that Brett was screwed.

That's where it was called the Montreal Screwjob.

This was the moment that changed wrestling for an entire generation and

more. It was almost like kind of anticlimactic. The match was going

There was so much confusion. Like, wait, what happened? Did he tap? Why is the

bell ringing? Why the, you know, what's just chaos in the ring and then Brett

being pissed?

The reaction that Brett had, like his emotions and just everything that him

walking was just like so furious. After he spits and does everything else, he

goes, W, C, W on that screen.

For all of our animosity, for all of the rivalry that he and I had, I was the

bad guy.

And then on that night, I was going to make it even worse and never be able to

turn that back again, ever.

I walk in and I said to Sean, I go, were you in on that?

Sean, you weren't in on that?

My hands are clean this much, swear to God.

Vince told me you deny it no matter what, so I told him no.

It wasn't fun to do.

So Brett's on one side of the room. Vince is on the other side of the room.

so Sean was there. I was sitting next to Sean.

Vince is over here. Brett's down here.

And it's going back and forth. And I do remember Sean trying to chime in at one

point. I remember grabbing his leg and saying, no, this ain't the time to shut

up. Vince was explaining his position.

Vince told Brett, what do you expect me to do?

I did it for my company, I did it for everybody in this locker room, and I'd

it again.

Vince and me walked towards each other just like two wrestlers.

I walked towards him, he came right towards me, so it wasn't just me going

attacking a man. It was an accepted fight. I hit Vince with a right -hand

like it was a knockout punch.

Looking back on it, it produced very real feelings.

Brett the Hitman Hart, he got cheated.

That's disgusting.

It's injustice.

It's not fair.

Also wrapped Shawn Michaels in a perception that to this day, he can

shake. Shawn Michaels is a wonderful human being. But if you're somebody who

liked Brett, he's a piece of shit.

It was not something that was going away. It really bothered me. I was

with it. I mean, even when I was in WCW.

Nobody.

knows better than I do what it's like to get screwed over by a referee.

I remember actually being in a WCW show. We were both in the same town.

I went to my room and stayed in my room so I wouldn't bump into him. I got fear,

like if I bumped into Sean and he walked in the same elevator as me.

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I think there's a possibility that I could

have killed him with my bare hands.

Both guys kind of went in a gloom and doom direction in their personal lives

in their careers.

For Shawn, an unfortunate accident in a Royal Rumble match.

He literally broke his back, and he had to step away from the business for a

while.

Brett, same thing. Brett, a career -ending injury in the ring.

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were the pinnacle of the industry.

Both were gone a few years after Montreal.

I was at such a crappy place then.

Finding something more important than this stuff was obviously huge.

After he got married and had a family and matured, he quit being Shawn

outside of the ring.

He took the steps to turn his life around, which is a long, long way from

way it was in the 90s.

Sean was able to come back. Sean was able to become a completely new human

behind the theme.

I could tell that Sean had sort of a skip in his walk.

I think anybody that remembers and knows me from those days would say, yeah, you

were pretty mad for a long time.

I've always expected a proper and more

fitting...

I don't know if apology is the right word, but just someone to own up for

happened and accept responsibility for the actions that were taken.

I made the comparison a lot of times. It was like carrying a big bag of rocks

around.

Since the Montreal shoe job, I never ran into Brett.

We never spoke for easily more than a decade.

I know that there are times that I mentioned that I would love to be able

that behind us.

Things that led to it were TJ.

TJ told Sean, yeah, I'm, like, you know, close to the Hart family.

And TJ said to Sean, he's like, yeah, I think Brett would be, like, really open

to talking to you.

Sean started to get a little bit emotional, and he said some days he just

like to fly up to Calgary and knock on Brett's door, and if Brett punches him

out, that's okay as long as they can talk after.

And TJ told me that, and that meant a lot to me. It was like, okay, you know,

least he feels bad.

The bombshell that Brett hit me with at the very end of our conversation was,

give Sean my number, and I'll see if he calls me, and then I'll see how sincere

he is.

I remember thinking, wow.

Every couple weeks, Brett would be like, he hasn't called.

There was a very big part of me that knew, with all the history these two

They have to see each other face to face. They can't, a phone call is not

to do a damn thing with these two.

I remember Sean said he was too scared to call me. And so he never called me

it never got resolved.

I remember saying, I just want to see him in person and we'll bury the

Since the Montreal Screwjob, I don't recall Bret Hart and myself ever

seeing or talking to each other.

until I think that night.

When I saw Sean, he was in the catering, I believe.

I could tell it was real.

It just started to pour out of us right away, like, you know, I've been wanting

to talk to you for so long.

And I remember I said, just stop.

Let's do it in the ring.

It's been 12 long years since anyone's seen Bret Hart.

I've got 12 years of things that I've wanted to get off my chest.

And the very first thing I want to do is I want to call back there and ask Shawn

Michaels to come out here.

Whoa. The hitman not wasting any time.

There's something I've been waiting 12 years to say to you.

In the last 12 years, a lot of things in my life have changed.

You're not the only one that's been carrying this around for 12 years.

You're not the only one that wants to bury the hatchet.

I was happy to see Sean and Brett come back together and to share a ring again.

So I offer my hand to you in friendship.

If you want to bury the hatchet, let's bury it right now.

That was so surreal.

I really couldn't believe what I was watching.

That's like the one thing you didn't think could happen.

When Sean hugged me, he told me, he goes, I'm so sorry.

So sorry for everything that happened.

What we carried, you know, as a result of everything, had that lifted up was

honestly the best thing.

It just shows the growth of both of them as men and human beings. You'll be able

to witness that.

That was really cool.

When two egos hit and they don't mix well, a lot of crazy stuff can happen.

You know, you don't have to be best friends to put on these matches, to make

money, to put butts in seats.

It drew me in so much, you know, and all the while, like I really didn't have,

an idea like the gravity of this situation and even like how it built

heads but it sucks for the people involved but for everybody watching like

get the best possible product because everyone is bringing their best to the

table both are incredible to the greatest performers of all time this was

absolutely magic when these guys got together

You can come around there and look at the tie -up. No, I don't know how you're

doing. How are you?

I'm doing great.

Busy. Busy? The rivalry stood the test of time because it was real.

It was real, and it was with two guys that were so different in a lot of ways,

but still alike competitor -wise.

I didn't have the ability or the maturity to see that and understand

I think that when you look at long -term rivalry, Shawn Michaels versus Bret

Hart will forever live in infamy.

These two men truly believe in their hearts that they are the better men.

That's the greatest thing that you can get from a rivalry, is that people

remember it 10, 20, 30 years down the road.

I think about, you know, the WrestleMania match. To me, it is, you

huge risk that was to, you know, have the balls to try to do an hour. One

Yeah. You know what I mean? And I'm more proud of that than anything else.

Really a masterpiece.

Yeah. One of my favorite, one of my best memories.

The chemistry between Bret and Shawn was undeniable, and it created an

unbelievably great rivalry.

It's a shame that things got off track with Sean and we never got to really

finish telling the stories that we could have told.

Me and Sean could have wrestled one time every year for the next ten years and

it's been the biggest matches in history.

It's a shame that that opportunity was squandered and lost probably by both of

us.

Absolutely, of course, I would love to go back and not make any of the mistakes

I made.

But then I have to see where I'm at now, and I'm overjoyed with having come out

on the other side.

It's good to be in a place today where you can talk about your kids.

Pretty soon they'll be grandkids.

We're not best friends or anything, but he's always nice about reaching out on a

birthday or a wedding anniversary.

The stuff that you worried about 20 years ago is...

Seems pretty small.

Yeah, exactly.

Especially when you say something like grandkids.

Like, oh, my goodness.

Yeah, well, it's coming. Brace yourself.

I know, I know, I know.

We just had a great conversation about being dads, and it was really a joy to

around. Well, it was wonderful to see you, man. Good seeing you. Thank you so

much. Take care of yourself and stay in touch.

I wish sometimes that we could just go back and redo all that, because it

There was nothing but magic left to do.