BRET HART vs. SHAWN MICHAELS
Montreal...Survivor Series...The Screwjob...The words will forever echo in eternity. There will never be a more controversial match in professional wrestling. It's infamous. It can never be forgotten. However, before Montreal...before Survivor Series...before the Screwjob...There was so much more to Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels. It was one of the most celebrated rivalries in the history of the business...even before the screwjob. So let's go back. Let's go back: 1997...1996...1994...1993...1992...1991...1990. That's right: 1990 More specifically: October 12, 1990 at a World Wrestling Federation television taping in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Bret Hart and his real-life brother-in-law, Jim Neidhart, (collectively known as "The Hart Foundation") were scheduled to defend their WWF World Tag Team Titles against the up-and-coming team of The Rockers, comprised of Marty Jannetty and a young Shawn Michaels. About a month before, WWF Chairman/Owner Vince McMahon had fired Neidhart. The only problem was, he was still the co-tag team champion. McMahon would learn what to do when he wanted to fire somebody who was a champion just more than seven years later, but we'll get there soon enough. Hart and Neidhart were scheduled to drop the titles to The Rockers that night.
The match went as planned for the first few minutes. Then, Neidhart began continually screwing up and, at one point, he rammed a turnbuckle so hard that the-top-rope became dislodged and droppped to the ground! Bret had one of his opponents in a submission hold, and was ordering for the referee to fix it, but he refused, as he was so panicky he couldn't calm down enough to fix it. The Rockers eventually won the match, and Bret begged McMahon not to air the match (as it had been an embarassment to all the participants) and let them reshoot it, but he refused, and decided to keep the belts on the Foundation and delay Bret's singles' push (which he had been promising) for another six months. Neidhart, also, would be kept for a while longer. The show aired, but the tag team title match didn't. It was never acknowledged, and the Foundation kept the titles.
Tag Team Match Results: