The MAC
07-26-2008, 02:57 PM
Found this a week ago. Some kid on the "under the mat" wrestling forum put up a comparison of passages from the books of Hart and Michaels. The passages detail the events from wrestlemania 12 to the screwjob from the perspectives of both men. Even if you think you knew everything that happened read on :
Straight out of "Heartbreak & Triumph" The Shawn Michael's story, and "Hitman" the Bret Hart story, I present to you, controversy..................
After Ironman match at Wrestlemania 12
Bret-"In order to feed the supposed heat between us, I wouldn't be shaking his hand [Shawn Michaels] after he won. Instead I'd simply walk out, leaving the crowd to assume that I was really pissed off at the ref's decision. Shawn nodded and said, "No problem"."
HBK-"[People were congratulating me] About the only person I didn't see was Bret Hart. Usually, you shake hands with your opponent after the match and thank each other. I never saw Bret after the match, and he never said a word to me. Bret took off immediatly, and I wouldn't see him for another seven or eight months."
The "Curtain Call" incident
Bret-"Carlo [a friend] called me to tell me about the clique's last WWF show together at Madison Square Garden on May 19. After Shawn beat Diesel in a cage match, the two sworn enemies embraced in the ring, much to the confusion of the crowd. They were soon joined by Razor and Hunter, and then all four stood on the turnbuckles giving the fans the clique hand sign in what they thought was a glorious send off. Vince had already left the garden, when he found out what they had pulled, he was livid. Backstage the agents and the boys were up in arms, and rightfully so: They thought Vince should have nipped such behaviour in the bud. Vince reprimended all four of them, levying $2,500 fines, and he ordered Shawn and Hunter to apologize to thier fellow wrestlers. The other three had no excuse, but Shawn should have known this wasn't something the champion should do."
HBK-"Kevin [Nash] and I were standing at the curtain ready to go out for our match when Hunter came running up to us. "Are we going to do the thing?" he asked.
"What thing? What are you talking about?"
"The thing we talked about in Europe where we go out and say good-bye to the fans." Hunter never drank. He remembered everything.
"We don't know. We have a cage match. Go ask Vince if we can do it. If he says yes, come on out, we'll be there and we can do it."
"All right."
We had our match. I hit Kevin with the kick to win, and started celebrating. Kevin was still lying on his back when the next thing I know, here comes Scott [Hall] and Hunter to the ring. I thought, "I guess we're doing it." So I walked over to Kevin and gave him a big kiss. He rose up and I said, "They are coming down." Scott and Hunter came to the ring, and we all hugged and bowed to the fans. In wrestling terms, we broke kayfabe. We weren't playing heel and babyface. Our actions, our admission that we were friends, told the fans, the vast majority who already knew, that what we did for a profession was a work. The fans, for thier part, loved it. About a third of the sellout crowd was still there, and they were cheering thier tails off. When we came to the back, Vince asked me, "Was that important to you?"
"Yes, it was. I appreciate that. Thanks."
We hugged and he said, "Then it's important to me."
That's how we left it that night."
I LOST MY SMILE
HBK-"[HBK had tweaked his knee in an earlier match and went to check it out] I went to see my doctor. He took an MRI, looked at the results, and then said to me, "You will never wrestle again."
"What?"
"You have no ACL in there."
"I know. I've been wrestling for years with no ACL."
"You are not going to wrestle on it anymore. Your knee has deteriorated. You need a knee replacement."
I was devastated. He was a doctor, and I thought his word was final. I thought my career was over. At the next TV (Tapings), which was a special Thursday edition of Raw, I told Vince what my doctor had said. I broke down and started crying.
--
Vince felt for me. He knew how much wrestling meant to me. He told me no matter what happens, I'd always have a job here. Then he said, "We have to get the championship belt off you. We will make an announcement tonight." That night I went to the ring and told the world I was retiring. I told them I had lost my smile, that I just didn't have it in me to wrestle anymore. Vince and Gorilla Monsoon were in the ring with me. It was very emotional. It wasn't a work."
Bret-"On February 13, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the big news was that Shawn was forfeiting the world belt because he'd suddenly somehow sustained a career-ending knee injury and needed surgery. Taker looked at me like this was all bullshit and said, "I'll believe it when I see the scar. The little F*cker doesn't want to drop the belt." Taker, Sid [Vicious] and I headed down the hallway to Vince's office. Shawn and Hunter, Pat [Patterson], and [Jerry] Brisco were already there when we arrived. Vince seemed really upset that Shawn was hurt and was near to tears as he explained how I'd win the belt in the Final Four [PPV] for my fourth title reign.
--
Shawn did an in-ring interview that night that I watched on a TV monitor backstage along with the other wrestlers. He walked out without so much as a limp and with the heart-breaking trickle of the occasional tear, he talked of having lived his dream. Fans jeered him, so the cameras cut to close-ups of girls crying. He said he had to simply listen to his doctors. He'd not only hurt his knee, he had "Lost his smile" over the last few months and was going home to find it. Every wrestler standing with me rolled his eyes as Shawn forfeited the title, handing the belt to Vince, who was caked in make-up and looked peculiarly Dracula-like as he, too, appeared to be fighting back tears. I'd worked a tag team match with Shawn at the Meadowlands only three days before, and there was nothing wrong with his knee. He hadn't wrestled since. I found myself agreeing with Taker-I'll believe this bullshit when I see the scar."
May 12 1997-Raw
HBK-"Bret was such a hypocrite. He said it was over. We shook hands and I though we had finally put it all behind us. (According to Shawn Michael's book, Bret Hart at any chance he got buried HBK. Michael's was mad and on this day, he said he talked to Bret who apologized and said it was over with) Bret and I were scheduled to do an interview segment. It was supposed to be a wrestling promo. He talks bad about me and then I talk bad about him. That's how it works. Well, he went on his tirade and just didn't stop. It was a while before I got my rebuttal in. As I made my way backstage, someone had told me that he had gone so long they had to go off the air before I spoke. So the whole time, viewers saw me standing there looking like an idiot. I was furious. He [Bret] had done it to me for the last time."
Bret-"At the end of the show, with the idea that I'd soon be working with Shawn at King of the Ring, I called Shawn out to the ring. The last 30 seconds were supposed to be mine, and then Shawn would give me his Superkick, toppling me backward, out of my wheelchair, as the show went off the air. But the fan noise was so loud I couldn't hear my cue. Instead of the show ending with Shawn nailing me, we went off the air with me dressing him down. I felt bad about it, but Shawn thought I did it on purpose and was furious. I told him that they had the footage of him Superkicking me out of my wheelchair, which they could replay all week on Vince's other shows. And they did- Over and over."
May 19 1997-Raw, one week later
HBK-"The next week, I cut a televised promo on him and made the comment that he had been seeing "Sunny Days", exposing what I believed was his secret relationship with Tammy Sytch (Sunny). Many in the locker room found it to be very amusing, but Bret didn't speak to me for a couple of weeks."
[B]Bret-"During an in-ring interview in the first half of the night, Shawn was groggy and slurring his words. As I climbed into the ring with the Hart Foundation to open the second half, Shawn appeared on the big screen, wasted, and suggested on live TV that I couldn't get it up for ten minutes and that I'd been having some "Sunny days", a blatant suggestion that I'd been sleeping with Sunny. I couldn't hear him well because it was so noisy in the ring, so the remark sailed right over my head. When the interview was over, most of the boys were seething at how unprofessional it was. Any hopes we had of working together went out the window. Shawn was so out of it that night, Hunter and Chyna had to help him out of the building that night."
June 9-Raw, The Fight
HBK-"I was in the dressing room when he [Bret] came up to me and said, "I just want to say....." I cut him off before he could finish. "Don't talk to me. You haven't said a word to me for three weeks. If you can't talk to me for three weeks, I don't want to talk to you now." I don't think Bret was used to people talking like that to him. About five minutes later, I was turning around to get some gear out of my bag and I felt somebody push me from behind. I turned around and Bret asked, "What's your F*cking problem?"
"You!" I yelled.
He tried to punch me but I peeled back and he missed. He pushed me again, and this time I stood up. He swung again and missed. The next thing I knew, he went for a Double Leg Dive. I caught him around the upper body and we went straight back through a piece of paneling. We had each other in front face locks when Pat Patterson and Davey Boy came over and grabbed us. Pat was yelling, "Come on, you guys!" I let go and Bret yanked a handful of my hair off my head. That hurt like heck, but I didn't retaliate. The fight was over.
I went storming into Vince's office and told him, "I'm out of here, this is B.S.!" I saw Aldo Montoya- who later wrestled here as Justin Credible- and asked him if he'd give me a ride back to the hotel. He wasn't working that night so he took me. I missed the show and flew home the next day.
Vince sent my lawyer, Skip McCormick, a letter stating that I had violated my contract. Skip responded by writing a letter claiming that WWE had failed to provide a safe working environment. Skip told me that they were trying to blame everything on me, but once he wrote the letter, it would be back in thier lap and they would ask me to come back. That's exactly what happend. In a few weeks we had settled everything and I was back. As far as I know, nothing happend to Bret as a result of the fight."
Bret-"At about 6 p.m, I went into the bathroom to gel my hair before going across the hall to tape interviews. I was surprized to see Shawn's reflection go by me in the mirror. I could see he was uptight, so I smiled and casually said, "Hey Shawn...."
He cut me off. "F*ck you! You haven't talked to me in over a F*cking month, what makes you think I'm going to talk to you now?"
Shawn vanished through the doorway, past Crush, who was lacing his boots up and heard the whole thing. I set out to find Shawn but he was gone. I paced around the backstage area until Owen [Hart], Davey [Boy Smith, The British Bulldog], Jim [Niedhart] and [Brian] Pillman came to find me. "I know Shawn's watching from somewhere, waiting for me to leave this room," I said. "Ill bet you the second I walk out of here, he'll walk in. All his stuff is in here. Watch." I crossed the hall, walked into the interview room and cracked open the door to peek back out into the hall. Shawn strode past me into the dressing room. He was bent over fixing his boots when I marched straight up to him. I pushed him to his feet. "You got something to say to me?"
He flicked a weak punch at me and missed. Balancing awkwardely on my good leg, I popped him on the chin, rocking him on his heels. He came for me, so I grabbed him by his long mane and pretended I was doing a hammer throw at the olympics. I was dragging him around the room when a hysterical Pat [Patterson] and a frantic [Jerry] Lawler ran in and jumped on top of me. Unable to pry me off, Pat shouted for the other wrestlers to help, but Davey and Crush had no intention of saving Shawn. It was nothing but a scritch-fight really, but when we were finally seperated, clump's of Shawn's precious hair fell from my hands. I blasted him: "Don't F*ck with me or my family, you little F*cker."
Shawn looked ready to burst into tears as he stomped across the hall to Vince's office. Shouting loud enough for everyone to hear, Shawn quit, saying it was an unsafe working enviornment. Then he stormed off, slamming doors behind him."
Straight out of "Heartbreak & Triumph" The Shawn Michael's story, and "Hitman" the Bret Hart story, I present to you, controversy..................
After Ironman match at Wrestlemania 12
Bret-"In order to feed the supposed heat between us, I wouldn't be shaking his hand [Shawn Michaels] after he won. Instead I'd simply walk out, leaving the crowd to assume that I was really pissed off at the ref's decision. Shawn nodded and said, "No problem"."
HBK-"[People were congratulating me] About the only person I didn't see was Bret Hart. Usually, you shake hands with your opponent after the match and thank each other. I never saw Bret after the match, and he never said a word to me. Bret took off immediatly, and I wouldn't see him for another seven or eight months."
The "Curtain Call" incident
Bret-"Carlo [a friend] called me to tell me about the clique's last WWF show together at Madison Square Garden on May 19. After Shawn beat Diesel in a cage match, the two sworn enemies embraced in the ring, much to the confusion of the crowd. They were soon joined by Razor and Hunter, and then all four stood on the turnbuckles giving the fans the clique hand sign in what they thought was a glorious send off. Vince had already left the garden, when he found out what they had pulled, he was livid. Backstage the agents and the boys were up in arms, and rightfully so: They thought Vince should have nipped such behaviour in the bud. Vince reprimended all four of them, levying $2,500 fines, and he ordered Shawn and Hunter to apologize to thier fellow wrestlers. The other three had no excuse, but Shawn should have known this wasn't something the champion should do."
HBK-"Kevin [Nash] and I were standing at the curtain ready to go out for our match when Hunter came running up to us. "Are we going to do the thing?" he asked.
"What thing? What are you talking about?"
"The thing we talked about in Europe where we go out and say good-bye to the fans." Hunter never drank. He remembered everything.
"We don't know. We have a cage match. Go ask Vince if we can do it. If he says yes, come on out, we'll be there and we can do it."
"All right."
We had our match. I hit Kevin with the kick to win, and started celebrating. Kevin was still lying on his back when the next thing I know, here comes Scott [Hall] and Hunter to the ring. I thought, "I guess we're doing it." So I walked over to Kevin and gave him a big kiss. He rose up and I said, "They are coming down." Scott and Hunter came to the ring, and we all hugged and bowed to the fans. In wrestling terms, we broke kayfabe. We weren't playing heel and babyface. Our actions, our admission that we were friends, told the fans, the vast majority who already knew, that what we did for a profession was a work. The fans, for thier part, loved it. About a third of the sellout crowd was still there, and they were cheering thier tails off. When we came to the back, Vince asked me, "Was that important to you?"
"Yes, it was. I appreciate that. Thanks."
We hugged and he said, "Then it's important to me."
That's how we left it that night."
I LOST MY SMILE
HBK-"[HBK had tweaked his knee in an earlier match and went to check it out] I went to see my doctor. He took an MRI, looked at the results, and then said to me, "You will never wrestle again."
"What?"
"You have no ACL in there."
"I know. I've been wrestling for years with no ACL."
"You are not going to wrestle on it anymore. Your knee has deteriorated. You need a knee replacement."
I was devastated. He was a doctor, and I thought his word was final. I thought my career was over. At the next TV (Tapings), which was a special Thursday edition of Raw, I told Vince what my doctor had said. I broke down and started crying.
--
Vince felt for me. He knew how much wrestling meant to me. He told me no matter what happens, I'd always have a job here. Then he said, "We have to get the championship belt off you. We will make an announcement tonight." That night I went to the ring and told the world I was retiring. I told them I had lost my smile, that I just didn't have it in me to wrestle anymore. Vince and Gorilla Monsoon were in the ring with me. It was very emotional. It wasn't a work."
Bret-"On February 13, in Lowell, Massachusetts, the big news was that Shawn was forfeiting the world belt because he'd suddenly somehow sustained a career-ending knee injury and needed surgery. Taker looked at me like this was all bullshit and said, "I'll believe it when I see the scar. The little F*cker doesn't want to drop the belt." Taker, Sid [Vicious] and I headed down the hallway to Vince's office. Shawn and Hunter, Pat [Patterson], and [Jerry] Brisco were already there when we arrived. Vince seemed really upset that Shawn was hurt and was near to tears as he explained how I'd win the belt in the Final Four [PPV] for my fourth title reign.
--
Shawn did an in-ring interview that night that I watched on a TV monitor backstage along with the other wrestlers. He walked out without so much as a limp and with the heart-breaking trickle of the occasional tear, he talked of having lived his dream. Fans jeered him, so the cameras cut to close-ups of girls crying. He said he had to simply listen to his doctors. He'd not only hurt his knee, he had "Lost his smile" over the last few months and was going home to find it. Every wrestler standing with me rolled his eyes as Shawn forfeited the title, handing the belt to Vince, who was caked in make-up and looked peculiarly Dracula-like as he, too, appeared to be fighting back tears. I'd worked a tag team match with Shawn at the Meadowlands only three days before, and there was nothing wrong with his knee. He hadn't wrestled since. I found myself agreeing with Taker-I'll believe this bullshit when I see the scar."
May 12 1997-Raw
HBK-"Bret was such a hypocrite. He said it was over. We shook hands and I though we had finally put it all behind us. (According to Shawn Michael's book, Bret Hart at any chance he got buried HBK. Michael's was mad and on this day, he said he talked to Bret who apologized and said it was over with) Bret and I were scheduled to do an interview segment. It was supposed to be a wrestling promo. He talks bad about me and then I talk bad about him. That's how it works. Well, he went on his tirade and just didn't stop. It was a while before I got my rebuttal in. As I made my way backstage, someone had told me that he had gone so long they had to go off the air before I spoke. So the whole time, viewers saw me standing there looking like an idiot. I was furious. He [Bret] had done it to me for the last time."
Bret-"At the end of the show, with the idea that I'd soon be working with Shawn at King of the Ring, I called Shawn out to the ring. The last 30 seconds were supposed to be mine, and then Shawn would give me his Superkick, toppling me backward, out of my wheelchair, as the show went off the air. But the fan noise was so loud I couldn't hear my cue. Instead of the show ending with Shawn nailing me, we went off the air with me dressing him down. I felt bad about it, but Shawn thought I did it on purpose and was furious. I told him that they had the footage of him Superkicking me out of my wheelchair, which they could replay all week on Vince's other shows. And they did- Over and over."
May 19 1997-Raw, one week later
HBK-"The next week, I cut a televised promo on him and made the comment that he had been seeing "Sunny Days", exposing what I believed was his secret relationship with Tammy Sytch (Sunny). Many in the locker room found it to be very amusing, but Bret didn't speak to me for a couple of weeks."
[B]Bret-"During an in-ring interview in the first half of the night, Shawn was groggy and slurring his words. As I climbed into the ring with the Hart Foundation to open the second half, Shawn appeared on the big screen, wasted, and suggested on live TV that I couldn't get it up for ten minutes and that I'd been having some "Sunny days", a blatant suggestion that I'd been sleeping with Sunny. I couldn't hear him well because it was so noisy in the ring, so the remark sailed right over my head. When the interview was over, most of the boys were seething at how unprofessional it was. Any hopes we had of working together went out the window. Shawn was so out of it that night, Hunter and Chyna had to help him out of the building that night."
June 9-Raw, The Fight
HBK-"I was in the dressing room when he [Bret] came up to me and said, "I just want to say....." I cut him off before he could finish. "Don't talk to me. You haven't said a word to me for three weeks. If you can't talk to me for three weeks, I don't want to talk to you now." I don't think Bret was used to people talking like that to him. About five minutes later, I was turning around to get some gear out of my bag and I felt somebody push me from behind. I turned around and Bret asked, "What's your F*cking problem?"
"You!" I yelled.
He tried to punch me but I peeled back and he missed. He pushed me again, and this time I stood up. He swung again and missed. The next thing I knew, he went for a Double Leg Dive. I caught him around the upper body and we went straight back through a piece of paneling. We had each other in front face locks when Pat Patterson and Davey Boy came over and grabbed us. Pat was yelling, "Come on, you guys!" I let go and Bret yanked a handful of my hair off my head. That hurt like heck, but I didn't retaliate. The fight was over.
I went storming into Vince's office and told him, "I'm out of here, this is B.S.!" I saw Aldo Montoya- who later wrestled here as Justin Credible- and asked him if he'd give me a ride back to the hotel. He wasn't working that night so he took me. I missed the show and flew home the next day.
Vince sent my lawyer, Skip McCormick, a letter stating that I had violated my contract. Skip responded by writing a letter claiming that WWE had failed to provide a safe working environment. Skip told me that they were trying to blame everything on me, but once he wrote the letter, it would be back in thier lap and they would ask me to come back. That's exactly what happend. In a few weeks we had settled everything and I was back. As far as I know, nothing happend to Bret as a result of the fight."
Bret-"At about 6 p.m, I went into the bathroom to gel my hair before going across the hall to tape interviews. I was surprized to see Shawn's reflection go by me in the mirror. I could see he was uptight, so I smiled and casually said, "Hey Shawn...."
He cut me off. "F*ck you! You haven't talked to me in over a F*cking month, what makes you think I'm going to talk to you now?"
Shawn vanished through the doorway, past Crush, who was lacing his boots up and heard the whole thing. I set out to find Shawn but he was gone. I paced around the backstage area until Owen [Hart], Davey [Boy Smith, The British Bulldog], Jim [Niedhart] and [Brian] Pillman came to find me. "I know Shawn's watching from somewhere, waiting for me to leave this room," I said. "Ill bet you the second I walk out of here, he'll walk in. All his stuff is in here. Watch." I crossed the hall, walked into the interview room and cracked open the door to peek back out into the hall. Shawn strode past me into the dressing room. He was bent over fixing his boots when I marched straight up to him. I pushed him to his feet. "You got something to say to me?"
He flicked a weak punch at me and missed. Balancing awkwardely on my good leg, I popped him on the chin, rocking him on his heels. He came for me, so I grabbed him by his long mane and pretended I was doing a hammer throw at the olympics. I was dragging him around the room when a hysterical Pat [Patterson] and a frantic [Jerry] Lawler ran in and jumped on top of me. Unable to pry me off, Pat shouted for the other wrestlers to help, but Davey and Crush had no intention of saving Shawn. It was nothing but a scritch-fight really, but when we were finally seperated, clump's of Shawn's precious hair fell from my hands. I blasted him: "Don't F*ck with me or my family, you little F*cker."
Shawn looked ready to burst into tears as he stomped across the hall to Vince's office. Shouting loud enough for everyone to hear, Shawn quit, saying it was an unsafe working enviornment. Then he stormed off, slamming doors behind him."