The WWE has had more than their share of historic matches and feuds, and Shawn Michaels has been in a few of them.
One of those was his Iron Man match with Bret Hart for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 12 where Shawn Michaels won his first world title. This was the first Iron Man match in the WWE, and it’s noted for going the full 60 minutes in a scoreless tie.
Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart’s Iron Man Match was to Earn a Badge of Honor with the Oldtimers
Bret was heading to the back after retaining the title due to the match being a draw when it was announced the match would be extended into sudden death. Michaels eventually won the title for the first time. But there was more to it.
Badge of honor
There was a time when hour long matches were pretty regular with some of the greats making their names with them, and being part of one in a pay-per-view is a huge challenge.
Michaels talked about this in an interview on Games with Names Podcast with Julian Edelman.
“I know that this was something that Pat Patterson wanted – to have an iron man match. Brett and I felt like we were the two guys that could do it, but at that time in the business, having an hour match on pay per view is a huge ask. Can you keep them interested for an hour? From the old school guys, there was always a badge of honor that you wore if you could go out here and do an hour. Growing up in the business, you would hear stories from guys, Flair, Harley Race, Jack Brisco… It was one of those things you wanted to be able to say in 1996.”
While they earned the badge of honor they wanted, the match also went down as one of the greatest in WWE’s history, it also was a passing of the torch in a way.
Bret was always an old school style of wrestler while Michaels was one of the newer, more athletic wrestlers that are common place anymore.
There are many that will point to Shawn Michaels’ run as WWE Champion as one of the poorer drawing wise and that’s not wrong as there were numerous reasons for it.
Michaels has dealt with a lot of demons over the years to become the man he is, but there’s one thing no one can take away from him is the top moments in WWE he crafted with Bret Hart.
What did you think about Bret and Michaels’ Iron Man match? Let us know in the comments below.
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