More than 25 years after their epic showdown at WrestleMania 13, Bret “Hitman” Hart and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin will be honored with the inaugural “WWE Immortal Moment” award at the 2025 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony at Fontainebleau Las Vegas next Friday night.
The honor of being the very first match inducted into the Hall of Fame isn’t lost on Hart, and he stands steady in his belief that it’s not only the best match of his career, but the best match ever–bar none.
“I defy anybody to put up another match from any other generation going back to Lou Thesz and Harley Race. Give me a match, show me a match that’s better than that one. I don’t think you’ll find one. And it stands on its own,” Hart says.
While the outcome was memorable, Hart and Austin lacked confidence that their “I Quit” match could live up to the expectations that came with their heated rivalry. The stipulation was meant to culminate months of tension between the former champion and the man who’d quickly become the WWE’s antihero.
Hart says that eliminating the possibility of pinfalls removed a big part of the “suspense and the storytelling” that came with pro wrestling matches. He had seen first-hand the impact “I Quit” stipulations could have, resulting in what he calls one of his worst WrestleMania matches against Bob Backlund just two years prior.
“I remember distinctly sitting with Steve at ringside, sitting there going, ‘What kinda holds you got?’ I said I got a sleeper, I got a figure four, I got a sharpshooter, and it’s like Steve named a couple, he didn’t even name very many,” Hart says.
“And I remember (thinking) it’s not gonna be very good. What are we gonna do?”
As Hart began putting the match together with Austin, he reflected on an eighth-grade school fight between a new kid and the “toughest guy in the school in my grade.” He used that fight as a launching point for how they’d structure a knock-down, drag-out fight designed to capture the audience’s attention from the opening bell.
If they were going to be successful, Hart felt like the match had to start off with a bang, with Austin attacking him and the duo brawling around the ring right out of the gate. At the time, fighting through the crowd didn’t happen, Hart says, and they had to get approval from Vince McMahon to do so.
“When they gave us the green light to brawl through the crowd, that kind of helped set the pace. We started the match with a barn burner. We brawled all the way through the crowd and came back to the ring, and then we got back to the story,” Hart says.
That opening helped Hart and Austin structure a perfectly-paced match, where every move mattered and captivated the audience. It was a balanced mix of technical wrestling and violence. Weapons were introduced. Hart remembers a particularly painful crash into hockey boards. Austin took a backdrop onto the cement stairs. The action built like a beautiful car crash—chaotic, brutal, and somehow poetic—as it escalated with every passing minute.
“I don’t think there’s a wasted move or one that takes away from the story. Every single move fits in perfectly. I think Steve would say the same,” Hart says.
“The beauty of that whole match, it’s so freaking real. It’s just so intense that you put it side-by-side with a good UFC fight and you go, that’s what pro wrestling is. It’s this beauty of trust and respect, and it’s a painting of violence. I say all that because I know we gave so much to each other in that match and tried so hard.”
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The blurring of the lines of what wrestling would become was on full display that night in 1997. For Hart and Austin, they knew blood wasn’t allowed at the time. But that didn’t stop them from pushing the envelope to create what would become arguably Austin’s most iconic moment and one that would live in WrestleMania lore.
“The blood, for example, which was taboo, we both could have gotten into a lot of trouble. That wasn’t allowed; no more blood anymore in wrestling, period,” Hart says.
“And I’m sure if either one of us had approached Vince McMahon about, ‘We think it would be a good idea if there was a little blood in this match,’ he would’ve said no. And if he had said no, it wouldn’t have been as good a match. We might not even be talking about it today. But it was. I knew that it was important, so we did it.”
As Austin bled in the middle of the ring, Hart knew this was their moment to pull off the double turn and flip the crowd’s emotions. The night had started with fans cheering for the Hitman—but by the final stretch, they were fully ready to rally behind Austin.
“That’s the small detail and the intricacy of the work that we did of how beautiful that story is told. And I knew when I did it, when I put my fist down and pushed back up and put him back in the sharpshooter, that it was like we did it. This is a masterpiece,” Hart says.
“That’s to me, that’s why I’m so proud of the match. If you had told me 25 years ago that someday it’s gonna be inducted as the number one match, the first match to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, it wouldn’t have been a surprise to me.”
Hart’s lasting legacy can and will be felt across the wrestling industry, now and for decades to come. It goes far deeper than simply this match with Austin, than CM Punk giving his verbal praise, or Kevin Owens wearing Bret Hart gear backstage. It’s about Hart’s impact on today’s wrestling style that he says he’s most proud of.
“I think, right off the top, I say, nobody’s wrestling like Hulk Hogan anymore,” Hart says.
The bear hugs and the leg drop, the “million dollar bodies” that focused on how big their arms are, aren’t the focal point across the wrestling landscape any longer.
“It suddenly became about the wrestling and the work rate and the storytelling,” Hart continues.
He says the industry has moved on from “the dinosaurs like Hulk Hogan.”
“Hulk Hogan in a lot of ways was a great wrestler. When I watched him wrestle Andre the Giant, that’s such a great match,” Hart adds.
“I think I brought something different. Mr. Perfect, my brother, Owen, we started to change wrestling and bring a much more technical or dramatic flair to the style and storytelling that went back more to the Harley Races and the Terry Funks.”
Hart thinks wrestling improved progressively every year from the 1980s to the 1990s, and the “nineties were the greatest wrestling era.”
He says guys like Roman Reigns and CM Punk have incorporated more of his style, of Shawn Michaels, Owen Hart, and Mr. Perfect, into what they do onscreen. And it’s guys like that who have the ability to potentially one day top the magic he was able to create in the ring with Austin.
“With all respect to all the young wrestlers today, I’ve never seen anyone that told a better story than the one I had with Steve,” Hart says.
“And I hope there’s wrestlers out there that will take the initiative to say, I’m gonna have a better match than what Bret Hart and Steve Austin had. I’m gonna top it. And I wish them all the best. I cheer them on and I’m looking forward to watching that. And I know somebody, somewhere is gonna do it. Maybe it’s just my ego, but nobody’s ever topped that match yet.”
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