WrestleMania 13 classic between Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin worthy of Hall of Fame status

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For the first time in WWE history, a match will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as an “Immortal Moment”: The legendary match between Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart and Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13.

This match is widely regarded as one of the greatest in WWE history and it played a pivotal role in the trajectory of both Steve and Bret’s careers, helping set the stage for the Attitude Era, which was boiling to the surface at the time of this classic.

Former WWE Superstar and current WWE producer TJ Wilson couldn’t contain his excitement when I asked him about his thoughts on this match going into WWE Hall of Fame.

“I first watched Bret Hart and Steve Austin live at WrestleMania 13, when I was 16 years old,” TJ recounted. “It was always etched into my memory as a perfect match. I don’t think there’s any wasted movement in that match. I think everything they did in the ring had a purpose.

“Many years later, I was afraid to watch it back because I thought, after years of growing and learning in the business myself as a wrestler and now as a producer backstage with WWE, maybe the match was ‘better’ in my young imagination.

“I was extremely happy to be proven wrong. The match holds up today in my opinion as the perfect match. It feels like such an intense fight and it has elements of a technical match, but for the most part it’s a beautiful fight with incredible emotions and storytelling from both men.”

Bret, my uncle, still recalls the match with great reverence and fondness.

“It was, to me, the highest level of professionalism that you can get in a professional wrestling match,” Bret said in an interview recently. “We both worked really hard. We took a lot of hard falls, large hits with a chair and stuff like that, but we also really protected each other and looked out for each other … That was maybe the best match ever.”

This match was pivotal for both Bret and Steve in their careers. For Austin, it marked a turning point, establishing him as the ultimate anti-hero “good guy” in WWE.

For Hart, it cemented his position as being one of the best to ever do it and it marked a shift toward Bret’s “bad guy” persona.

Behind their intense performances in the ring, Hart and Austin told a powerful story that allowed everyone to remember the match all these years later.

Steve has said “Our feud changed everything. I got busted open, turned babyface. It was so paramount in the importance of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin getting over.”

A few years ago, Bret’s daughter, Jade, approached me about helping her with a special birthday gift for her dad. She told me that one of her dad’s favorite matches was his WrestleMania 13 match against Steve Austin.

Jade said she wanted to get a picture of the match and get Steve to sign it for Bret and they could put it up in Bret’s restaurant, named Hitman’s Bar in his hometown of Calgary.

I reached out to Steve and he said he would absolutely love to be a part of the birthday gift and considered it such an honour.

We sent him a photo of Bret locking Steve in the Sharpshooter and Steve “fighting for his life.”

The photo, a powerful image of the very last moments of the match, spoke a thousand words. Steve wrote on the photo “Bret, thank you for the match of a lifetime. This was the match that made Stone Cold.

“It was always a pleasure and an honour to work with you. Your friend, Stone Cold Steve Austin.”

If you’ve never watched it, it is must-see wrestling.

The ending of the match saw Austin, bloodied, but refusing to tap to Hart’s Sharpshooter, eventually passing out from blood loss.

From the start of the match itself to its conclusion, the camera work, the commentary, it truly was a masterpiece, befitting of the WWE Hall of Fame.

The match’s brutality and intensity, combined with its storytelling, raised the bar for in-ring performances. It contributed to the evolution of the “Attitude Era,” which transcends this match’s fame beyond its time.

Fans around the world continue to celebrate its excellence nearly three decades later, making it such an amazing part of WWE history.

The induction into the WWE Hall of Fame will take place on Friday, April 18, at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas, preceding WrestleMania 41. Both Hart and Austin will attend the ceremony.