WrestleMania 13: He never gave up

March 23rd, 1997

Location: Rosemont, Illinois

Venue: Rosemont Horizon

Attendance: 18,187

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It's day 13 in the WrestleMania review marathon, and our next stop in the journey takes us back to the Rosemont Horizon, one of the three locations for WrestleMania 2.

It was around this time that the WWF started to get a bit edgier with its content. It would be another step towards the dawn of an era that involved a bit of attitude (if you catch my drift).

​All it took was a bloody face in agony.

The lead up to WrestleMania 13 was a weird one. I say this because the night's two biggest matches were impacted by events that began at the Royal Rumble. The Royal Rumble winner never ended up facing the WWF Champion, despite being granted that opportunity.

It started such a whirlwind that I can only go into detail later on in the post because of how complex the situations were.

In the commentary booth, Jim Ross returned to help call the show. For the first time since WrestleMania 9, there was a 3-man team with Ross joining Vince McMahon and Jerry "The King" Lawler.

WrestleMania 13 featured many stars that we know today who made their first appearance on the big stage. They include Rikishi (The Sultan), John Bradshaw Layfield (Blackjack Bradshaw), Chyna, and Faarooq.

The biggest name to make his WrestleMania debut would be Rocky Maivia, or as we all know him today, The Rock. He entered the Rosemont Horizon as the Intercontinental Champion, having defended it against The Sultan. At the end of the match, The Sultan and his manager, The Iron Sheik, began to attack Maivia.

In a surprise appearance, the father of Maivia, legend Rocky Johnson, came down to help his son. The two shared a special father-son moment in the ring, attacking Sheik together. Of course, nobody knew in 1997 that Rocky Maivia would be the next big star.

There's nothing else worth mentioning from this WrestleMania as it's time to get into the show's more important details. Rather than going with three moments, only two stood out from the rest of the pack.

​That being said, before I do, I need to explain the backstory that ties both of these moments together, or I'll be repeating myself. Let's get into it.

A royal controversy

The 1997 Royal Rumble was, at the time, the largest in history as the January pay-per-view headed to San Antonio's Alamodome. It was the first time that the Royal Rumble was held in a stadium. After all, everything is bigger in Texas?

In the 30-man Royal Rumble match, the final four consisted of The Undertaker, Vader, Bret Hart, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

Hart had thrown Austin over the top rope, which eliminated him. However, none of the referees saw Austin fly out.

As soon as Austin noticed, he crept back in, eliminated both The Undertaker and Vader and eventually Hart. The referees saw all that unfold and announced Austin as the winner, who was granted the right to face the WWF Champion at WrestleMania 13.

​Due to the controversy, WWF President Gorilla Monsoon announced that his championship opportunity was nullified despite being the official winner.

Meanwhile, hometown hero Shawn Michaels would overcome Psycho Sid and win his second WWF Championship in the main event.

A few weeks later, however, Michaels announced that he needed to vacate his title due to a knee injury and that he "lost his smile." As I mentioned when I wrote about WrestleMania 10, Michaels hated losing and did not want the glory taken away from him behind the scenes.

Rumor had it that Michaels refused to drop the belt to Bret Hart in a planned rematch. It's been said that his retirement in 1997 was a ruse to avoid those situations.

Now, the WWF Championship was vacant. At the "In Your House: Final Four" pay-per-view, a Four Corners Elimination match between Hart, Austin, 'Taker, and Vader took place to see who would leave with gold.

In the closing moment, Hart last eliminated 'Taker to become WWF Champion.

The next night on Monday Night Raw, Hart accepted Psycho Sid's challenge for the title. Austin interfered and cost Hart the title as Sid was champion once again. That moment set up Bret Hart to take on Steve Austin at WrestleMania.

The same night, Undertaker was named the number one contender to now Sid's championship, setting up their match on the grand stage.

With those explanations, time to get into what went down in those matches.

The dead has risen

I'm starting with the main event of WrestleMania 13, rather than saving it for last. The match did close the show, but it wasn't the most significant moment of the night.

​Psycho Sid entered WrestleMania as the WWF Champion for the first time in his career. He was somebody who continuously stated he wasn't afraid of the darkness. That darkness being The Undertaker.

Before WrestleMania, the Undertaker didn't have too much success when it came to the title. He did win it back in 1991, but the reign only lasted six days after controversial events occurred, which led to WrestleMania 8.

Jumping ahead to 1994, Undertaker received another opportunity against Yokozuna at the Royal Rumble in a casket match. However, thanks to interference, 'Taker was put inside the casket, costing him the match.

In other words, The Undertaker couldn't win the big one. Of course, on the bright side, at least he had the title match at an event where all he's done is pull out wins (five to be exact).

Just as the match was starting, Bret Hart came running down to the ring to have a few words with Sid, Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels, who was doing guest commentary.

Hart called out Shawn and his knee injury, telling 'Taker was no longer his friend and how he'll eventually beat up Sid when the time had come.

Sid had enough, power bombed Hart, and the main event was underway.

Here's the one thing about early Undertaker matches, they weren't the greatest. Not saying that this match against Sid was atrocious, mind you. There weren't too many moments that stood out at WrestleMania 13 when it came to the main event. Instead, the excitement picked up in the final five minutes.

Undertaker set up Sid for his Tombstone Piledriver to seal it, but Sid flips him over and executes his a Piledriver of his own. Sid even pinned 'Taker the way that he would before the deadman kicked out.

That's when things went odd as both men headed outside of the ring. Out of nowhere, Hart came running in with a chair to slam Sid.

If that wasn't enough, once Sid regained control and had Undertaker in position to do his signature powerbomb, Bret once again came back to try and get a piece of the champion.

Thanks to the distraction, Undertaker was able to capitalize, perform his Tombstone, and became the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion.

It's been said that 13 is the number of bad luck. Not for The Undertaker. For only the second time in his career, the World Wrestling Federation's phenom was on top of the mountain.

WrestleMania 13 closed with the sight of him down on one knee, holding his most coveted prize as the lights faded and darkness overcame the Rosemont Horizon.

Bret Hart aside, there was no ridiculous outcome that would have prevented The Undertaker from holding the WWF Championship. He would have his long-awaited moment with the title. More importantly, he remained undefeated at WrestleMania, and the streak grew to 6-0.

"Austin's unconscious!"

The rivalry between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Bret Hart was at an all-time high. Hart grew into a bitter, sour loser who thought he deserved the utmost respect in the WWF.

After Austin won the Royal Rumble match, Bret stormed to the commentary table where he grabbed Vince McMahon in anger, asking him to do something about the controversial win. He would also begin to throw referees and small monitors around. Simply put, this man was pissed.

When Austin cost Bret the WWF Championship the night after he won the Four Corners match at In Your House, how did you think he reacted? Instead, how would anybody, who's already shown signs of anger, react to anything?

In response, Bret challenged Stone Cold to a match that only he knew he could perform at his very best, a submission match. With Austin not being known to be a submission specialist, or even know submission holds, he agreed to the match, and the date was set for WrestleMania 13.

​To give the match a bit more excitement, Ultimate Fight Champion's Ken Shamrock was the special guest referee. Eventually, he would join the company on a full-time basis.

The bell rang, and right off the bat, Hart and Austin held nothing back, taking their fight to the crowd to start. Fans in the stands loved it as they barely gave them room while they were exchanging blows.

It wasn't until they got back to the ring when things start to get intense, or violent, if you will.

As Hart continued to target Austin's left leg, which had a knee brace, the Hitman began striking the injured leg with a chair. Eventually, Austin gained momentum and began using the chair himself to weaken Hart.

Austin did end up using a few submissions, but nothing that budged Hart into giving up. Bret got to the best of Austin when he threw him towards the commentary area, causing him to profusely bleed thanks to a cut on his head.

In the final moments of the match, Hart was able to put Stone Cold into his Sharpshooter submission hold, which created another WrestleMania moment.

With Austin screaming in pain and the blood running down his face, he continued to hang on and tried to find a way to get out of it.

Suddenly, Austin stopped moving and laid in the ring in his puddle of blood. With Shamrock asking if he submits, Austin was unresponsive as the guest referee had no choice but to ring the bell and declare the Hitman the winner.

​Jim Ross began to yell in his headset, "Austin's unconscious! Austin never gave up! He never gave up!" as Hart was walking around the ring with a smug look.

However, Bret didn't think it was enough and started to stomp Austin's injured leg again. After Shamrock tried to hold Hart back, he picked him up and tossed him across the ring. Any fans that were left cheering Bret began to boo as the Calgary native left in disgust.

Referee Mike Chioda came running down to Austin to check upon him. When Austin woke up, he hit a stunner on Chioda around and left on his own two feet. Any fans that were left booing Austin suddenly began to cheer after putting up one heck of a battle.

The submission match would end up being considered one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time. After WrestleMania 13, Hart would decline, but "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would continue to rise.

Final thoughts

WrestleMania 13 as a whole isn't exactly one of the best ones. It was mediocre at best. Yet ironically, it gave us one of the best matches of all time. Bret Hart and Steve Austin gave us a 5-star caliber match at an event that isn't known for too much else.

That match also opened the door for more ways to get the crowd very involved. Everybody would end up enjoying that "no holds barred" style match. The WWF continued to progress forward with that kind of "edgy" content. If the crowd reacted strongly to a match like that, McMahon probably wondered, "let's see what else we can do."

This would also be Bret Hart's final WrestleMania until 2010, as eight months later, the most scrutinized event known as the "Montreal Screwjob" would go down at the Survivor Series.

With WrestleMania 13 being a moderate success, the WWF went full force into its "Attitude Era" and attracted fans like never before.

But with a new era on the horizon, that meant that there needed to be an individual who could easily capture the hearts of fans and consistently be on top. They needed somebody who could face authority and not let anybody get in their way.

​In other words, a tough S.O.B.

Results:

​- The Headbangers (mosh and Thrasher) def. Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon, The Godwins (Henry and Phineas) & The New Blackjacks (Bradshaw and Windham) - Fatal-four-way elimination match for #1 contenders to WWF Tag Team Championship

- Rocky Maivia (c) def. The Sultan - WWF Intercontinental Championship

- Hunter Hearst Helmsley def. Goldust

- Owen Hart & British Bulldog (c) def. Mankind and Vader - WWF Tag Team Championship

- Bret Hart def. Stone Cold Steve Austin - Submission match

- Ahmed Johnson & Legion of Doom (Animal & Hawk) def. Nation of Domination (Crush, Faarooq & Savio Vega)

- The Undertaker def. Psycho Sid - No disqualification match for WWF World Heavyweight Championship

Rating: C+

Thanks for reading. Look out for tomorrow when I take a look at WrestleMania 14.

22 days away until WrestleMania 35.