NOTE: Any possible SBD made by this post will be donated to Jason Solomon, the host of the Solomonster Sounds Off podcast (http://solomonster.podbean.com/) an excellent, weekly pro wrestling podcast that you should check out if you're into said form of entertainment. Jason has been struck with health woes recently, and I wish to donate as much as I can. I also wanted to write something, so this seems to make perfect sense.

I will naturally provide proof of this.

This is Part II of my Story of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart, check out Part I if you're interested.

Chapter 6: After the Screwjob

We ended Part I in November 1997, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Bell Centre, to be exact.

Bret Hart had just been screwed out of the WWF championship for real, or "as a shoot", as it would be put in wrestling terms, by company owner Vince McMahon and fellow wrestler Shawn Michaels.

This was the result of Bret Hart exercising a right granted to him by a clause in his contract, which gave him creative control over his television character. Bret chose to use the clause in his last match with the company, where he refused to lose the scheduled match to Shawn Michaels.

A lot of discussion, almost an endless amount of it, has been had about the Screwjob. Who was in the right, who was in the wrong. Why did it come to that. And so on.

I want to review all of the parties involved: Bret, Shawn and Vince.

Bret was off to make $9 million during a three year contract in WCW, after making around $1 million a year in the WWF, so, on the surface, it can feel weird to complain about the end result of a fake wrestling match, when you're about to triple your million dollar paycheck. However, even though I feel the same way on one hand, on the other it has to be understood that the WWF was Bret's working place since 1984. And during the 13 years in the company, he gave his body and his heart in the ring, to line Vince's pockets with money. He wrapped up his injured knees, only took one break, was on the road almost nonstop for 300+ days a year. Away from home, away from his wife and kids, for 13 years.

I also don't want to fail to mention that Bret's on record saying that he considered Vince a second father figure. They had a deep trust relationship between them, Vince having bought Bret's father Stu's company Stampede Wrestling in the early 80s, and offering Bret a job. Bret was also the main man during WWF's down turn, so they went through tough times together, and there are human relationships that can only be former during tough times like that.

Bret can be criticized for being unprofessional regarding his last match with the company, since in wrestling, whenever you are leaving a company, especially if you're leaving for greener pastures, you are expected to lose to someone staying with the company, making that individual look good so that that individual can be a star. The problem is that that individual was chosen to be Shawn Michaels, who had disrespected Bret on numerous occasions, including just prior to their match, when Shawn, being a jackass, told Bret that he would never lose to him, even if he was told to.

Bret thought much of his role as a hero figure to the fans, and was very protective of his character. Even though he had been made a bad guy on television to the American fans, Bret was one of wrestling history's biggest stars in Canada, and he felt that losing to someone like Shawn Michaels, who nobody liked in 1997, in Canada, would leave a sour taste in the fans' mouths. It was important to him leave "on a high note".

I'm of the mindset that Bret probably should have agreed to lose that match, as he could have had an emotional send off after it, since the fans pretty much knew that it was his last match with the company, but I can understand the mindset of "f*ck this guy" since Shawn had said that he would not do the same for Bret.

Also, the biggest thing to remember is that Bret had it in his contract that he could refuse something like that. It was a legally binding contract, offered to him voluntarily by Vince McMahon. And as we all know, people with power act differently than they otherwise would. Bret was given the power to do this, so he acted accordingly. More on this later, as we get to Vince.

Shawn Michaels, one could argue, was just doing his job. Shawn was told by Vince that he was going to screw Bret, and he expected Shawn to do his role, as he laid out how the match was going to go. A lot of us can understand doing your job, since very few of us are in any position to argue with our boss, who we need more than he needs us. Thing is, at this point, Shawn was in a position to argue with Vince, since Vince was just about to lose one his biggest stars to the rival company, so Shawn had all the leverage in the world to disagree with Vince. There was no way on earth that Vince would have allowed himself to lose Shawn, because he was losing in the war against WCW, and was close to bankruptcy as it was.

Just like with Bret, I can see both sides with Shawn, as well. He had a job to do, and he did it. Just like most of us would do at our work places. However, the other side of the story is that Bret was his co-worker. Despite all the bad blood between them, wrestling is still, and especially was back then, a boys vs. the office type of world. Promoters run their workers to the ground, and care about you as long as you have a dollar sign attached to you - once you don't, you're gone. Just like Bret was. In my eyes, Shawn should have seen the part of it that would have made him realize that it could very well be Shawn in Bret's position - and as we get further on with the story, he pretty much will be.

Shawn decided to side with the promoter, and lie to Bret's face - and despite the fact that it was part of his job to lie, he still lied, and it's hard to respect that.

That said, in Shawn's eyes, the fact that Bret refused to do the traditional thing and lose on his way out, so to speak, he felt that Bret disrespected the entire wrestling business. Wrestlers have this obsession with "THE BUSINESS" where you're supposed to things the way they're done in "THE BUSINESS", and since Bret refused to do the right thing for "THE BUSINESS", he, in Shawn's mind, deserved to get business done for him.

And there's no doubt in my mind that Shawn got some amount of enjoyment out of the fact that he got to have the last laugh on Bret. He may not admit it, but that's my thought.

Ultimately, the guilty party in all of this was Vince McMahon. Everything that happened could have been avoided had Vince not been stupid enough to offer his employee legal creative control that would allow him to call his own shots. In the end, that's what it comes down to. Vince had a reason to be concerned: prior to the Montreal Screwjob, WWF Women's champion Madusa had made the jump from the WWF to WCW, taking her title belt with her - throwing it in the trash on live television. This resulted in the WWF looking foolish and WCW looking like the superior product, since a champion jumped ship, to throw away title belt she felt was worthless. Vince was never going to allow a similar scenario to happen again - especially not with his main heavyweight champion, a face of the brand.

Bret has said on numerous occasions that he never would have disrespected the WWF on WCW television, since he had so much respect for the company, and Vince, and was thankful for the opportunities given to him there. And based on everything I've seen, read and listened to from Bret, I believe him. He was far too much of a traditionalist to act in such a trashy - pun intended - manner.

But Vince was in a tough spot, and the call was made. But I can't overstate the fact that all of this was just a result of a bad business call made by Vince: all wrestlers have egos, and if you give a wrestler with an ego the power to control his own destiny, he will abuse that power. Just like people in general will always abuse power.

All in all, the situation was a mess. All parties can be blamed, all parties had faults, and no one was completely innocent. The fact is that it happened.

This would mark the last time in over a decade that Shawn and Bret would be in the same building.

Bret held strong, deep resentment towards both Vince and Shawn over what happened. He shed tears in the ring after realizing that he had been lied to and screwed over by them. At first, Shawn was told to act as if he knew nothing about this, so that he could safely get out of the ring and not have Bret attack him and break his bones. Later on, Shawn confessed that he was in on the thing from the start.

Shawn would captain the WWF ship once again as its champion, and Bret would debut in WCW.

This moment in time would mark a turning point, where both men's lives would take two very different directions, both ending up as men that I respect immensely - but doing so by going through loss and heartache. And that is going to be the "topic" of Part II; not so much the wrestling storylines, or the in ring action, but the journeys that these men would take, the tragedies they would suffer - and where the roads would ultimately lead them.

Chapter 7:The Fall of Heroes

Bret arrived in WCW as the hottest thing in wrestling, having been involved in the real incident that had everyone talking: from the "marks" -who are fans not in the "know" about the scripted nature of pro wrestling - to the "smart fans", who are usually extremely jaded when it comes to wrestling, it was a talking point among everybody that Bret hard had been legitimately screwed out of the WWF championship, and came into WCW as the uncrowned champion.

Ironically enough, Bret's big debut in WCW was to get involved in an incident that is almost as famous as the Montreal Screwjob, and was a moment in WCW history that elicited similar controversy, and was in a lot of ways similar.

To fully explain Bret's journey to WCW, we have to take a slight detour to inspect the landscape in WCW at the time of Bret's arrival.

WCW had been riding extremely high ever since mid 1996, and their biggest storyline, one that had been running for about a year and a half, was going to come to conclusion that was going to be the crowning moment in company history. The storyline saw Hulk Hogan leading an anti-WCW faction called the New World Order, or "nWo" for short, as its champion, having held the WCW title hostage in a strangle hold for the majority of his time in the company. nWo were the bad guys dominating all things WCW, with no one being able to stand up to them. nWo had ganged up on everybody on the WCW roster, growing in numers and wreaking havoc that seemed to have no end in sight. The nWo storyline was massive success, turning WCW into a profitable, multi-million dollar company in 1996, the first time in company history.

But like in all stories, the hero has to prevail in the end.

The hero of the story was Sting. A WCW loyalist who, until very recently in 2014, was known as the biggest wrestling star to never work for Vince McMahon's WWF. With a character that was blatantly borrowed from the cult movie "The Crow", Sting played a dark, silent vigilante, who challenged the nWo after all other heroes had fallen. The build up to the Crow character had Sting not say a word for over a year, and instead of wrestling in the ring, he would appear in arenas up on the rafters. It was really cool wrestling storytelling that finally, after much anticipation for months and months, would culminate in a match at WCW's biggest event of the year, StarrCade in December 1997, between the Batman like hero Sting and the ultimate bad guy Hulk Hogan for the WCW championship.

The quintessential good guy versus the quintessential bad guy, with the good guy prevailing in the end, no strings attached, right? Well, not so fast.

Due to the signing of Bret, who was arguably the hottest thing in wrestling at the time, the decision was made to capitalize on Bret's value in the culmination of the Hogan vs. Sting storyline. Bret was assigned the job of special enforcer in the main event. The story being that Bret had gotten screwed over at the WWF, so he wanted to make sure that it doesn't happen again at WCW's StarrCade. It was a logical, sound story that made sense.

The problem is that in the wrestling business, egos, politics and backstabbing often gets in the way of great storytelling - especially in the case of one Terry "Hulk Hogan" Bollea.

Something to note here is that Hulk Hogan had previously been the WWF's flagship star throughout the 80s, all the way to 1993 when Hogan departed from the WWF - but not before refusing to lose the WWF title to Bret Hart, who at the time was emerging as the company's next big star. Hogan felt that Bret wasn't big enough, and opted to drop the title the 500 or so pound Yokozuna, instead. Hogan's refusal to put Bret over on his way had been a sore spot for Bret for years - which one can find ironic, considering the way Bret decided to go out of the WWF himself, but be that as it may.

So, the story was set: after the Hogan-led nWo faction had been dominating WCW for a year and a half, WCW's last standing hero, Sting, was going to dethrone Hogan, take his WCW championship and put an end to nWo's tyranny.

Unfortunately, instead of being the crowning moment that WCW was looking for, the match at StarrCade between Hogan and Sting will forever be etched in history as something that could have been, but wasn't.

Hogan was not happy about losing the title Sting. The story behind that is that Sting had been out of the ring for a year, only appearing in mute non-wrestling segments and up on the rafters of the arenas, to build his Crow character, someone who had been disillusioned by WCW and the wrestling business, someone who had depressed to see his friends and colleagues abandon WCW and join Hogan's nWo. Behind the scenes, the man behind the Sting character was also suffering through marital problems and drug addiction. His passive role on TV allowed him to indulge himself in his harmful habits, and when it got closer to ring time, Hogan felt that Sting had not been training hard enough, had an unimpressive physique and was too ring rusty to be a champion.

The story, as it was written, was to have Hogan pay off the referee of the match, Nick Patrick, who would fast count Sting as Hogan is covering him, and then for Bret to step in and restart the match with himself as the referee and then for Sting emerge as the victor in the end. This was supposed to play off the fact that Bret himself had been screwed over by a crooked referee, and the fans knew it.

The big problem was that during the match, Hogan did his finishing move on Sting and covered him, with Nick Patrick counting

1...2...3.

In a perfectly fine, normal manner.

What was supposed to be a fast count, with Sting getting unfairly screwed, turned out to be a normal count. So, in the eyes of everyone watching, Hogan just pinned the big hero Sting clean in the middle.

Bret then did his planned spot where he knocked out the referee and restarted the match, yelling to a microphone that "It's not gonna happen again" which most of the audience didn't even hear due to audio issues. The match proceeded with Sting taking Hogan out and getting the submission win over him with his Scorpion Deathlock, a move that's ironically basically the same move as the Sharpshooter.

Sting's big moment as WCW's hero was met with a confused crowd that got deflated after they saw Hogan getting the clean pinfall victory of Hogan, and while Sting was already a star, and would continue being a star, he was never quite the big star the storyline was supposed to make him.

So, what happened? The rumors at the time were that because Hogan was unhappy about dropping Sting the title, he pulled the referee Nick Patrick aside and convinced him to go against the script and make a slow count. Hogan knew that it would tarnish Sting's big win and make Hogan look better. Throughout his career, Hogan was the master of playing these sorts of politics.

One month removed from the Screwjob with Shawn Michaels, Bret was once again involved in a controversial moment that was brought up by internal politics.

It would also be a sign of things to come for Bret, since he would go on to have a rather uneventful career in WCW. Hogan was the head honcho, and still didn't see Bret as being on his level, and in WCW, if Hogan didn't like you, things didn't look good for you, since Hogan was on the ear of the boss constantly. For most of his time in WCW, Bret would flounder in meaningless matches and random storylines at the middle of the card. Rarely making an impact.

The future of things to come wasn't bright for Shawn Michaels, either, over the WWF.

Even though Shawn became the champion and was the top player in the coming months, and even got to get the last laugh on Bret in a segment where he put the Sharpshooter on a midget Bret Hart impersonator, not only were his pressure and drug problems mounting, in the coming January, a match with the Undertaker would be a life changer for him.

The match stipulation, taking place at the annual Royal Rumble event, in the San Jose Arena, January 18th 1998, was that of a Casket match where there is an open casket next to the ring and the goal is to put your opponent inside the casket and shut the lid.

During the match, Shawn took a back body drop over the top rope, and was supposed to fall over the casket, but fell short, slamming his lower back right on the edge of the casket, causing him to herniate two discs and crush one completely.

People can say what they say about Shawn Michaels, but he was a performer. He always believed in his heart that if people had paid to see him perform, he would perform. Not for the goodness of his heart, but because of the fact that underneath his cocky facade was an insecure 12 year old boy who wanted to be a wrestler and craved for vindication from the fans who appreciated his work ethic, as well as from his peers. Short of literally only two friends at the time, no one liked Shawn. But Shawn always made sure that no one had a bad thing to say about his in ring performances. So he gutted it out and finished the match as planned.

The next morning, Shawn has noted, it became clear that something was very wrong. And notShawn long after that, it became clear that he could no longer perform in the ring.

Shawn had always been an angry young man, but the realization that his in ring career was in serious jeopardy and probably coming to end made him even more of a bitter ass. His drug problems worsened and his personality became insufferable to those around him, moreso than it already was.

Shawn was scheduled to drop the title to the company's next big star Stone Cold Steve Austin, who Bret had put on the map the year prior, in two months and while he was unable to wrestle, he appeared on TV as the champion in a non-wrestling capacity. Despite his back, he was determined to have the match. Shawn had never had a problem vacating a championship due to injury, real or not, and surely wasn't going to have the match as a favor to Austin, but rather because of his bruised ego and the fact that he wanted to prove to everybody that he could do it.

Shawn's drug issues were even apparent on TV, as he would show on on camera clearly intoxicated, slurring his words and sometimes taking forever to get his point across through his ramblings. Shawn was drinking a dangerous cocktail of depression due to his ring career nearing its end, as well the pure physical pain of his back. The combination of the two made for a toxic man.

March 29th 1998, in the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, would mark would mark the date for WrestleMania XIV.

There had been doubts about Shawn appearing at the event, and one of Shawn's only friends at that time, Triple H, recalls having to talk Shawn into doing the match and behaving himself up until the ring bell, since Shawn had spiraled down so much.

You see, just months prior, Shawn had conspired against Bret in Montreal in the Screwjob, caused by the fact that Vince saw that Bret had lost his star power and was now going to be thrown in the garbage. Shawn now found himself in a similar position, as Vince was putting everything behind making Steve Austin the next Guy. Shawn, just like Bret, took offence to this, for the same reasons as Bret. Shawn had gone from being the top guy in the top company to looking retirement right in the eyes, and being seen as valueless by his boss, who he had worked so hard to impress. A broken toy, thrown away and being replaced by a new, more shiny toy.

Shawn, clearly in a great deal of pain, did business as was asked of him and lost the championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin, who would captain the sinking ship of the WWF to heights that the industry had not seen before, bigger than the heights to which Hulk Hogan had taken them in the 80s. Earlier on I said that Shawn got the last laugh on Bret. But if you look at it a certain way, you could argue that the guy who finally pushed Shawn to the side was the same guy that Bret Hart had made into a star the prior year in their match of the year classic.

The match between Austin and Shawn between Austin and Shawn was not a match of the year candidate, not even close. Shawn wasn't able to produce in the ring on the level he had always produced with his back. You could see in his eyes that he both in pain and intoxicated. He had a look on his face that was screaming - it was screaming in agony over his back, but also for the fact that he was having what he knew was the last match of his professional career. Watching the match, you can feel every bump Shawn takes, especially the ones he takes on his back.

Shawn was being either heroic or a fool - the line between the two is very thin - but he fought his way through the match right until the end, ending his career by taking the fall to Stone Cold Steve Austin, just as was asked of him.

Shawn would kick the door on his way out, literally. Shawn went home. His professional career had just crumbled right before his eyes, and he had no personal life outside of his professional life. The self pity led Shawn to mediacating his self pity by popping pills and more pills.

So, as 1998 began, both of our heroes had suffered a fall from grace: as Shawn Michaels lied drugged on his couch with a broken back, Bret was suffering the purgatory that was WCW politics, with his career rendered completely directionless. Even with all the bravado that he come in with, Bret was doing nothing but having pointless matches on TV, his passion lost and his heart no more in the game.

For both men, it would get worse before it would get better.

Chapter 8: A Death in the Family

I've often called Bret the world's unluckiest millionaire. WCW had the financial muscle of billionaire Ted Turner backing it up, so it had the ability to pay its wrestlers handsomely. Including Bret, who I mentioned earlier was making $3 million a year during his three year contract in WCW. This coupled with the fact that had actually had to work less than he worked in WWF made him a very lucky man on paper. However, despite its finances being on steroids, WCW lacked a lot of the wrestling prowess that the WWF possessed. Bret has gone on record saying that he hated most of his time in WCW, save a few moments here and there.

His biggest regret in joining WCW had nothing to do with wrestling storylines, though.

Bret's closest brother Owen also wrestled for the WWF, and had stayed with the company when Bret left.

Bret was always very protective of Owen, and had been ever since they were kids. Even though they were brothers, Owen was the polar opposite of his serious, all business brother Bret, and saw wrestling as his job, a way to make money and retire early.

In May 1999, the 34 year old Owen was contemplating retirement, and was ready to move on to spend more time with his family, having made his money. No one could foresee the tragedy that was about to take place. Owen was planned to make to a superhero like entrance to the ring from the rafters of the arena, wearing a harness that was supposed to lower Owen to the ring safely, but something in the harness triggered an early release, and Owen fell screaming for 78 feet, landing on the ring rope, which bounced him to the ring.

Owen died on impact.

Bret has often expressed great regret that he wasn't in the WWF at the time of the accident, because he feels that he would not have allowed his little brother to attempt the stunt. It's painful irony that Owen was closing in on a happy and healtht retirement, but fell to his end before he could enjoy what he had worked for.

The already bitter Bret got even angrier at the WWF, saying that Owen never should have allowed to do the spot and that the WWF was too careless, and what happened was inexcusable. This became another very sore spot in the relationship between Bret and the WWF.

I want to spend a little moment talking about Owen.

I've spent probably thousands of hours listening and reading wrestling interviews and books, watching shows, you name it, and I have never ran into a person who had a bad word to say about Owen Hart. His main mission whenever he was on the road with the crew was to make everybody laugh, to make people smile. He was a jokester, famous for his "ribs", which in wrestling mean pranks pulled on other wrestlers. They weren't malicious by nature, just something that made people laugh, even when they were extremely elaborate plots. He didn't take wrestling as seriously as his brother, but he was still a professional.

Owen and Bret are responsible for my own personal favorite match, taking place WWF's SummerSlam event in 1994.

Owen and Bret had had a long storyline where Owen was the jealous little brother of his successful brother, feeling that he lived in his shadow.

Bret played the responsible older brother who only wanted to make peace with Owen, but Owen could constantly spit on his face, finally forcing Bret to teach his brother a lesson. Prior to the culminating match at SummerSlam, Bret cut one his best promos, in my opinion, stating: "I don't hate you, Owen. I just feel sorry for you." I always found that part to be very powerful. Bret wasn't made at Owen, he was just disappointed, and was forced to take his brother to school, so to speak.

The storyline as a whole is one of my favorite ones, and was an example of how great wrestling storytelling can be when you have the right people playing the parts. The storyline was to conclude at SummerSlam in a cage match, a match where the two participants are surrounded by a cage, and you win by escaping the cage, with both feet touching the floor.

The special thing about this match, for me, is the fact that I saw it after the fact, knowing that Bret was the winner, since the match was for Bret's WWF title, and Owen was never the WWF champion. So, going into the match, I knew the result, which often can take away from the enjoyment somewhat. This case was different, though.

The main goal of a professional wrestling match is to work the audience into buying into it. That night, Bret and Owen worked such an amazing match, filled with convincing near escape spots that honestly made me doubt half way through the match that was I wrong in remembering that Owen was never the champion. His near escape spots were so well done, so perfectly timed that I bought into a bunch of them. The feeling of being absolutely "worked" into such a beautiful match is still one of my most dear memories as a fan of wrestling. I was on the edge of my seat watching a match that I already knew the outcome of - not many guys in the business can do that. Whenever Bret was about to escape, Owen got in at just the last second to pull him back, and whenever Owen was about to escape, he was a micro second away from escaping before being pulled back by Bret. The story of the match was emphasized by the fact that their family was there watching in the front row. The fact that their parents had to, in storyline, watch their two sons fight in a cage like animals gave the match a tragic feel, and it was great.

Cage matches are often hard to pull off, since a lot of the near escapes look fake and aren't time correctly, since it's obviously hard to pull off, but Bret and Owen made a masterful job of convincing me with every spot that "Okay, this is the one, this is it". I'm a fan of wrestling, but it's not like I get emotional about the matches often, but I sometimes do whenever discussing this match. Not just because it was a great match, but because there was something so beautiful in seeing these two brothers be such pros and working the match the way they did. They had a trust for one another, knew how the other brother worked, knew what each other were going to do, and were professionals all the way through, right until the very end, where Bret escaped the cage when the two brothers were hanging from the side of the cage, but Owen got his feet tangled between the cage and the ropes, and Bret was able to jump to the floor.

Thanks, Bret and Owen.

The tragic demise of Owen would not be the last tragedy to befall Bret in the coming years.

Chapter 9: The Brokeback Kid

After failed attempts to rehab his back, Shawn Michaels returned to the WWF in late 1998, but not as a wrestler. He was given an on screen role on television as a "commisioner", an authority figure who would make matches and stipulations and things of that nature.

People who were in the company at that time have noted that you never knew which Shawn would show up to work: you were either going to get annoying, bitter jerk Shawn, or a good guy Shawn - mostly the former, rarely the latter.

Shawn was still coping with the fact that he wasn't wrestling anymore, and no doubt being around the company and seeing others get int he ring was a tough pill to swallow for him.

Shawn would be in and out of the company, as his role as the commisioner didn't require him to be on TV every week. When at home, Shawn felt sorry for himself and mixed alcohol with drugs. When on TV, Shawn would insert some real life comments into his segments, often in a manner that let everyone know how much better he was compared to anyone actively wrestling in the company. It was easy to see that he wasn't a happy man. Even Bret Hart was the victim of some of Shawn's comments, even though Bret wasn't in the company anymore. And over at WCW, Bret did jab at Shawn, as well. Bret would also make numerous appearances at talk shows and newspapers where he would lambaste Shawn, calling him a two faced chickensh*t, among other things.

Shawn did experience a modicum of happiness in early 1999, when he got married to his wife Rebecca, to whom he is still married to. The marriage itself, at first, wasn't strong enough to keep Shawn from his narcotic habits, unfortunately. Luckily for Shawn, Rebecca was an understanding wife, and as we all know, behind every good man.. Rebecca would later on prove to be an important part in turning Shawn's life around, but that didn't happen yet in the 90s.

Shawn's TV appearances with the WWF would continue, and in late 1999, he would decide to open up a wrestling school that was responsible for training a number of names who would make careers in the WWF in the future, namely a guy named Bryan Danielson, who would become known by his nickname "Best in the World". It's a pretty good notch on Shawn's belt as a trainer.

Despite having what I believe was a $750,000 per year contract for non-physical appearances on TV, running his own training academy and marrying a beautiful wife, Shawn Michaels was still not a happy man. And I'd like to talk a little bit about how I view Shawn Michaels, the man, during this period in time.

As I've noted throughout the two parts, Shawn had few friends. He was tough to deal with, could take his ball and go home if things didn't go his way and throw hissy fits over the slightest inconveniences. All the while making close to a million a year.

However, I don't necessarily view Shawn as a "bad guy". If anything, he was immature. All he knew was wrestling, and in the world of wrestling, he was never the biggest guy, which usually meant that he wasn't going to be the number one choice as the face of a wrestling company. And that's what he wanted: he wanted to be the face. At first, it was the race to the top, which made him alienate people, since it required him to step on others. After that, he made it to the top, and the pressure of being on top was even harder on him than the fight to get there. After finally making it to the top and staying on top, he broke his back and was forced out of the ring.

Shawn had a great career up to that point and was considered by many to be one of the best, some even say the best, in ring performer of his generation, or even any prior generation. So, he had nothing to be ashamed of in regards to his career in wrestling. But he didn't get to leave on his terms. I believe that Shawn never really grew up from the boy who dreamed of becoming a wrestler, and once he got in the business, everything moved so fast that never really had the time to mature then, either.

Pro wrestler Raven has said that everyone in showbusiness is insecure. That's why they crave the spotlight and people paying attention to them: because deep down they want to know that they matter, they want the recognition from the people that what they're re doing is worth something - and their sense of self worth is completely dependent on the acceptance of the people watching them.

Some people are worse cases than others, and my estimation is that Shawn had a really bad case of insecurity and low self esteem.

My theory is - and this is somewhat backed by what Shawn has said - that a lot of people would be surprised by how much between Bret and Shawn could have been avoided had Bret told Shawn "Good job!" when Shawn carried the company as the champion. I'm convinced that Shawn was hungry for Bret's respect as "the man", because prior to their problems, Shawn had a great deal of respect for Bret. Bret did make mention of how Shawn was a great wrestler, but he never gave Shawn that personal, one on one "Hey, you're doing a good job" speech. And as with all human relationships, if you don't get positive attention, you're going to try to get negative attention - as long as you get attention.

Chapter 10: Bret Hart's Last Stand

Bret would take a break after Owen's death, and return to have a tribute match with fellow Canadian, and Hart Dungeon trainee Chris Benoit, who had also been close to Owen.

The match didn't really have a storyline, it was simply two friends performing a match in honor of Owen, simply billed as "the Owen Hart Tribute Match".

The match was a masterpiece, with both Bret and Benoit putting themselves on the line to put on a performance worthy of Owen's memory. After the match, the two friends embraced and shed tears, with Bret pointing to the heavens above.

It was one of those heart warming moments that pro wrestling can offer, even if it is a low brow form of entertainment. The wrestlers are human beings, with human emotions. It's sometimes easy to forget that in the midst of all the shenanigans and circus that take place.

In October 1999, WWF head writer Vince Russo made the jump to WCW.

Russo was not a fan of WCW's old guard occupying the main event scene, and to Russo's credit, was a major factor in Hogan being phased out of hogging the spotlight all the time. He will go down in history as one of the very rare individuals in the upper management of a wrestling company that has had the testicular fortitude, or balls if you will, to stand up to Hulk Hogan. Russo was also someone who saw Bret Hart as a star, having worked with him in the WWF. After Owen's passing Bret had contemplated early retirement, but decided to stick with it out of respect to his brother. The news of Owen's death also made Bret a sympathetic figure in the eyes of wrestling fans.

And since wrestling is a dirty, sleazy business, this meant that there was once again money in Bret Hart.

Thanks to Vince Russo's influence, Bret started getting a more prominent role in WCW, and later on in 1999, he found himself battling in another classic with Chris Benoit, this time in the finals of the WCW world title tournament - with Bret being victorious. Since joining WCW in December 1997, Bret had been doing a whole lot of nothing, but was now the company's top man, representing WCW as its champion. Even with the burden of recent tragedies weighing heavy on Bret, things were looking a little brighter for him, for the first time in a long time.

Little did Bret know, his life was about to hit a Goldberg.

Bill Goldberg was a former NFL football player, who suffered an injury and decided to make the transition to pro wrestling. Goldberg was an extremely intense athlete with a great look, resembling that of an MMA fighter. Goldberg's rise to fame started in late 1997 when he emerged on an undefeated streak that caught the attention of fans quickly, with people bring in signs to the shows that counter Goldberg's consecutive wins. 10-0 became 20-0, which then became 30-0, 40-0, and so on. In mid 1998, Goldberg became the first undefeated man to become the world champion, pinning Hulk Hogan to win the title in front of 40,000 fans.

After the Sting experiment failed, Goldberg became the hottest thing WCW had going, being the only man who able to draw viewers to from the WWF to WCW during that time, with the extremely popular Stone Cold Steve Austin being the man at the helm in WWF.

Goldberg had everything one could ever ask for in a professional wrestler - except safety. Goldberg was notorious for being unsafe in the ring, hurting many of colleagues with his stiff strikes and unsafe throws. Goldberg also had something of an attitude that made him roll his eyes a little bit at "fake punches" which he felt were embarrassing. He wanted to work stiff.

As WCW champion, Bret was scheduled to defend his title against Goldberg at 1999's StarrCade event. Bret and Goldberg were arguably the top names in WCW at the time. Just prior to going to to their match, Bret told Goldberg "Don't hurt me", as he had one year left on his contract, after which he was ready to move on to the retired life, and wanted to escape the wrestling business unscathed.

The sad thing about life, whether you're a superstar wrestler, or a regular joe, is that you don't always get what you want, no matter how much you wanted - and life was about to deliver Bret Hart with yet another kick in the head, this time quite literally.

Goldberg threw Bret to the ropes, and as he was coming off the ropes towards him, Goldberg threw a kick, full force, straight to his skull, failing to give Bret time to prepare for it, leaving him completely unprotected as the 290 pounder's foot hit him directly in the brain.

Bret fell into the mat, disoriented and seeing stars, and knew that something was definitely wrong with him. Later on, Bret realized that he had suffered a severe concussion, which later on developed into a serious post concussion syndrome, leaving Bret with permanent brain damage, a 10% disability in his brain. Bret suffered from headaches, emotional imbalance, memory and speech problems, difficulties with balance, all sorts of brain problems. He would remain active for a little while after, not knowing the full extent of his injuries, but was forced to take time off, as the symptoms weren't alleviating.

As the months went by, it became more and more clear that the kick marked the end of Bret Hart's in ring career, and in late 2000, after being on the shelf for almost a year, WCW terminated Bret's contract, stating that he was being paid too much to sit on the sidelines.

Bret Hart officially retired from the ring directly after.

As I leave you waiting for Part III, our heroes are once again in similar positions, but this time in life, not in the wrestling ring.

There's plenty more to the story yet to come, and I will conclude it with he last part of the trilogy that will see our heroes persevere at the face of their darkest hours - but not before more heartbreak.

I hope you people enjoyed Part II, if you made it this far, again thank you for reading. Upvote, re-steem and especially comment. :)

And remember: the upvotes are for charity.

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Sources:

Bret Hart: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling, autobiography.
Shawn Michaels: Heartbreak and Triumph, autobiography.

Images not mentioned below are my own.

Image sources: 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21