Shawn Michaels Thinks Criticism For His WrestleMania XII Iron Man Match Against Bret Hart Is Unfair

Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels who is a former four times WWE world champion recently looked back at his Epic Iron Man match against “The Hitman” Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII and address the “unfair” criticism about this match.

The first ever Iron Man Match took place at WrestleMania XII where “The Hitman” Bret Hart defended his WWE World title against Shawn Michaels. This was the second time Shawn Michaels earned the right to face the WWE World Champion at WrestleMania. He faced WWE Champion Diesel at WrestleMania 11 but it was a failed attempt.

Shawn Michaels Thinks Criticism For His WrestleMania XII Iron Man Match Against Bret Hart Is Unfair

Once again he earned the right to face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XII after winning the Royal Rumble match for the second time. This time he did not fail to win the WWE championship, even though it took a lot of effort and the task was never easy.

This match is considered as one of the best matches in professional wrestling history and it is still believed to be the most sound technical wrestling match ever. However it received a lot of criticism because of its slow pace mostly. Nowadays the match is not much talked about but it will always be remembered as a cult match in wrestling history.

Shawn Michaels who is a former four times WWE world champion recently spoke to GV Wire’s ‘Off the Bottom Rope where he looked back at his Epic Iron Man match against “The Hitman” Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII and address the “unfair” criticism about this match. He said;

“Hindsight is 20/20, especially for the people that didn’t do it, you know what I mean? Understanding the business now and just the the tempo of the business now certainly was different. Do I think (the criticism is) a little unfair? Obviously, I do.

“I think if it were somebody else other than myself, and Bret was doing it with somebody else, I think they probably might not get quite the hard time. I always more so appreciated the risk that we were willing to take as performers to go out there and do that hour match at that time.

“Again, in the business, that was a huge risk from a company standpoint. It’s very challenging from a performance standpoint to do that. For anybody … to knock it, obviously, as somebody who’s never done it.”