Fifteen years ago, WrestleMania 13 set up "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's box-office-breaking run, which began one year later at WrestleMania 14 when he won his first WWF Title. This also coincided with Bret Hart's famous heel turn at WM13.

The Torch Newsletter 15 years ago documented the build-up to Hart's heel turn, how WWE gave away a WWF Title match on Raw six days before WrestleMania (imagine that happening today!), and how the backstage view before that Raw episode was that Hart vs. Austin could have been changed into a WWF Title match...

TORCH #430 - March 8, 1997. WCW Nitro slams Raw, expands its ratings lead. Leading to WrestleMania, WCW and Nitro have all the momentum, which is an ominous sign for WWE.

COVER STORY: The WWF, less than three weeks before WrestleMania, loaded the line-up of the Mar. 3 Monday Night Raw with a WWF Title defense, a WWF IC Title defense, and the finals of the European Title tournament, plus a main event caliber match with Bret Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and were handed the largest margin of defeat in the Monday Night War yet.

***

TORCH #431 - March 15, 1997. WrestleMania main event to be switched? Bret vs. Austin likely to headline PPV; WWF hoping pre-Mania title match pops a rating for new-look Raw.

COVER STORY: On the Mar. 10 Raw the WWF worked hard to build their television audience in the final two weeks leading to Wrestlemania, most notably by adding some ambiguity over what the main event at Wrestlemania will end up being. ... WWF appears to be changing course in mid-stream, moving Bret Hart up to the main event spot at WrestleMania for both political and economic reasons. Politically, Bret Hart has put up enough of a fuss privately and publicly - and made some good points in the process - that the WWF may be starting to see things his way. All indications are that Bret will regain the WWF Title six days before WrestleMania, which would then make his "submission match" against Austin the main event title match.

***

TORCH #432 - March 22, 1997. Bret Hart snaps on Raw after losing to Sid. WWF's final week of build up for WrestleMania sizzles with a memorable final 30 minutes of live Raw.

With a cage match for the WWF Title six days before the biggest annual event of the year, the WWF did everything they thought possible to pop an impressive rating on Monday night for Raw. Once again, they failed to get out of the 2.0-2.5 range, drawing the same rating they did two of the previous three weeks - 2.4. While the WWF failed to close the gap between Raw and Nitro (which drew a 3.6 rating), they may have done something more important -- prompting a greater share of the Raw viewers into purchasing Wrestlemania 13.

On the Mar. 10 Raw, everything pointed in the direction of Bret Hart beating Sid the following week on Raw so he could headline WrestleMania. Instead, the plan all along was to give that impression in order to sell Bret Hart's frustration with "nothing going his way" since returning to the WWF. Inspired by Bret's real life frustrations behind the scenes with the WWF and Vince McMahon (which absolutely has been the case since his return last fall), the WWF turned Bret Hart into a virtual heel, albeit a somewhat sympathetic one, on the Mar. 17 Raw.

***

TORCH #433 - March 29, 1997. Bret Hart turns full-fledged heel on U.S. fans. Hart tells fans to kiss his ass, Michaels calls Bret a "mark"; Raw closes ratings gap versus Nitro.

Because all six of their six top-tier wrestlers are cast as babyfaces (Bret Hart, Sid, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Ken Shamrock) or are being cheered heavily as a heel (Steve Austin), the WWF finalized the full-fledged heel turn of Bret Hart on Monday Night Raw. At WrestleMania, Bret beat Steve Austin when a bloody Austin passed out from the sharpshooter and Ken Shamrock called for the bell. A minute later, with Austin still passed out, Bret went back to attack him again, the moment he switched from a tweener to a heel. Shamrock threw him off of Austin. When Shamrock challenged Bret, Bret backed down and left the ring. The fans booed Bret's cowardace and a minute later gave the gutsy Austin a standing ovation. Bret looked at the crowd in disgust for booing him.

That set the stage for Raw the next day. Bret Hart demanded time to get things off of his chest. At the start of the second hour of Raw, he did just that. Bret walked to the ring and apologized to fans everywhere around the world except in the United States. He said he beat Austin yet the U.S. fans cheered Austin as if he had won even though he beat Austin to a bloody pulp. Bret went back to WrestleMania last year and marched through the series of events from Survivor Series to Royal Rumble to WrestleMania 13. Bret said the fans cheered for Michaels as if he were a role model despite wearing ear rings and posing for a "girlie magazine." He corrected himself and said it was a "gay magazine." Fans chanted, "Go home, Bret." Bret said Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon begged him not to quit or go home.

Bret wiped fake tears from his eyes as he mocked Michaels's so-called injury. "You talk about me crying?" he said. When Bret mentioned Steve Austin hitting him with a chair, fans cheered. "That's acceptable? Only in America," Bret said. "So I asked, or as you say, I cried, to Gorilla Monsoon for a match with (Austin)." When Bret said he planned to give Austin a good, old-fashioned "ass whipping," the word "ass" was bleeped, indicating USA Network began using a 10 second delay for Raw as a result of last week's program.

PWTORCH VIP MEMBERS can read the rest of the Torch cover story this link. Also see: Torch 1997 Back Issues.

[Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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