Bret Hart Recalls 'Fake Fight' After WWE Hall Of Fame Match With Steve Austin

WWE legend Bret Hart has repeatedly spoken with pride about his WrestleMania 13 match with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but one aspect of that famous match that hasn't been widely discussed is what happened backstage afterward.

Hart recalled his match with Austin on "The Ringer Wrestling Show," and revealed how he and "The Texas Rattlesnake" had to fake fight backstage to show their displeasure at Austin being busted upon. WWE was against stars getting busted open intentionally back then, and he said that no one, aside from him and Austin, knew that it was going to happen.

"Me and Steve, when we came back to the dressing room ... because of the blood and the fact that nobody knew about the blood, and that was something we decided on our own. You get into a lot of trouble, that was a strict rule: no blood in any matches. I remember thinking that the match has to have blood. If there's no blood, it's not going to be the same," said Hart.

He recalled discussing it with Austin beforehand and deciding to make it seem unintentional, in order to fool Vince McMahon and company. To make it look authentic, they even staged a mock fight in the dressing room after the match.

"I remember we kinda talked about it, and we're going to pretend it was accidental, and when something like that does happen in a wrestling match, generally there's a heated exchange in the dressing room between the two wrestlers. 'What the hell happened? Why did you do that?' So, we got to go through all that in the dressing room. We got into a heated exchange and Steve's talking about he's all covered in blood and pi**ed off," "The Hitman" said.

Hart said that Chief Jay Strongbow had to hold him back during the staged fight, and the Hall of Famer added that McMahon never brought up the subject of Austin getting busted open.