Bret Hart Loves This WWE Hall Of Famer, Knew Their 'Mania Match Would Be A 'Disaster'

This year, WWE honored the WrestleMania 13 match between Bret Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin as the first ever "Immortal Moment" in the WWE Hall of Fame. WrestleMania 11, however, painted quite the opposite picture for Hart.

During an appearance on "The Masked Man Show," Hart lamented over his WrestleMania 11 "I Quit" Match against fellow WWE Hall of Famer Bob Backlund, which featured "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as the special guest referee. "I love Bob Backlund, he's one of my favorite guys, but the match I had with Bob Backlund, the 'I Quit' match I had with him at WrestleMania 11, I knew it was going to be a disaster," Hart said.

"I've always thought that was my least greatest match. I don't blame Bob, I don't blame myself; I blame [former WWE CEO] Vince [McMahon], the guy who came up with the concept for the match. It was a dud before we walked out. So I feel bad we didn't have a great match."

Per the rules of an "I Quit" Match, the only way to win is for a wrestler to force their opponent into a verbal surrender with the words "I quit" and typically into a microphone held by the referee. In this case, the referee was Piper, who took Backlund's unintelligible yelp while trapped in Hart's submission as a signal of surrender. As such, Piper deemed Hart the winner at just under the 10-minute mark.

Backlund and Hart had feuded for months prior to WrestleMania 11, with Hart naming their WWE Championship Submission Match at 1994's Survivor Series as one he is actually proud of, unlike their faceoff at "The Shows of Shows." 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Masked Man Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.