CM Punk, Steve Austin & Bret Hart Talk WrestleMania XIII Match At WWE Hall Of Fame

By Miles Schneiderman
Bret Hart with Steve Austin in Sharpshooter while referee Ken Shamrock checks on him at WWE WrestleMania XIII Wwe/Getty Images

Early Saturday morning, the WrestleMania XIII match between Bret Hart and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was formally enshrined in the WWE Hall of Fame, the first-ever recipient of the "WWE Immortal Moment" Award. The two participants were introduced by CM Punk — hours before he will compete at WrestleMania 41 — who delivered a heartfelt speech urging an industry that has lost so many legends and so many mentors to appreciate the fact that Hart and Austin are both still here, and give them their flowers accordingly.

Hart and Austin then took the stage, standing at either side of a statue that Punk unveiled, honoring the match and their rivalry. Hart spoke first, saying he knew when the match was over that it was one of his best. Hart praised Austin for the mutual trust and respect between them that night, saying those two things are vital for all wrestlers, and described the match by quoting French artist Georges Braque, who said that "art is a wound turned into light." Austin, in contrast, was his usual gruff and irreverent self, joking that he he already talked about the WrestleMania XIII match too many times to be interesting and pointing out that special referee Ken Shamrock was more built than both of them. Austin also mentioned Vince McMahon's creative vision in his speech, and also took the time to praise current AEW commentator Jim Ross and his former WWE broadcast partner, Jerry Lawler.

Hart and Austin met in a Submission Match at WrestleMania XIII in Chicago in 1997, a match Hart won by referee decision when a bloody Austin passed out in the Sharpshooter. The match is remembered primarily for its double turn angle, as both men's alignments going into the match were reversed coming out of it, as well as for Austin's iconic "crimson mask." WWE recently named it the second-best match in WrestleMania history, behind only Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker at WrestleMania 25. The induction makes Hart the first-ever three-time WWE Hall of Fame inductee, having previously been inducted himself in 2006 and as part of the Hart Foundation in 2019; Austin is now a two-time Hall of Famer, having been inducted in his own right in 2009.

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