Suplex
A suplex is an offensive move used in both professional and amateur wrestling. It is a throw that involves lifting the opponent and bridging or rolling to slam the opponent on their back. Professional wrestling features many different varieties of suplexes; the following are among the most common, but many more exist as the signature techniques of individual wrestlers. In these suplexes, the wrestlers begin by facing each other, the attacking wrestler applies a front facelock to the opponent before executing a throw. In most cases, the opponent is suspended upside-down during part of the move; the most common front facelock suplex is the vertical suplex. Spelled as a fisherman's suplex and known as a cradle suplex or leg hook suplex. With their opponent in a front facelock with the near arm draped over the attacker's shoulder, the wrestler hooks the opponent's near leg behind the opponent's knee with his/her free arm and falls backwards, flipping the opponent onto his/her back. In most cases the attacking wrestler will keep the leg hooked and bridge to pin the opponent in a cradle-like position, as in the case of Curt Hennig and Joe Hennig's Perfect-plex, Bobby Roode's Pay Off and Peyton Royce's The Ughhh.
Val Venis used this move in the past. Other times the wrestler will apply a leglock submission hold to the hooked leg. More referred to as swinging fisherman neckbreaker. A swinging variation of the standard fisherman suplex, this move sees a wrestler, with their opponent in a front facelock with the near arm draped over their shoulder, hook the opponent's near leg with their free arm and roll over to the same side of the arm being used to hook the opponent's leg, flipping the opponent over onto their back. Professional wrestler Perry Saturn used this as a finishing move and called it the Moss-Covered Three-Handled Family Gradunza. WWE wrestlers Elias and Nikki Cross use this move as a finisher, calling it Drift Away and The Purge, respectively. In this variation of the suplex, the attacker applies a hammerlock on his opponent before applying a front facelock and positioning the opponent's free arm over the attacker's head; the attacker lifts up the opponent and falls backwards, dropping the opponent down back first, landing with their trapped arm bent behind their back.
The attacker faces a standing opponent with one side of the ring behind the opponent. The attacker applies a front facelock to the opponent, takes hold of the opponent with his/her free hand lifts the opponent until he/she is nearly vertical; the attacker falls forward so that the torso of the opponent bounces off the top ring rope, uses this momentum to lift the opponent overhead once more and falls backwards, driving the back and shoulders of the opponent into the ground. This move is similar to most suplexes and starts with the attacker applying a front face lock to his/her opponent and draping the opponent's near arm over his/her shoulder lifting him/her up and holding the opponent in the vertical position; this is where the move differs from most of its counterparts with the attacker not falling with the opponent, but rather shifting themselves and throwing their opponent to the mat on his stomach. Sometimes this involves the wrestler turning the opponent in midair and slamming the opponent down to the mat in front of him/her onto their back, similar to a high-angled body slam.
The suplex slam can be used for other suplexes such as the fisherman suplex or gutwrench suplex. Called a suplex driver or a falcon arrow, this sees an attacker apply a front facelock to the opponent and drapes the opponent's near arm over their shoulder; the attacker takes hold of the opponent's torso with their free arm and lifts the opponent to a vertical position. The facelock is loosened so the opponent can be twisted then the attacker falls to a sitting position and the victim's back and shoulders are driven into the mat; the opponent lands between the attacker's legs with their head toward them. This move popularized by Hayabusa, who named it Falcon Arrow. Another variation sees the wrestler perform a vertical suplex, but instead of twisting the upside down opponent to face them, the wrestler turns 180° to face the opponent before sitting down and driving them back first between their legs. Called a front suplex or a gourdbuster, this move sees the attacker apply a front face lock to the opponent and drape the opponent's near arm over his/her shoulder.
The attacker lifts the opponent into a vertical position he falls or kneels forward, driving the opponents face into the ground. The attacker applies a front face lock to the opponent and drapes the opponent's near arm over his/her shoulder; the attacker lifts the opponent into a vertical position, falls into a sit-out position, driving the face of the opponent into the ground. In another variation, the wrestler releases the hold just prior to the sitout position letting his opponents own momentum to force them down head first. Used by Dean Ambrose as signature move. A superplex refers to any suplex performed by an attacker standing on the second or third rope against an opponent sitting on the top rope or top turnbuckle; the most common suplex used for this top rope move is the standard vertical suplex variation, in which the attackers apply a front face lock to the opponent, draping the opponent's near arm over their respective shoulders, at this point the wrestler falls backwards and flips the opponent over them so they both land on their backs.
This move sees a wrestler performing a suplex to his/her opponent, instead of driving his/her opponent to the ground, it sends his/her into the turnbuckles. In a set-up similar to a tornado DDT, a wres
Layla El
Layla El is an English dancer and retired professional wrestler. After attending a performing arts college, El was a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines, the Miami Heat franchise of the National Basketball Association, danced for Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards. In 2006, she was a contestant in the 2006 WWE Diva Search, which she won to earn a contract with the company. Appearing on the SmackDown brand, she moved to ECW in January 2007. There, she formed the Extreme Exposé dance troupe with Brooke Adams. In 2008, she was drafted to the Raw brand; the following year she returned to SmackDown and formed an alliance with Michelle McCool known as LayCool. In May 2010, Layla won the WWE Women's Championship for the first time, she is the first British woman and the first Diva Search winner to hold the championship, was the final champion as the title was retired in 2010. In April 2012, Layla won the WWE Divas Championship upon her return from a year-long absence due to injury, held the championship until September that year.
She retired in 2015. El was born and raised in London, is of Spanish and Moroccan descent, she attended a performing arts college in London. El was a dancer for Carnival Cruise Lines. Afterward she joined the National Basketball Association's Miami Heat franchise, where she danced for two years beginning in 2004; as part of the Miami Heat dance troupe, she received a championship ring. During this time, she appeared on-stage with John Legend as one of his backup dancers, she danced for P. Diddy and Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards. El's first foray into professional wrestling occurred when her trainer suggested she try out for the $250,000 WWE Diva Search contest in 2006. After a casting call, she was selected as one of the finalists. During the contest, she won two individual competitions, an obstacle course and a talent competition, before winning the overall competition on 16 August, she made her first official WWE appearance at the 2006 SummerSlam pay-per-view in a backstage segment with several other Divas.
During the segment, the other women taunted and teased her before revealing that "it was all in fun" and part of an "initiation". The week after SummerSlam, El made her debut as a member of the SmackDown! Brand in an interview with Mike "The Miz" Mizanin—although he did not allow her the chance to say much, spending most of the time talking about himself. Subsequently, she did not appear on television for a month, reappearing on the 22 September episode of SmackDown! and getting into a confrontation with Kristal and Jillian Hall. At October's No Mercy pay-per-view event, she embarrassed The Miz by tricking him into getting a lap dance from Big Dick Johnson while he was blindfolded and expecting it to be from her as a birthday gift. On 20 October, Layla participated in a dance contest with the other SmackDown! Divas, was chosen as the winner by the judges and Aaron Carter. Despite this, The Miz, acting as emcee, declared Kristal the winner; the following week, Layla made her in-ring debut in a Diva's battle royal.
The match ended in controversial fashion when she was pulled from the ring apron by The Miz, allowing Kristal to win. The following week, Layla teamed with Big Vito in a loss to The Miz and Kristal in a mixed tag team match. Continuing to feud with Kristal, Layla had her singles match debut on the 1 December episode of SmackDown!, when she lost to Kristal. In her final match for the SmackDown! brand, Layla teamed with Ashley to defeat Kristal and Jillian Hall in a tag team match on 22 December. The following month, Layla was moved to the ECW brand, debuting on 23 January 2007, she joined Brooke and Kelly Kelly to form Extreme Exposé. The trio performed a weekly dance segment on ECW, choreographed by Layla, for the next several months. In June 2007, The Miz was moved to the brand, prompting a storyline in which all three members of Extreme Exposé were attracted to him; when Kelly shifted her attentions towards Balls Mahoney, Layla and Miz mocked her, turning Layla and Brooke into villainous characters.
On 1 November, Brooke was released from her WWE contract, Extreme Exposé dissolved as a group, leaving Kelly and Layla to enter an ongoing rivalry with more active in-ring roles. They were on opposite sides of a 10-Diva tag team match at Survivor Series. In December, Layla formed an alliance with Victoria, which expanded to include Lena Yada in January 2008, the trio continued to feud with Kelly. In April, Layla was part of the winning team in a six-on-six Divas match at the Backlash pay-per-view; as part of the 2008 supplemental draft in late June, Layla was drafted to the Raw brand. On the 7 July episode of Raw, Layla made her debut in a tag team match with Jillian Hall, losing to Mickie James and Kelly Kelly, the latter of whom had moved to the Raw brand, she soon entered a storyline with Jamie Noble in which Noble attempted to impress her with his matches, only to be defeated by his opponents. On 1 September, Noble was able to defeat William Regal; the following week, Layla chose to align herself with Regal, after he defeated Noble in a rematch.
On the following episode of Raw, Layla reinforced her decision, telling Noble that she had found a worthy man in Regal. Over the next few months, Layla competed only sporadically in matches, spending most of her time managing Regal, was present at ringside when Regal defeated Santino Marella on 10 November to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. On 15 April 2009, Layla was drafted to the SmackDown brand as part of the Supplemental Draft, she began a feud with Eve Torres, lost both a dance contest and an arm wrestling match, befo
Shawn Michaels
Michael Shawn Hickenbottom, better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American professional wrestler and television presenter. Regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in history, he is known by the nicknames "Heartbreak Kid" and "Mr. WrestleMania". Michaels wrestled for WWE the World Wrestling Federation, from 1988 until his first retirement in 1998, he held non-wrestling roles from 1998 to 2000 and resumed wrestling in 2002 until retiring ceremoniously in 2010, before being assigned as a trainer in 2016 and returning for one match in 2018. In the WWF/WWE, Michaels headlined major pay-per-view events between 1989 and 2010, closing the company's flagship annual event, WrestleMania, five times, he was the co-founder and original leader of the successful stable, D-Generation X. Michaels wrestled in the American Wrestling Association, where he founded The Midnight Rockers with Marty Jannetty in 1985. After winning the AWA World Tag Team Championship twice, the team continued to the WWF as The Rockers and had a high-profile breakup in January 1992.
Within the year, Michaels twice challenged for the WWF Championship and won his first Intercontinental Championship, heralding his arrival as one of the industry's premier singles stars. Michaels is a four-time world champion, having held the WWF Championship three times and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship once, he is a two-time Royal Rumble winner, the first WWF Grand Slam Champion and the fourth WWF Triple Crown Champion, as well as a two time WWE Hall of Fame. Michaels won the Pro Wrestling Illustrated "Match of the Year" reader vote a record eleven times, his match against John Cena on April 23, 2007 was ranked by WWE as the best match aired on the company's flagship Raw program. Hickenbottom was born on July 1965 in Chandler, Arizona; the last of four children – Randy and Shari are his older siblings – he was raised in a military family and spent a brief part of his early years in Reading, England, but grew up in San Antonio, Texas. As a child, Hickenbottom disliked the name Michael, so his family and friends just called him Shawn.
Since, he has been referred to as Shawn. Additionally, Hickenbottom moved around since his father was in the military, he knew he wanted to become a professional wrestler at the age of twelve and said he performed a wrestling routine in his high school's talent show, complete with fake blood. Hickenbottom was an athlete, he was a stand-out linebacker at Randolph High School on Randolph Air Force Base and became captain of the football team. After graduating, Hickenbottom attended Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, but soon realized that college life was not for him, he began pursuing a career in professional wrestling. Hickenbottom began to train under Mexican professional wrestler Jose Lothario. During his training, Hickenbottom adopted the ring name, "Shawn Michaels". After his training with Lothario, he debuted as Shawn Michaels with the National Wrestling Alliance's Mid-South Wrestling territory on October 16, 1984, against Art Crews, losing to Crews via swinging neckbreaker. Michaels's performance in his debut match impressed many veterans, including Terry Taylor.
In January 1985, he debuted for World Class Championship Wrestling, the NWA territory in Dallas, Texas. In April 1985, Michaels went to work for another NWA territory in Kansas City called Central States Wrestling. There, he and tag team partner Marty Jannetty defeated The Batten Twins for the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship losing it back to the Battens. After leaving Kansas City, he returned to Texas to wrestle for Texas All-Star Wrestling. During his time with TASW, Michaels replaced Nick Kiniski in the American Breed tag team, teaming with Paul Diamond. Michaels and Diamond were awarded the TASW Tag Team Championship by Chavo Guerrero Sr; the team was renamed American Force. While in TASW, Michaels and Diamond feuded with Japanese Force. Michaels made his national-level debut, as Sean Michaels, at the age of 20 in the American Wrestling Association, in a victory over Buddhakhan on ESPN, he was once again teamed with Marty Jannetty, billed as The Midnight Rockers. The Midnight Rockers won the AWA World Tag Team Championship.
In 1987, The Rockers were signed by a competing promotion: the World Wrestling Federation. They were fired from WWF two weeks for a bar incident, they returned to AWA, where they won the AWA tag team titles for a second time, but were re-signed by WWF a year later. The Rockers redebuted at a WWF live event on July 7, 1988. Due to WWF chairman Vince McMahon's desire to have his performers carry WWF-exclusive ring names and Jannetty were renamed, as The Rockers; the team proved popular with both children and women and was a mid-card stalwart of television and pay-per-view shows for the next two years. During this time, Michaels headlined his first pay-per-view for the WWF when The Rockers were involved in the 4-on-4 Survivor Series match main event of the 1989 Survivor Series. On October 30, 1990, The Rockers unofficially won the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Hart Foundation, as Neidhart, half of the championship team, was in the process of negotiating his release from the company; the match was taped with The Rockers winning the title, but soon after Neidhart came to an agreement with management and was rehired.
The championship was retu
Montreal Screwjob
The Montreal Screwjob was an infamous and controversial unscripted professional wrestling incident in which World Wrestling Federation owner Vince McMahon and WWF employees covertly manipulated the pre-determined outcome of the match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series. The pay-per-view event was held on November 9, 1997, at the Molson Centre in Montreal, Canada; the manipulation – a "shoot screwjob" in professional wrestling parlance – occurred without Hart's knowledge and resulted in Hart, the reigning WWF World Heavyweight Champion, losing the title to Michaels in his last WWF match before departing for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling. The "screwjob" is believed to be an off-screen betrayal of Hart, one of the WWF's longest-tenured and most popular performers at the time. Hart won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam in August 1997. A week prior to Survivor Series, who had performed for the WWF since 1984, signed a contract to join WCW beginning in December 1997.
McMahon sought to prevent Hart from leaving the company as the champion, but Hart was unwilling to lose the title to Michaels – with whom he had a long feud both on-screen and off – at Survivor Series in his home country of Canada. Hart, McMahon came to an agreement where the Survivor Series match would end with a disqualification, which under normal rules would result in Hart retaining the title. Hart would lose or forfeit the title at a date. However, McMahon decided without Hart's knowledge that Michaels would win the title at Survivor Series. Accounts differ as to, involved in the plan and the extent of their involvement; the plan was executed when match referee Earl Hebner, on direct orders from McMahon, ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the Sharpshooter submission hold, Hart's signature finishing move though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the victor by submission and crowned as the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion; the Montreal Screwjob has garnered a notorious legacy both on-screen and off, was chronicled in the documentary film Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows.
The far-reaching impact of the incident led to its adoption as a theme in matches and storylines of the WWF's "Attitude Era" and the creation of the character of "Mr. McMahon," the evil boss. Many wrestling fans, several within the business, believe the entire incident was an elaborate work executed in collaboration with Hart. Nonetheless, Hart was ostracized from the WWF while McMahon and Michaels continued to receive angry responses from Canadian audiences for many years. Hart and McMahon reconciled, Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006. On the January 4, 2010 episode of WWE Raw, Hart, in his first live appearance on WWE television since the 1997 Survivor Series, had a lengthy on-screen discussion with Michaels about the Montreal Screwjob and other events in their past, agreed to call a truce, bringing closure to the incident after more than 12 years. Hart would defeat McMahon at WrestleMania 26 in a match built around lingering animosity from the Screwjob. Longtime industry writer Mike Johnson referred to the 1997 Survivor Series bout in which the Screwjob occurred as "arguably the most talked-about match in the history of professional wrestling".
At the time of the screwjob, Bret Hart was a 14-year veteran of the WWF, having started his career in the 1980s as one-half of the popular Hart Foundation tag team with his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart. After the team had two reigns as the WWF Tag Team Champions, Hart achieved tremendous success as a singles performer in the 1990s, twice taking the Intercontinental Heavyweight Title, winning the WWF World Heavyweight Championship five times, he took a seven-month leave of absence from the company after WrestleMania XII, during which he considered contract offers from both the WWF and its rival, WCW. In October 1996, Hart declined a three-year, $8.4 million offer from WCW, instead opting to sign an unprecedented 20-year deal offered by McMahon, which promised to make him the highest-paid wrestler in the company and secure him a major role with the company management following his retirement. Both Hart and the WWF saw the contract as an expression of mutual loyalty. By mid-1997, the WWF was facing financial difficulties due to stiff competition from WCW, which had become the largest professional wrestling promotion in the United States.
At the same time, McMahon was planning to make the WWF a publicly traded company, a move which required him to minimize any long-term financial commitments. For several months prior to the 1997 Survivor Series and Shawn Michaels had several backstage arguments, culminating in a fight before a house show in Hartford, Connecticut that saw Michaels suspended for two months. After a show in San Jose, California on October 12, 1997, Hart claimed he spoke to Michaels about being professional and trusting one another in the ring, he claimed that when Michaels replied that he would never lose to Hart, Hart was shocked and became angry. This led to Hart's outright refusal to lose the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Michaels at the pay-per-view event in Montreal, although in Hart's documentary, Hart states to McMahon that he would drop the belt but not in Canada. However, in his own autobiography, Michaels refuted Hart's claim, saying that he would have cleanly lost to Hart had storylines demanded so (however others, including Jim Cornette in variou
Bret Hart
Bret Sergeant Hart is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, amateur wrestler and actor. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling background, wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College. A major international draw within professional wrestling, he has been credited with changing the perception of mainstream North-American professional wrestling in the early 1990s by bringing technical in-ring performance to the fore. Hart is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. For most of his career, he used the nickname, "Hitman". Hart joined his father Stu Hart's promotion Stampede Wrestling in 1976 as a referee, made his in-ring debut in 1978, he gained championship success throughout the 1980s and 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation, where he helmed The Hart Foundation stable. He left for World Championship Wrestling following the controversial "Montreal Screwjob" in November 1997, where he remained until October 2000.
Having been inactive from in-ring competition since January 2000, owing to a December 1999 concussion, he retired in October 2000, shortly after his departure from the company. He returned to sporadic in-ring competition from 2010–2011 with WWE, where he won his final championship, headlined the 2010 SummerSlam event, served as the general manager of Raw. Throughout his career, Hart headlined WrestleMania IX, X, XII, participated in the main event of Starrcade 1997 and 1999 – as a special enforcer and referee in the former. Hart has held championships in five decades from the 1970s to the 2010s, with a total of 32 held throughout his career, 17 held between the WWF/WWE and WCW. Among other accolades, he is a five-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion and a two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Hart has most combined days as WWF World Heavyweight Champion during the 1990s, was the first WCW World Heavyweight Champion born outside the United States, he is the second WWF Triple Crown Champion and fifth WCW Triple Crown Champion, the first man to win both the WWF and WCW Triple Crown Championships.
Hart is the 1994 Royal Rumble match winner, the only two-time King of the Ring, winning the 1991 tournament and the first King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1993. Stone Cold Steve Austin, with whom Hart headlined multiple pay-per-view events as part of an acclaimed rivalry from 1996 to 1997, inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2006. In 2019, Hart became one of only four people to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice. Outside of wrestling Hart has appeared in numerous films and television shows such as The Simpsons as well as featuring in several documentaries, both about himself and others about his family or the wrestling industry in general. Hart helped found and lent his name to the major junior ice hockey team the Calgary Hitmen, has written two biographies along with a weekly column for the Calgary Sun for over a decade. After his retirement Hart has spent much of his time on charitable efforts concerning stroke recovery and cancer awareness since his personal experiences with the two.
The eighth child of wrestling patriarch Stu Hart and his wife Helen, Bret Hart was born in Calgary, Alberta into the Hart wrestling family. He is of Greek descent through Irish through his maternal grandfather, his father was of Scots-Irish descent but had Scottish and English ancestry. Hart is a dual citizen of the United States since his mother Helen was born in New York. Hart has stated that he considers himself to be North American and that he is proud of his U. S. and Canadian nationality. His maternal grandfather was long-distance runner Harry Smith. Hart grew up in a household with eleven siblings, seven brothers Smith, Keith, Dean and Owen, as well as four sisters, Georgia and Diana; as a child he was the closest with his older brother Dean, the nearest to him in age of all his older brothers, being three years his senior. Together they would fight with Bret's two older sisters, two years older, Georgia, one year older. Hart's family were non-denominational Christians, but he and all of his siblings were baptized by a local Catholic priest.
Hart spent the vast majority of his childhood in the Hart family mansion, owned by his father. During one period his father was housing a bear known as Terrible Ted chained under the building, the bear had had all of its teeth removed and Hart would sometimes as a young child let the bear lick ice cream off his toes since he thought it was a good way to keep them clean, his introduction to professional wrestling came at an early age. As a child, he witnessed his father training future wrestlers like Billy Graham in the Dungeon, his household basement which served as a training room. Before school, Hart's father a wrestling promoter, had him hand out fliers to local wrestling shows. In the 1998 documentary Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows, Hart reflected on his father's discipline, describing how Stu uttered morbid words while inflicting excruciating submission holds that left broken blood vessels in Bret's eyes. Hart claimed. Hart's first work in wrestling involved pulling out lucky numbers out of a metal box during intermission at the Stampede Wrestling shows when he was four years old.
When he got older he would sell programs to the shows, something all Hart's s
Survivor Series (1998)
Survivor Series was the 12th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation. It took place on November 1998 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Fourteen professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card, a noticeably higher number than most pay-per-view events because the main focus of the card was a tournament for the vacant WWF Championship, it was the first tournament held with the WWF Championship on the line in ten years, the last being at WrestleMania IV. Both tournaments were 14-man tournaments instead of 16-man tournaments. Aside from the tournament, two other championship matches occurred: the first defense of the WWF Women's Championship since it had been reactivated and a triple threat tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship; this event was the first Survivor Series not to include any Survivor Series elimination matches, although the notion of survival is apparent in the knockout tournament.
The only other time a Survivor Series event without any elimination match is in 2002, which saw the debut of the Elimination Chamber match, a match type based on survival. At the central focus of Survivor Series was the tournament titled Deadly Games, with the vacant WWF Championship at stake; the buildup involved many interlinking feuds. In March, Stone Cold Steve Austin had won the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV. Austin's working class, blue collar style and manner clashed with WWF Chairman Mr. McMahon and his corporate notions of who he wanted to represent his company, he set about trying to mould a challenger in his own image to dethrone Austin. At first he brought back Dude Love, who soon abandoned his hippy style gimmick in favor of a suit – wearing his false teeth. After two attempts by Love to win the gold, including one with McMahon as referee, failed, McMahon turned to Paul Bearer and sought about setting up Kane in a match at June's King of the Ring which Austin lost but only thanks to interference from Kane's half-brother The Undertaker who, despite having animosity towards his brother, did not want to see him hurt – Austin won his title back the following evening.
Having been thrown to the wayside by McMahon, Love returned to his psychologically fragile alter-ego Mankind, soon changing his dress from rags to an unintentionally scruffy parody of his father-figure McMahon. Both Mankind and Kane formed an ad-hoc tag team which McMahon sponsored in a bid to take on the Undertaker, defending Austin while vying for a title shot. Shortly before SummerSlam in August, it was revealed that Kane had been in cahoots. Austin retained the title at SummerSlam. At the next pay-per-view, he forced Austin to face both Kane and Undertaker in a match that became a handicap match after McMahon added the stipulation that the brothers could not pin each other. Austin lost the championship, but since he was pinned by Kane and Undertaker the title was held up. To rectify the situation, McMahon booked a match between the two brothers at Judgment Day: In Your House. To further mock Steve Austin, he was designated as referee and McMahon threatened to fire him if he didn't perform his duties.
Austin defied the order and attacked both Undertaker and Kane counted both brothers out and declared himself the winner and champion. McMahon made good on his threat to fire Austin, the title was left vacant. To rectify this, a single elimination tournament between a wide array of wrestlers in the company was set up. Despite being fired, Austin was at Raw Is War the night after Judgment Day and held McMahon hostage at gunpoint, though when Austin went to fire his gun it turned out to be a joke gun, with a sign saying BANG! 3:16 on it. Austin revealed the following week that the paper was a five-year contract that guaranteed him a championship match and most shockingly of all, the contract had been signed by Mr McMahon's son Shane, who had his owner rights suspended by his father and was demoted to a referee; as well as Austin, McMahon seemed to have a new target of hatred. On the November 2 edition of Raw Is War, McMahon declared to the self-styled People's Champion that because he had a problem with the people, he had a problem with The Rock.
He ordered Rock into an Intercontinental match with Ken Shamrock, with Rock's tournament spot on the line. Shamrock hit him with a chair and thus he won, but only by disqualification and thus lost his tournament spot. Afterwards McMahon had The Rock arrested, much; the following week McMahon threatened him with expulsion from the company if he could not win a match against former Nation of Domination stable mate Mark Henry. Despite the odds being stacked in his favor with McMahon's entourage at ring side distracting the referee, Shane McMahon ran down after Rock had performed the Rock Bottom, a lifting side slam, on Henry and counted the pinfall to secure Rock's employment and earning back his spot in the tournament although this was never mentioned other than McMahon mentioning it on Heat. While many wrestlers became the target of Vince McMahon's ire, one wrestler returned to being his favorite. With his son ostensibly turning on him, Mankind tried to cheer McMahon up and was treated as a surrogate child.
McMahon awarded him a new belt, the WWF Hardcore Championship, as well as giving him a makeover, including a pedicure and tailored suit, gearing him up to win the tournament. As well as being a Hardcore Champion, Mankind had fo
Stu Hart
Stewart Edward Hart, was a Canadian professional wrestler, wrestling booker, promoter and trainer, football player, amateur wrestler, sailor. He is best known for founding and handling Stampede Wrestling, a professional wrestling promotion based in Calgary, teaching many individuals at its associated wrestling school "The Dungeon" and establishing a professional wrestling dynasty consisting of his relatives and close trainees; as the patriarch of the Hart wrestling family, Hart is the ancestor of many wrestlers, most notably being the father of Bret and Owen Hart as well as the grandfather of Natalya Neidhart and David Hart Smith. Hart was born to a poor Saskatchewan family but became a successful amateur wrestler during the 1930s and early 1940s, holding many national championships, as well as engaging in many other sports, he began wrestling for show in 1943 with the Royal Canadian Navy while serving in World War II as he could not go to the 1940 Summer Olympics due to the war. After leaving the service he traveled to America and debuted professionally for the New York wrestling territory in 1946.
Hart was considered handsome and a good in-ring performer, focusing on a submission-like and technical style of wrestling, but despite this and being popular in general he was not given a major spotlight by the writers, soon after marrying Helen Smith, whom he met in New York City, he created his own promotion in Edmonton, Alberta which would be known as Stampede Wrestling and took over the surrounding wrestling territory which covered most of western Canada and the US state of Montana. The territory would go on to become known as the Stampede territory thenceforth. In 1949, Stu and Helen moved to Montana. Hart's promotion featured a large variety of outside stars from the wrestling industry as well as homegrown talent for whom he booked storylines. Beginning from the 1950s Hart helped train a large number of people for his company and gained a reputation as one of the best teachers in the wrestling business. In October 1951, Stu and Helen moved to Calgary, into what would become the famous Hart House.
Hart remained an active full-time wrestler until the 1960s when he entered semi-in-ring retirement, thereafter he would focus on promoting and teaching, as well as raising his twelve children with Helen while still appearing in the ring sporadically until the 1980s. Throughout his career, Hart exclusively portrayed a heroic character, a so-called "babyface" role and only held one professional title, the NWA Northwest Tag Team Championship. After selling his territory to Titan Sports, Inc. in 1984, Hart would make several appearances on WWF television and Pay-Per-View with his wife involved in storylines surrounding his sons Bret and Owen and several of his sons-in-law who were signed to the company. He continued to teach wrestling at his home in Calgary until the 1990s when he suffered a severe leg injury and had to stop engaging excessively with students, leaving most of the work for his sons Bruce and Keith, he died at age 88 in October 2003 after suffering from multiple medical issues. Hart has been referred to by multiple writers, including the major wrestling historian and sports journalist Dave Meltzer, as one of the most influential and important figures in pro wrestling history.
His greatest contribution to the art was as a trainer. Along with Bret and Owen, Hart's trainees included future world champions Fritz Von Erich, Superstar Billy Graham, Chris Jericho, Christian, Mark Henry, Chris Benoit, Jushin Thunder Liger. Hart was a member of the inaugural Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame class in 1996 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010 by his son Bret. Hart was well known for his involvement in over thirty charities, for which he was named a Member of the Order of Canada, the second highest honour for merit which can be given in Canada and the highest civilian honour, he was born in Saskatoon in 1915 to Elizabeth Stewart Hart. He was of Scots-Irish descent from his father's side but had Scottish and English ancestry from his mother, his childhood was impoverished. As a child Hart and his sisters were mistreated at school by both fellow students and teachers since it was well known that they were from such a poor family. Hart was berated and treated with disdain for being lefthanded, something seen as deviant at the time.
Like most lefthanded children at the time, he was forced to work with his right, as a result he became ambidextrous. In 1928, his father was arrested for failure to pay back taxes, while the Salvation Army sent Stu, his mother, two sisters and Edrie to live in Edmonton. Due to his destitute childhood and youth Hart did not experience a dramatic shift in life quality or mentality during the Great Depression which affected most others around him in Edmonton. Hart was trained in catch wrestling in his youth by other boys. Speaking of it, Stu said that his "head would be blue by the time they let go of him". Stu taught this'shoot style' to all who trained under him in the 1980s and 1990s with the thought that teaching his students real submission moves would make their pro wrestling style sharper. During his time in Edmonton with his mother and sisters Hart began finding an interest in sports with wrestling and football being his favorites, he started weightlifting and training for wrestling when he was fourteen years old and built a strong neck and impressive arms.
He began attending amateur wrestling classes when he joined the YMCA in Edmonton in 1929 and soon became a talented grappler
