| 1 | Alignments Entering WM13 — Hart Face, Austin Heel The Setup for the Perfect Reversal Entering WM13, Bret Hart was the beloved veteran babyface — the respected technical wrestler adored for his professionalism. Steve Austin was the contemptuous heel whose anti-authority attitude was generating increasing fan appreciation but was officially booked as a villain. | The crowd was already beginning to cheer Austin despite h... | BABYFACE — beloved veteran, respected technical excellenc... | HEEL — contemptuous, anti-authority, officially villain |
| 2 | Austin's Growing Babyface Reaction — Crowd Was Ahead of Booking Fans Were Already Cheering Austin Despite Being a Heel In the months before WM13, Steve Austin was receiving increasing babyface crowd reactions despite being booked as a heel — his anti-authority persona resonating with fans in a way that his antagonistic character hadn't anticipated. WM13 formalized what the crowd was already doing. | — | — | — |
| 3 | Hart's Increasing Anti-American Rhetoric Bret's Canadian Pride Grating on US Audiences Bret Hart's increasing vocal Canadian pride and lectures about American values were beginning to alienate US audiences in the period leading to WM13 — providing the emotional foundation for his heel turn at WM13. | — | — | — |
| 4 | The Bloodied Sharpshooter — The Image That Changed Wrestling Austin's Refusal to Submit Created the Attitude Era's First Hero The image of Steve Austin — face covered in blood, teeth gritted, refusing to submit while locked in the Sharpshooter — became the defining visual of Austin's character and the beginning of the Attitude Era. In that image, Austin's character was born. | — | — | — |
| 5 | Hart Attacks Austin After the Bell — Babyface Turns Villain Post-Match Attack Completed Hart's Heel Turn After Shamrock stopped the match, Bret Hart continued attacking the fallen Austin with no mercy — the post-match assault on a beaten opponent was the unmistakable action of a villain, and the crowd responded immediately with boos. | — | — | — |
| 6 | Austin Limped Out — The Walk That Defined an Era Austin Walking Out Bloodied and Beaten = Greatest WM Moment Steve Austin limped out of the WM13 arena bloodied and beaten but unbowed — his defiant exit after refusing to submit, combined with the crowd's ovation, created the defining image of his career and the Attitude Era. | — | — | — |
| 7 | Hart as Primary WWF Villain — Bret Hart Foundation Hart Turned Heel Led to the Hart Foundation Stable Bret Hart's WM13 heel turn launched his most celebrated villain run — leading to the Hart Foundation stable (Bret, Owen, British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Jim Anvil) as a pro-Canada anti-America heel faction that dominated 1997 until the Montreal Screwjob. | — | — | — |
| 8 | Austin's Championship Road — WM14 Title Win WM13 Loss Fueled Austin's Path to WWF Title at WM14 Steve Austin's WM13 loss — where he refused to submit — fueled the narrative that took him to the WWF Championship at WM14 against Shawn Michaels, with Mike Tyson as special enforcer. WM13 created the hero; WM14 gave him the crown. | — | — | — |
| 9 | The Attitude Era Began at WM13 Hart-Austin as the Starting Point of Wrestling's Greatest Era Multiple wrestling historians and publications cite the WM13 Submission Match as the beginning of the WWF's Attitude Era — the raw, anti-authority, more adult presentation that would take the WWF from losing the ratings war to WCW to dominating global entertainment. | — | — | — |
| 10 | IGN Called It 'A Match That Launched an Era' Critical Consensus on WM13's Historical Impact IGN placed the Hart-Austin WM13 match at #1 on their Top 20 WM Matches list and described it as a match that 'launched an era' — the most commonly cited critical assessment of the match's historical significance. | — | — | — |