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#4 Bret Hart (to Shawn Michaels)
Bret Hart's refusal to lose the WWE Championship to Shawn Michaels in his home country of Canada at Survivor Series 1997 led to one of the most infamous incidents in professional wrestling history.
"The Hitman" was set to leave WWE shortly after Survivor Series to join rival promotion WCW. Before exiting the company, though, reigning champion Hart still needed to lose his title to another Superstar - and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wanted Hart to drop the belt to Shawn Michaels at the pay-per-view.
However, the Canadian icon was very unhappy at the prospect of losing to Michaels in Montreal, as the pair genuinely did not get along on a personal level. Hart had previously negotiated a creative control clause in his contract, which allowed him to veto the plan that McMahon originally had in mind.
Backed into a corner legally, McMahon agreed to change the finish of the Hart Vs. Michaels Survivor Series match to a double disqualification. It was then scheduled that Hart would lose the WWE Championship to a different opponent shortly after Survivor Series.
McMahon, though, had a very different plan in mind. He did not want to risk Hart taking the WWE Championship to WCW and so came up with a scenario which would see Michaels win the belt at Survivor Series - without Hart's co-operation.
The night before the bout, McMahon told Michaels of the new finish. Michaels was to lock Hart in his own signature submission move, the Sharpshooter, with the idea being that Hart would believe that he was supposed to reverse the maneuver.
However, on the night, match referee Earl Hebner was instructed to ring the bell - before Hart could reverse the submission. This meant that Michaels was announced as the new WWE Champion, despite the fact that Hart had never tapped out. McMahon was at ringside to oversee the double-cross, which has since become known as the "Montreal Screwjob".
Hart was furious at the outcome and immediately spat at McMahon when he spotted him in the arena, before later knocking him out backstage.
The events of the evening would lead to the birth of McMahon's heel television character, which went on to become one of the most successful of all time. Without Bret Hart's refusal to lose to Shawn Michaels, WWE's history might look very different indeed.
