5 WWE Superstars who refused to lose huge matches

#2. Michaels loses his smile instead of the championship

Hart, Gorilla Monsoon, Earl Hebner, Jose Lothario and Michaels before the first Iron-Man match.

Bret Hart may have refused to have lost to Shawn Michaels at the 1997 Survivor Series, but that was in part because HBK had refused to lose to the Hitman not long earlier.

In his book 'Hitman' (great read, by the way), the Excellence of Execution states that Michaels openly admitted that he would not lose to Bret and avoided putting him over whenever possible.

In fact, when Michaels walked away from the ring in early 1997 as he'd 'lost his smile', Hart claims it was more-so because HBK refused to lose the WWF Championship at WrestleMania 13 to the Hitman, whom Michaels had defeated one year prior in the first ever Iron-Man match.

Hart would instead face Steve Austin at WrestleMania, though HBK and Michaels would reunite, in Montreal. We all know how that ended.