WWE's Natalya Explains How Tyson Kidd Helped Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels Reconcile

The rivalry between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart is one of the most famous in professional wrestling history, as it extends to both on-screen and in real-life. At the 1997 WWE Survivor Series event, their rivalry reached an all-time high when former WWE CEO Vince McMahon abruptly called for the bell to ring while Michaels had Hart trapped in a Sharpshooter – a sequence of events now known as The Montreal Screwjob. The relationship between Michaels and Hart remained bitter for many years following, until a reconciliation finally emerged around January 2010. During a recent interview with The Takedown On SI, Natalya — the niece of "The Hitman" — revealed that her husband, TJ Wilson (aka Tyson Kidd), played an instrumental part in helping Hart and Michaels make peace.

"TJ had said something to Bret like, 'I had a really great talk with Shawn and he was awesome and he was so nice to me and he was so nice to Nattie and he was just such a cool guy. He was giving me advice and being really helpful. Shawn had said that he had felt so bad about everything that had happened with you guys in the past,'" Natalya recalled of Wilson's conversation with Hart.

"TJ was the one that opened up [the] conversation between Bret and Shawn for them to kind of reconcile. So, we can all thank TJ for being the person that opened up that door because TJ is somebody that Bret really respects, and [he] trusts his word. Shawn was so nice to us and I think Shawn for a long time felt, I think he felt bad."

The reunion between Michaels and Hart later translated to WWE television, with the two shaking hands and embracing on the January 4, 2010 episode of "WWE Raw" after burying the proverbial hatchet.