Who defeated Bret Hart to win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XII in 1996?

Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart to win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XII in 1996.

Their match was a 60-minute Iron Man match, meaning the wrestler with the most falls at the end of the time limit would win. Neither man scored during the regulation hour, so the contest continued under sudden-death overtime. Michaels won with a superkick, commonly called Sweet Chin Music.

The victory fulfilled Michaels’s long-running goal of becoming WWF Champion at WrestleMania. The match was held at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California, and was promoted as “The Iron Man Match.”

Bret Hart had returned from a brief absence before the event and entered as champion. The Undertaker was also on the card, but he did not participate in the championship match. Michaels’s win began his first WWF Championship reign and marked an important milestone in the company’s shift toward its late-1990s era.