I still lean towards it being real, but there's always been a few things that at least made me question it a little bit.
The first is that Bret definitely loved mixing shoot with work. Even in his own book, and other shoot interviews, he talks about wanting to make the guys in the back believe him and Shawn had real heat in 96 after their Mania match. This was before they did have legit problems. It was his idea to be really aggressive with talking shyt about him and making the heat seem legit.
Kanyon also said he spoke to Bret about it, saying "cmon, it's a work". Bret looked at him, smiled and said "shhhh" and walked away. From Kanyon's shoot.
I do still think it's real but man, some of those little things make me wonder. Seems right up Bret's alley to take that shyt to the grave.