#BretWeek

Essential Viewing

Like the WWE does with their DVD collections, we seek to tell a very specific “story” with every person we pick to be the Wrestler of the Week.

That may not be everyone’s story about them, but it is our story about them. Each time, we start off by letting you Better Know our feelings at the moment — what we think about when we think about whomever or whatever we’re writing about. And we end it each time with a discussion that, to the best of our abilities, tries to give you as many different perspectives as we can muster, even if it we don’t always have a real Difference of Opinion.

And the one other constant of these weeks has always been Essential Viewing. The idea of these has always been, for us, about giving you the necessary context — through video clips that we can (relatively) readily available on the internet — to understand as simply as possible what we are trying to say about the performers we picked. We try to tailor the footage we pick to the things we think you have to see to really “understand” what we think made these people great to us, or at least warranting of our attention, without overwhelming you with videos of every single good match someone had.

Watching Bret Hart isn’t just essential to understand him as a performer, but nearly everything that’s come after him. Almost anything you’ll ever see him in before he left the WWE is something that should be seen by anyone interested in becoming a professional wrestler, or seeking to expand their horizons as a consumer of the medium. As we tried to articulate yesterday, Bret was both everything good and bad about professional wrestlers, and performers in general.

As talented a technical performer as there has ever been (or ever will be), Bret’s work in-the-ring is considered top of the line by almost anyone who’s ever had a chance to see him work a match with almost anyone. While Bret’s greatest strength was being able to work with nearly anyone — which we’ll get to later — it was his work with people who could keep up with him that was obviously the most compelling.

From the very beginning, Bret was — especially when he was able to work with fellow former Stampede performers like Dynamite Kid — a revelation in the ring. Both he and Billington didn’t just have a “high workrate”, they had within them a kinetic energy, seeming to exist in the entire space of the ring, not just the spots they needed to hit to work “their” match. Either could lead, or be led, and this allowed them to carry someone to or be carried themselves to a great match.

Though, while the narrative behind Bret — both from his perspective, and to a large extent, the WWF’s — is that of some sort of magical heroic journey of an underdog who overcame the odds much in the same way Daniel Bryan has. But from the very beginnings of his career in the WWF Bret was, at the very least, well liked by the brass. Alongside Jim Neidhart, the Hart Foundation held the Tag Team gold for over 400 days during two lengthy title reigns, with first one beginning with this match against the British Bulldogs.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x31ot16

Although it took him several years to permanently break into the singles ranks, once he did, he star rose rapidly. After beating Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam 91’

He’d hold it until he… uh… got sick? It’s really hard to know exactly why they decided to have him drop the title to Mountie with a “100 degree fever” so that the Mountie could lose it to Roddy Piper. Regardless of how they got there, the match that resulted between the two at WrestleMania VII remains easily the best of Rowdy’s WWF career and one of the great battles for the Intercontinental title ever.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ht0hm

He would then drop the belt once again relatively quickly, this time to Davey Boy Smith at SummerSlam ‘92 in front of one of the biggest houses the WWE has ever seen at Wembley Stadium.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c7eof

Despite having to hold Davey Boy’s hand through the match because of a crack binge the Bulldog went on with Jim Neidhart in the lead-up to the show, it — even more so than the Piper match from just a few months before — is considered to be the greatest Intercontinental match of all time, out of maybe Steamboat-Savage. When people say “the Intercontinental title used to mean something” this is what they are talking about.

These reigns, almost needlessly broken up — even if Hart was actually sick, explaining that to the crowd and making a No. 1 contender’s match for the title made more sense — were the pinnacle of a run in the WWF that began with, of all people, THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR who defeated the longest reigning Intercontinental champion IN HISTORY the Honky Tonk Man. After a decent reign that poured prestige — if not necessarily good matches — into the title, he dropped it to Rick Rude before regaining and holding it until he vacated it for the WWF Championship.

This made the title the literal stepping stone it had only ever been for Savage, who lost it to Steamboat in that WM 3 match en route to winning the WWF title during the WrestleMania IV tourney. And like Savage — and Warrior — Hart would go from losing the belt to almost immediately being put on a path towards the WWE title. For Hart, his first run with the belt came just months after SummerSlam, at a house show in Saskatoon, CA when he beat Ric Flair in a match that would down in history as … one of the more disappointing matches ever.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10qzd

It’s not that it’s bad, as much as it’s not as fluid or crackling with potential wrestling energy that one would expect from two men considered to be on the “great in-ring performers” Mt. Rushmore. This was likely because, well, both men take their characters “seriously”, which basically is a nice way of saying that they kept wanting to look better than one another. For Bret, that make sense, as he was about to become the face of the company by having the torch passed his natural successor as The Man. Flair… well.. not so much.

The match was a microcosm of the trouble with trying to move up through the ranks following the downfall of the territorial era. Everyone was fighting for a job, and nobody was willing to let go of their spot without a fight or a chance to make themselves look good. Enter WrestleMania IX.

The match, which approximately 100X better than it had any right being, is mostly known for its ending, where Fuji through salt in Hart’s eyes, allowing Yoko to score the pinfall and win the title. And while probably a bummer for Bret Hart fans, the result absolutely made sense and definitely set the stage for Hart to “get his win back” after a year of building him into an unbeatable monster heel.

… Enter the REAL unbeatable monster heel (at about 4:21).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wMguHwP794

For those who have neither the time, or inclination, Hulk Hogan — who mentioned his “long-time” friendship with Bret Hart for the first time that night and had already fought in a match for the tag team titles — is inexplicably challenged with the title as bait by Fuji immediately after his guy won it in match that just happened. This is perhaps the most infamous moment in WrestleMania history from backstage politics point of view, though whether or not it’s in the top five for Hogan.

Then, because Hogan was on his way to WCW, the Hulkster only appeared on WWE a handful of times after before dropping the belt right back to Yokozuna at that June’s King of the Ring PPV.

And while Yoko was busy getting his win back, Hart was working his way through a performance that would once again plant him near the front of the line for “best wrestler of all time” honors, with a 3-match tour-de-force.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ep6vo

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ns9f_kotr93-final-bret-hart-v-bam-bam-bi_fun

Beyond the stamina required to work three matches, two of which went nearly 20 minutes, Hart decided to add the wrinkle of working as though his hands had been hurt during his first match so that he would not be able to perform the Sharpshooter, forcing him to end the matches in as many different ways as possible. This, of course, led to a major program with Yokozuna in the build up to a massive SummerSlam match between the two. Right?

Not so much.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1o8co_bret-hart-being-crowned-king-of-the_fun

That’s right, Bret Hart gets The Miz treatment, knocked down to a nowhere feud with Jerry Lawler while Yoko takes a ride on the Lex Express. Luger, the All-American reject replacement from the Hulk Hogan factory worked with Yoko in a Foreign Menace storyline for the ages. The Jet Age, but “the ages” nevertheless. He wouldn’t even work with Lawler directly, taking on Doink the same night that Lex “beat” Yoko by count-out.

https://vimeo.com/87412785

But, despite the seemingly nowhere path he had been lead on, Bret being Bret, he had a fantastic match with the vastly underrated Matt Bourne, who had at the time turned the clown in a dark and twisted heel more reminiscent of Pennywise than Bozo.

Bret would eventually make his way back into the main event picture, winning the 1994 Royal Rumble while simultaneously igniting the feud with Owen (which we touched on in detail last week with the younger Hart’s Essential Viewing). This of course, led to a major program with Yokozuna in the build up to a massive WrestleMania X match between the two. Right?

Not so much.

That’s right, Bret Hart got the Rock treatment, given a Royal Rumble victory, but only by tying another competitor as the company tried to figure out who they were going to make the star of the future.

Thankfully for Bret (and the future of the WWE universe), Vince decided to make it a popularity contest between Bret and Lex, which Bret won handily. But in order to deal with the accompanying “controversy”. Hart was forced to work a match with his brother. It would, because it’s Bret (and Owen) end up essentially redefining the concept of the “curtain jerker” in the WWE.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x61i2wc

Owen and Bret put on the match of a lifetime, with both looking as good as they possible could. The result is SHOCKING (seriously, this was the Yankees losing to the Marlins in 2003), but given the way the match was worked, it also made total sense. Bret would his second match that evening, this time against Yokozuna — who defeated Luger by DQ after special guest referee Mr. Perfect inexplicably turned on him – where he would finally recapture the gold.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6fxbl8

The match itself isn’t particularly important. But what is important is that it was the first day of the end of Bret Hart’s time on top in the WWE, as a storm was coming and it was getting time to batten down the hatches.

***

After defeating Yokozuna at WrestleMania X, Bret should have been the coronated — no, not like the 1993 King of the Ring confrontation with Jerry Lawler that would lead to his “Kiss My Feet” match just a year or so after the biggest victory of Hart’s career:

But the kind of coronation that Hulk Hogan and … well … nobody else in the modern history of the WWF would get. After eight months, he’d lose the title to Bob Backlund after his brother, Owen (with whom he had been feuding for almost a year) tricked their mother into throwing in the towel.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x236dyw

The match isn’t worth anywhere near the 45 minutes it lasts — even if it were half that length, we can assure you’d not be missing anything by skipping it — Bob Backlund’s insane promo after the match is truly a sight to see.

Helen literally throwing in the towel cost her son the title, but more importantly, it was the foot in the door that the Kliq — the backstage name for the group Shawn Michaels, Diesel (Kevin Nash), Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), the 123 Kid (Sean Waltman) and Triple H who had a considerable amount of sway with the company in terms of “creative control” and storyline direction — used to bust through. And they did, in about eight seconds.

Aside from legally changing his name to Transition Champion Bob Backlund, this ridiculous “match” would lead to a nearly year-long title reign which saw Diesel plod his way through the beginning of the In Your House era, become tag team champions with Shawn Michaels and even put on the worst PPV main event of all time against Mabel at SummerSlam 95. Realizing that the Diesel reign wasn’t the money making juggernaut they hoped it would be, the WWF made a choice to have Hart defeat Diesel at Survivor Series.

As had become a recurring theme, it was easily the best match of Diesel’s career and would have likely done considerably more for Nash than what Big Daddy Cool got out of his WrestleMania XI opponent in terms of establishing him as a viable long-term champion. But Bret would instead be facing Diesel’s opponent from that show, who after winning his second consecutive Royal Rumble, challenged the Hitman to a 60-minute Iron Man Match. It, not surprisingly, is not available on YouTube either, though much like the towel match, was less about what happened than what it meant for the people involved.

For Bret, it was the writing on the wall that said loudly “he’s next”, while for Shawn the stature he reached by virtue of his talent was a blank check that his crippling drug addiction would prevent him from being able to cash. From there, Bret’s status in the company would fluctuate, as he’d swing back and forth through the next few years, picking up another title reign that last just one day — as part of the Final Four In Your House PPV — before having the blowoff match for his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin, which had begun around a year earlier (and is something we’ll be getting to in more deal when we do #StoneColdWeek).

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6jb3sw

Bret, both in real life and on camera, began resenting Michaels and the influence he had, and not surprisingly for anyone who watched #PillmanWeek did a perfect job of playing the avatar of t New Generation just as it was becoming the Attitude Era.

He was genuinely unhappy with the direction the company — and professional wrestling as a whole — was going with racy style of the Michaels/HHH-led D-X, and blamed fans for the change. In kayfabe, Bret Hart made it about being a Canadian hero stuck in a land of disrespectful louts, while in real life, it appears he was largely bothered by the influence that Michaels/HHH had than anything he felt about the fans, though he was promos on everyone involved.

This, rather obviously, made him a dastardly heel in the U.S., but much significantly, it made him an even more massive fan favorite to Canadians where’s he was already genuinely considered a national hero just below the Gretzkys of the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5_TaLanqf4

With the momentum from this persona, he very quickly grabbed the title for a then-unprecedented 5th time, defeating the Undertaker at SummerSlam in a match refereed by — you guessed it — Shawn Michaels.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5wj1s2

The ending of this match — which, if you’ve read Bret’s book, Hitman, resulted in the most high school game of he said-he said in the history of adult professionals — set the stage for what would go down as the single most famous match in wrestling history, The Montreal Screwjob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFmbDYUii1I

***

The Montreal Screwjob is the most significant moment of Bret’s career, and for all intents and purposes, the start of the Attitude Era. An era that in many ways — beyond being the catalyst — Bret was the most important part of. His departure — and the way it went down — redefined the WWF from top to bottom. Along with putting Steve Austin in the right spot to take the torch, the way he exited the company forced Vince into the spotlight and acknowledged as the owner of the company. This completely changed the storytelling dynamic of wrestling, with the line between the story and “the story” was now totally blurred.

No longer did the mishaps, misdirections and changed plans need to be explained to make the narrative make sense: they had God AND the machine in Vince McMahon’s Mr. McMahon character. Mr. McMahon acted as God because he is God of the WWE Universe.

Bret, because of his adherence to what was quickly becoming an antiquated system of storytelling — both the concepts of “good” and “bad” guys, and the relatively wholesome/family friendly stories being told to appeal to as broad an audience as possible — became the figure who would bring us the truth of what we were watching. It was a truth build on lies, but it at least freed us from the idea that we had to root for one side or the other, instead letting those performers who were on our wavelength one way or the other be who we rooted for.

That the illusion was broken by telling us that the what we were watching was fake stood in direct contrast to the goals of Bret through his entire career: to make everything look as real as possible. Which is why it’s probably best Bret wasn’t around for the Attitude Era, no matter how important he was to it happening in the first place.

Best for business, anyways. It was not best for Bret, who found himself in a very odd place when he first entered WCW. He’d start off hot enough, instantly jumping into a feud with Ric Flair over who was really the “best”. As was often the case with feuds like this, while it didn’t do a disservice to either man, it definitely didn’t live up to the hype.

Even face-to-face confrontations between the two, like this one shortly after Hart debuted at Starrcade 1997,

Regardless of the actually quality, though, it more importantly didn’t exactly move the needle the way that anyone would have expected it. Past their primes, and with Bret as the physical embodiment of the change the WWF was bringing to the industry — as opposed to the physical embodiment of the change WCW wanted to bring to the industry, like Hall and Nash — Hart felt like more like a discarded toy than a conquering hero.

That’s because Bret Hart was, even more so than Hogan, a complete creation of the WWF. Not Bret Hart the character, but Bret Hart the famous wrestling star. Lacking the natural charisma of Flair, Hogan, Michaels, Austin or the Rock, the Hitman made his way to the top through superlative wrestling ability. But he made it through superlatively wrestling in the WWF. While his core — his in-ring skills — were the most portable and best to have, not be able to perform at the level he once did, he suffered the same fate that Hogan and Savage would have if they didn’t have the charisma that they do: nobody would have cared.

And while it’s not exactly fair to say “no one cared”, the weren’t compelled to care for any reason other than they were told to and had heard Bret Hart’s name before. They didn’t have the relationship with Bret that fans had in the WWF after years of historically good matches and free sunglasses handed out to kids in the crowd. No matter what they did, they couldn’t recreate the magic of the Hitman in WCW. Even those who had previously been reluctant to put Bret over ended up doing so, with Flair taking the loss in Hart’s debut in WCW.

Even Hogan got in on the fun, working significantly more than expected to try to get Hart over.

But none of it worked. Frustrated and injured, Bret took time off to heal his grind when, in the WWF, Bret’s brother Owen infamously died performing a stunt at the Over the Edge PPV. Bret would take months off, mourning the loss with his family and mentally recuperating. He’d come back and work with long-time family friend Chris Benoit in an Owen Hart tribute match. While maudlin and bittersweet to look back on, it’s also Bret’s last great memory with the company and in professional wrestling.

Bret would soon after find himself feuding with Goldberg, leading to a match at Starrcade. And this:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bbs6

It’s that moment, that exact moment when Bret body hits the mat that his career was over. All the championship, the fans and the feuds were done with one (literal) swift kick. And while Bret probably deserved better, it seemed fitting that it was someone pushed ahead of him despite significantly less skilled but with a much better look. Twas ever thus.