wrestling / Columns
The Contentious Ten 01.04.10: Bret Hart Matches
Welcome to the new top ten column on 411! Due to some spectacular timing, I’ve got an excellent topic for my debut. Tonight, Bret “The Hitman” Hart makes his return to a WWE ring after a twelve year absence in what is sure to be one of the most surreal and exhilarating moments in Raw history. To celebrate the occasion, I’ll be listing Bret’s ten greatest matches. I’ll tell you, it was quite the challenge to narrow it down to just ten, and the honorable mentions are almost as good as the ones that did make the list, and almost as numerous.
Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith, In Your House V
This match was an excellent follow-up to their Summer Slam classic. The roles were reversed as Bret was the babyface and Bulldog the heel, and the dynamic was just as good. Both very technical and very, very bloody the match unfortunately did a horrible buy rate and didn’t receive the proper recognition until it was released on Bret’s DVD set.
Bret Hart vs. Diesel, Survivor Series 1995
This is one of the best examples of Bret Hart carrying an inferior worker to a great match. Lots of brawling and creative spots highlight this match. Bret gave it his best effort and pulled out a great match, and won his third WWF Championship in the process. However, there are far better matches in Bret’s resume that knock this off of the list.
Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels, Survivor Series 1992
Five years before the Montreal Screwjob these two had quite a fantastic match for the WWF Championship here. The hatred between the two hadn’t developed and all you see here is two guys trying to have a great match and prove that they are the future of the business. They succeeded on both fronts, delivering a terrific match and starting the definitive rivalry of the ‘90’s.
Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect, King of the Ring 1993
Technically better than their Summer Slam match but not as important to Bret’s career or to wrestling history. Both men were babyfaces and Perfect was in better health, so they did a lot of great wrestling in this one before Bret won with a small package reversal. One of three great matches Hart on this evening, and one of his best.
Bret Hart vs. Undertaker, Summer Slam 1997
One of the most important matches in WWF history as it set up a lot of important things, like DX, the Montreal Screwjob, and the Taker-Michaels feud. Both men gave a fantastic effort and pulled out a great match. However, they had a better one a little bit later that actually does make the list. Very important, but not quite good enough to make Bret’s top ten.
Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon, Royal Rumble 1993
One of the highlights of Bret’s first run with the WWF Championship. Razor was in peak form here and was trying to make a name for himself and prove that he was worthy of being thrust into the main event so quickly. Bret gave him a great match here that is one of Scott’s best and a match that always gets lost in Bret’s endless series of **** matches.
Bret Hart vs. Ricky Steamboat, Boston Garden 1986
One of Bret’s first truly great singles matches in the World Wrestling Federation. These two could probably have had a good match in their sleep, but they were both working very hard here. This is one of my personal favorites of Bret’s because he hadn’t started using a lot of his signature offense, so the match is less predictable.
And now, the top ten. For those wondering, the criteria I used were:
1: Importance to Bret’s Career
2: Match Quality
3: Focus on Variety of Opponents/Styles
4: Personal Preference
Wrestlemania VIII, Intercontinental Championshipsize=4>
A lot of people like to focus on Bret Hart’s technical acumen, but I personally believe that that aspect of Bret is overrated and another aspect is highly underrated. That would be his storytelling. This match is one of the best examples of it, with another guy who ranks among the best storytellers in the business. “The Rowdy One” wasn’t exactly known for his technical acumen, but he knew how to play on a crowd’s emotions. In this match, he walked the fine line between desperate babyface champion and cheating heel champion. He threw punches and slaps when he realized he couldn’t match Bret on the mat and didn’t hesitate to go after Bret’s cut, even biting it. And in his defense, Hart faked a shoulder injury to try to get a quick roll-up early in the match, so all was fair. But when the crowd booed him as he prepared to nail Bret with the ring bell, Piper dropped it and applied his patented sleeper instead. In the end, that cost him, as Bret was able to climb up the turnbuckles and pin Piper’s shoulders to the mat, one of the very few to do so to Piper in WWE.
Bret is often criticized by detractors for wrestling the same basic match every time out. In some ways, this is true. Bret used a lot of his patented maneuvers when making his comeback, including this match. But all wrestlers do that to an extent. What matters is how you use the moves in the context of the match and adapting your style to suit your opponent. This was a fine example of Bret changing his usual strategies to deal with the wily Piper. The result was Piper’s best match and one that proved that Bret could work the WWF’s main event style without sacrificing his quality wrestling. This match set Bret on the path to becoming a World Champion.
Wrestlemania XII, Iron-Man Matchsize=4>
Considering Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels is possibly the most famous rivalry, in-ring or otherwise, in wrestling history, I would be completely remiss to not have this match on the list. Some people call it overrated and boring, but these are subjective opinions. Let me give you some real facts though. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels wrestled for an hour in the main event of a Wrestlemania. Wrestlemania main-events were known for having matches that were style over substance, like Hogan vs. Andre and Hogan vs. Warrior. This was totally different. This was two artists, two great workers, both in their prime, putting on a wrestling clinic for sixty minutes. For the longest time, this was the World Wrestling Federation’s gift to fans of wrestling. The company that was famous for “sports entertainment” put on an incredible, old-school, one hour wrestling match. The fact that Vince McMahon and company were willing to put on this match showed just how much Bret Hart has influenced WWE.
The one-hour match featured a little bit of everything, from chain wrestling to brawling to high flying. Bret spent a majority of the first half of the match having his arm worked by Shawn before making a comeback in the second half, unleashing all of his patented offense and busting out a few new tricks. Shawn took a brutal beating, taking backbreakers, a piledriver, and a back body drop from the ring to the floor. But he endured the onslaught and fought back with his entire arsenal, which still wasn’t enough to put Bret away. Hart would go the sixty minutes without being beaten, only to have the match restarted. Michaels would hit two superkicks to win his first WWE Championship, but Bret had wrestled for an hour at the Granddaddy of Them All. He has had better matches and they rank higher on this list, but few are as iconic as this one.
Survivor Series 1996, #1 Contender’s Matchsize=4>
This was the first match between Hart and Austin, and set the stage for a feud that I consider to be the best of all time. The premise for this match was simple. Bret Hart had taken a leave of absence after losing the Iron Man match with Shawn Michaels, but was ready to make his return. During his absence, Steve Austin’s star had skyrocketed. Both guys deserved a chance to get into world title contention. Austin wanted to prove that he could beat a top star like Bret, and Bret wanted to prove that he wasn’t about to be overshadowed by a new star. So the classic tale of the grizzled veteran and the young breakout began. And what a beginning it was.
This match literally had it all. Both men were out to prove how good they were, and so they didn’t hesitate to pull out their best maneuvers. Austin proved his technical acumen, applying a variety of holds and working over Hart’s neck, but he didn’t hesitate to break the rules. He punched Bret’s jaw, raked his eyes, and sent him crashing into the guardrail, the turnbuckles, and the post. Bret put on a wrestling clinic, survived Austin’s assault, and went blow-to-blow with him and nothing else worked. Austin survived the Sharpshooter. Bret survived the Stunner. The match ended in a near fluke, as Austin applied Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Dream only to have Hart climb up the turnbuckles and pin him (shades of another match on this list). Even in a loss, Austin had a star making performance, gaining much and losing little from the loss. As for Bret, the victory showed that he could still go with the best of them. This match is a classic that is a brilliant example of how to build a match. They set the bar incredibly high for themselves, but what is more amazing is that they were able to surpass it.
One Night Only, WWF Championshipsize=4>
Undertaker and Bret Hart is one of my personal favorite rivalries. Why? Undertaker was a power wrestler whose character could take enormous sums of punishment without being defeated. Hart was a scientific wrestler who could counter all of Taker’s big moves and methodically cut his legs down. The result is that you had both guys who really couldn’t beat the other, which gave us many lengthy, knock-down drag-out affairs. In my opinion, this was the best of the bunch. This was coming off of the Summer Slam match where Bret won the WWF Championship under controversial circumstances involving Shawn Michaels. This was Taker’s rematch and the London crowd loved both guys, creating a terrific atmosphere.
Jim Ross summed up the match with his call: “Bret Hart wrestling with finesse, the Undertaker wrestling with fury.” The match was intense and physical, with both wrestlers showing a lot of skill and a lot of aggressiveness. In the end, Hart would get tied up in the ropes and Taker whaled on him with punches that drew a disqualification. For me, it was one of the best uses of a screwy finish because of the dynamic between Bret and Taker. While it was awesome to watch the two titans battle, there really was no way they could convincingly beat each other. When people talk about Bret’s greatest matches they usually talk about the athletic contests between him and athletes of similar size and style, but I think that his ability to have great matches with big men like Undertaker and Diesel is just as impressive if not more so. This is the finest example of Bret doing just that.
Summer Slam 1994, WWF Championship Cage Matchsize=4>
Bret’s second title reign was his longest and probably his best. One of the reason’s it was so good was that he had a perfect rival in his brother Owen. Owen had defeated his brother on the same night that Bret won the title from Yokozuna and had also been crowned the 1994 King of the Ring, and was just as good as Bret in the ring, so he had credibility. With the obvious personal issues between the two it made sense to put them inside of the steel cage. Despite Bret being down with the flu, the brothers Hart had a fantastic outing that is one of the best steel cage matches of all time. The match was competitive, exciting, intense and brutal, and they did it without losing a single drop of blood.
How did they manage to have a classic cage match without shedding the life-giving fluid? By suplexing each other off of the side of the cage, torturing each other with Sharpshooters, and drilling each with huge right hands for the entire match. But the real highlight of the match is how hard they fight and scrap to get out of the cage and to keep the other man in the cage. Hair and tights were pulled and hundreds of wild punches were thrown. Whenever one man would get within a hair of escaping, the other would dive and grab whatever they could to keep the match going. In the end, they both climbed out of the cage at the same time and Bret won by smashing Owen’s face into the cage, trapping him in the metal bars so he could escape. My only real criticism of the match is that a lot of the appeal of the match is the drama over who will win and when the victory will happen. Once you know, a lot of the cage climbing seems a bit tedious. However, this match is a brilliant example that a cage doesn’t have to be bloody to be hate-filled and dramatic.
Monday Nitro, Owen Hart Tribute Matchsize=4>
I don’t think there’s a better reason for a great match to happen than for it to be a brother’s tribute to a great athlete who nobody has a bad word to say about. For my money, this is the best tribute match of all time, and there are two reasons for that. For one, Bret is family and Chris Benoit was one of Owen’s best friends, so there is a lot of genuine emotion. Two, both guys wrestle a style similar to the one Owen wrestled, so it’s a tribute to his ability as a wrestler. This was a brilliantly wrestled match between two extremely gifted technical wrestlers, with no shenanigans a clean finish. If you take the match out of context and just watch it as a wrestling match, it’s a clinic that deserves to be talked about in the same breath as Bret’s classics and Benoit’s classics. They execute at a very high level, with tons of high impact moves and brilliant counters. The final counter from Benoit’s Crossface to Bret’s Sharpshooter is a thing of beauty.
But when you put it in context, the quality of the match isn’t all that important. This is a brother doing what he does best, giving everything he has, in memory of his fallen brother. It is an incredibly emotional match that has sort of been forgotten about for obvious reasons. However, it’s still a personal tradition of mine to watch this match every May 23. This match wasn’t very important to Bret’s career, as he had already done everything there was to do in the wrestling business, but it’s probably more important to Bret’s life than any other match on the list. A sentimental pick, but you can put it up against any other match on this list and it will hold up.
Summer Slam 1991, Intercontinental Championshipsize=4>
This was Bret Hart’s coming out party as a singles wrestler. Curt Hennig was the “perfect” guy to make Bret look like a star. He could wrestle a long match that would allow Bret to showcase all of his best moves, and he could sell all of those moves in a way that made Bret look like a superhero. I don’t think a match like this would get over with people today, because Hart was a white-meat babyface playing the underdog and Perfect was a cocky, arrogant and talented heel. These days, people would boo Bret out of the building and cheer for Hennig. But in 1991, you couldn’t ask for a better opponent. The match was a classic that proved that Bret was just as great by himself as he was in the Hart Foundation.
The match was very intense, technically sound, and also had a lot of showmanship. Perfect was using every dirty trick in the book, pulling hair, raking the eyes, kicking below the belt, using his manager to distract Bret and knocking him into the barricade. Bret worked a frantic pace, busting out all of crowd-pleasing offense and attacking the leg to set up for the Sharpshooter. Once Bret got the hold on, Perfect immediately submitted and Bret became the Intercontinental Champion. While the match is very good on its own merit, its placement this high is also due to being a very important match in Bret’s career. It was also a preview of the style that would dominate the next few years of main events.
Wrestlemania Xsize=4>
Despite being overshadowed by the show-stealing ladder match between Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels, this match is one of the greatest of all time. A wrestling purist’s wet dream, with terrific scientific wrestling, amazing storytelling, and hard work. Lots and lots of hard work. If you look at this based simply on the moves, it is one of the best technical matches of all time with absolutely flawless execution. When you add in the very personal and competitive rivalry between Bret and Owen, you have wrestling nirvana. Owen was jealous of his brother Bret and was trying to step out of his shadow. Bret was a little reluctant to wrestle his brother, but he didn’t shy from trying to teach him a lesson in the ring and prove his superiority. But that proved a lot more difficult than Bret expected, as Owen was quite the technician himself, and he could also fly and brawl.
If you have wondered what critics mean when they say “in-ring storytelling”, watch this match and how Owen goes from being just another cocky punk to a bonafide star in the span of twenty minutes. Bret starts the match by schooling Owen on the mat, but when he gets a little too cocky and dives outside, he hurts his knee. Owen goes to town on the leg, proving to be every bit as skilled as Bret and even more vicious. And then Bret starts to make a comeback and hits all of his best moves, but Owen survives them, showing the tenacity to back up his bravado. And then, when Bret tries a victory roll, Owen expertly counters it and pins his brother clean. In this match, he proved he could hang with the Hitman and came away with a shocking victory. While the story of the match is more about Owen than Bret, the match is one of Bret’s finest in-ring efforts. I still consider this to be the best pure wrestling match of all time.
Wrestlemania 13, No Disqualification Submission Matchsize=4>
And this would be the match that topped the Survivor Series match. Some consider it the greatest match in Wrestlemania history, and it definitely has a case. The intensity in this match is off the charts, with the two rivals brawling all over the arena, Bret going after Austin’s leg relentlessly, Austin using different submission holds to try to get the win, and chairs, wires, and a ring bell adding to the carnage. The finale is one of the best and most important in wrestling history. Bret puts Austin in the Sharpshooter, Austin bleeding like a sieve but refusing to quit. Austin would try to break the hold and would succeed momentarily before passing out in a pool of his own blood. Bret attacked after the bell, and in the span of about two minutes, Austin became a valiant hero and Bret became an unsportsmanlike villain. It was an incredible double turn the likes of which may never be duplicated again.
Austin and Hart were made to wrestle each other. Both men were brilliant storytellers, but they worked different styles. Bret wrestled the pure, technical style taught to Stampede grapplers. Austin was the toughest S.O.B. in wrestling and was renowned for his brawling. But then, Bret could brawl and Austin knew how to wrestle. When they wrestled, you knew you were in for a competitive, hard-hitting, technically sound and athletic contest that will more than likely steal the show. But when you add in the diametrically opposing ideologies, with Bret representing the traditions of the past and Austin sticking a middle finger to those traditions, and a crowd that was ready to switch, those competitive contests became deeply personal battles that would change the fate of WWE, and the ramifications of their rivalry can still be felt to this day.
Summer Slam 1992, Intercontinental Championshipsize=4>
Why this doesn’t have the flawless execution of the Wrestlemania X match, or the far-reaching effects of the Wrestlemania 13 match, Hart vs. Smith at Wembley is arguably the most important match in Bret’s career. While he lost the match, he still defended his championship in the main event on a major show in front of over 80,000 people. This was Bret’s first big-time main event and he excelled in that position, carrying the Bulldog to the best match of his career, and making his own in the process. It is no coincidence that Bret defeated Ric Flair for the WWE Championship shortly after this match, because he proved worthy of being a champion and in the main event with this contest.
While time and the internet have exposed this match as little more than a carry job, it is still an excellent contest. Bret put on a clinic with move after move, and helped to get the U.K. crowd even more behind their hometown boy. The match started with great chain wrestling that hadn’t been seen in WWF main events to that point, with many subtle moments that made it more than simply a show of technical prowess. The match got better and better down the stretch, with dramatic false finishes and high impact moves. Smith would get the win by countering a sunset flip and become the Intercontinental Champion, but it was Hart who made the match as good as it was. While other matches on this list are better, this match features Bret’s best individual performance. The match is Bret’s personal favorite, and the career defining moments it had for both men makes it one of the most fondly remembered matches in wrestling history.
Next week, I’ll be taking a look at the best TNA matches of the companies history. For now, here’s one last thing to remember Bret Hart by.
