That Was Then 10.27.06: There Can Be Only One Part 5 – Purgatory

1993 had been a year of ups and downs for Bret Hart. He began the year as WWF Champion, but had the title stolen from him by Yokozuna and Mr Fuji at Wrestlemania 9. He rebounded by winning the first ever King Of The Ring tournament, but had his coronation ceremony ruined at the end of the night by another King, Jerry Lawler. He feuded with Jerry Lawler through the next several months and ended up winning the feud, but Lawler had disappeared from the WWF by that time and Bret had to deal with the jealousy of his younger brother Owen, who challenged Bret to a match because he felt stuck in his older brother’s shadow. Bret instead talked Owen into teaming up and challenging for the WWF Tag Team Title, but a knee injury cause the match to be stopped and Owen, having lost his shot at the gold, viciously attacked Bret in frustration. Bret ended up getting in the ring with Owen after all at Wrestlemania 10, and Owen shocked the world by picking up a clean win over Bret. However, to Owen’s consternation, Bret ended the evening by regaining the WWF Title from Yokozuna. Now that he was once again the champion, Bret would naturally have to defend the title against Owen, who had become a contender by pinning him the same day he won the title, but Owen wasn’t the only challenger lining up for a shot at the gold.

Fortunately for Bret, Owen wasn’t an immediate concern because his first challenger manifested itself in the form of the seven foot tall Diesel, the bodyguard of Shawn Michaels, who had just beaten Razor Ramon for the IC Title. Diesel challenged Bret to a match for the WWF Title on an edition of Jerry Lawler’s talk show, the King’s Court, and then invited Bret out to confront him face to face. As you might imagine, it was a trap: Michaels and Diesel attacked him and Diesel gave him the Jackknife.

The match was now set for King Of The Ring 1994, and Bret announced that in order to counter the presence of Shawn Michaels, he would have a family member in his corner. It obviously wouldn’t be Owen, so speculation ran high as to who exactly this family member would be. Even the night of King Of The Ring, we didn’t have any clue who it would be except that it was a family member, but the answer soon revelaed itself when Bret came to the ring accompanied by his former tag team partner Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, who also happened to be his brother-in-law. This was clearly not what Michaels and Diesel expected, probably expecting him to bring his father or one of his brothers.

Michaels actually seemed more thrown by this than Diesel, who took the fight to Bret, but he was forced to do it on his own, because Neidhart was there whenever Michaels tried to interfere, and at one point actually started chasing him around the ring. Finally, Diesel managed to give Bret the Jackknife, but was unable to make the cover before Neidhart jumped in the ring and clotheslined Diesel, then inexplicably just walked out, leaving Bret alone to get beaten up 2-on-1 by Michaels and Diesel.

After making his way to the back following his beating, Bret began looking everywhere for Neidhart, but couldn’t find him anywhere. However, Neidhart showed up again later in the night during the finals of the King Of The Ring tournament. Owen had made his way to the finals against Razor Ramon, and when Razor was attempting to give Owen the Razor’s Edge, Owen backdropped him over the top to the floor. While the referee had his back turned, Neidhart came back to ringside and appeared to try and help Razor up, but then clotheslined him as well, throwing him back into the ring where he was easy prey for a top rope elbowdrop from Owen for the win. Owen had now done what Bret had done the year before by winning the King Of The Ring tournament.

It was speculated upon that night by the announcers that Neidhart had agreed to be in Bret’s corner at KOTR only to make sure that Bret kept the title long enough for Owen to beat him, and this theory seemed to be supported by Neidhart’s allegiances. In the family feud between Bret and Owen, Neidhart had made his choice and was firmly on the side of Owen. In fact, rumors even began swirling that Neidhart was the one whispering in Owen’s ear all along, causing him to turn on his family. Nobody was sure what exactly his motivations were, but he had certainly made an impact, so much so that when the rematch between Bret and Owen was finally signed for Summerslam 1994, not only would it be for the WWF Title, but it would be in a steel cage as well.

In truth, this was not just because of Neidhart, but the fact that a large portion of the Hart family would be in attendance as well, and would not take kindly to Neidhart’s interference should he attempt to get involved. The rest of the family was shown to have strong feelings about this match as well when Bruce Hart confronted his younger brother several weeks before Summerslam. He told Owen that none of the family was proud of him, and in fact were disgusted at what he was doing, but his diatribe was soon cut short when Owen and Neidhart attacked him and laid him out. Summerslam finally arrived, and sure enough, Neidhart was there, as well as the rest of the Hart family, including one member that hadn’t been seen in the WWF in quite some time: the British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith. His presence would surely be a strong deterrent should Neidhart trying to involve himself in the action.

The match got underway, and had more heat than any other match on the card that night. Bret and Owen both kept trying to escape and both were repeatedly yanked off the cage and either dropped on the ropes or slammed to the canvas. The drama continued as both men caught the other in the Sharpshooter, and at one point even took turns pulling the other away from the door and leapfrogging over one another to try and get out. The end came when both men climbed over the top and were fighting on the outside of the cage. Owen got his leg caught in the cage and Bret used it to his advantage, slamming Owen’s face into the cage and causing him to fall backwards and hang upside down by his leg, allowing Bret to leap from the cage to the floor for the win.

This was a great win for Bret, who had not only successfully defended the title against one of his toughest challengers ever, but also was suffering from strep throat at the time. His victory would be spoiled when Neidhart jumped the rail and hit Davey Boy from behind, then climbed into the cage and locked it shut so he and Owen could lay in another beating on Bret. Several members of the Hart family tried to get into the cage to help Bret, but as good as the cage was at keeping Bret and Owen inside during the match, it was also doing a good job of keeping the rest of the family out as they stormed the ring to come to the aid of Bret. Nobody was able to get into the cage until Davey Boy finally recovered from the shot Neidhart gave him. He climbed the cage, fighting Owen off, and slid inside to rescue his brother-in-law from the assault by Owen and Neidhart, who fled the cage once the family began flooding into the cage.

Now with Davey Boy on his side, the odds were a little more even, and they met Owen and Neidhart in a tag team match several weeks later, which was won by Bret and Davey Boy when Bret made Neidhart submit to the Sharpshooter. However, Owen wanted one more shot at Bret for the title, and they met in the main event of the first ever edition of WWF Action Zone on the USA Network. Although the Action Zone would quickly become a fluff recap show, the first edition was definitely worth watching, as Bret and Owen went at it in what Bret said would be Owen’s last shot at the WWF Title. Knowing that he would never get another shot at the title as long as Bret was champion, Owen fought with everything he had, but in the end, Bret got the win and now just wanted to put this family feud behind him.

Now that Owen was no longer a contender, it was time for Bret to turn to the next challenger, and it would be an unlikely one. After reigning as the WWF Champion for the better part of six years in the late 70s and early 80s, Bob Backlund had disappeared from the WWF entirely for almost a decade after losing the title. He finally returned in the early 90s, and while he impressed with his excellent physical condition and still-sharp wrestling technique now that he was into his early forties, Backlund couldn’t get himself in line for a title shot. Finally, shortly before Summerslam, he laid out a challenge directly to Bret Hart to put the title on the line against him. Feeling that his reputation was enough to warrant the opportunity, Bret agreed. Backlund thought he had scored the match winning fall, but had only gotten a two count. Not realizing that the match was still in progress, Backlund helped Bret to his feet, but an alert Bret Hart caught him in an inside cradle for the pin. Backlund snapped, attacking Bret and locking him into the devastating crossface chickenwing, a hold Backlund had refused to use until now because of the potential for injury to the person who had it applied to them.

However now, with the frustration of his inability to regain the title he held for so many years having apparently caused Backlund to go over the edge, he no longer had any qualms about using the hold, and was now willing to do anything to regain the WWF Title, a title he felt he never rightfully lost. When Backlund lost the title to the Iron Sheik in 1983, the Sheik had put him in the camel clutch and Backlund’s manager Arnold Skaaland, fearing for Backlund’s long term well-being, threw in the towel to concede the match on behalf of Backlund, giving the Sheik the win and the title without Backlund ever actually submitting himself. For eleven years, Backlund had never forgiven Skaaland for costing him the title, and still harbored bitterness over having lost the title in such a way.

Following the loss to Bret, Backlund went on a tear. In addition to attacking Bret, Backlund went on to attack and apply the crossface chickenwing to WWF Magazine writer Lou Gianfriddo during what was supposed to be a friendly demonstration of the mechanics of the hold, and then went on to take out more of his anger by putting the hold on his former manager Arnold Skaaland. It wasn’t just easy targets he went after, either, Backlund began beating several top wrestlers with the crossface chickenwing, and now the hold he had once refused to use had brought him back into contention.

Finally he was able to earn the right to challenge Bret for the WWF Title again, at Survivor Series 1994. However, the match would have a special stipulation added to it where each wrestler would have a cornerman with a towel, and the only way to win the match was by having the opponent’s cornerman throw in the towel. Bret chose Davey Boy Smith, who had shown his loyalty to Bret during the family feud of the last several months. Backlund, on the other hand, chose the one man he could trust to not throw the towel in, a man who not only didn’t care enough about Backlund to be concerned about his health, but hated Bret so much that he would not let him have the satisfaction of victory: Owen Hart. In a very smart move, Backlund attacked Davey Boy and put the crossface chickenwing on him shortly before Survivor Series, letting him know what it felt like so that he might be a little more inclined to throw the towel in if he saw Bret get caught in the move at the Survivor Series.

Instead of the fight one might have expected given Backlund’s recent behavior, the match actually turned into a very good wrestling match, with the two engaging in brilliant counterwrestling while trying to soften one another up for their favorite holds. Although he was only there to throw in the towel for Backlund if he got in trouble, Owen got himself physically involved in the match by giving Bret a bulldog while he had Backlund locked in the Sharpshooter. Davey Boy took after him, chasing him out of the ring and around ringside, but as he prepared to take a charge at Owen, Owen moved out of the way and Davey Boy crashed headfirst into the steel steps, knocking himself out cold.

Bret saw what was going on and began verbally tearing into Owen, but with his back turned, Backlund was able to come up from behind and lock Bret into the crossface chickenwing, taking him all the way to the mat and scissoring the body, leaving Bret literally no way out. Owen saw all this happened, saw his brother locked in the deadly hold and his brother-in-law unsonscious outside the ring and seemed truly remorseful at causing things to end up like this. He stared frantically at Bret locked in the inescapable hold with nobody to throw the towel in for him. In desperation, Owen went over to his parents, who were sitting fornt row, as they did for all of Bret’s big PPV matches, and after much coaxing was able to convince them to come out to ringside. Stu Hart refused to throw the towel in, but Helen couldn’t help herself seeing her son in so much pain, and she grabbed the towel from Stu’s hand and threw it in the ring, conceding the match for Bret and, poetically, giving Backlund the title in the very manner he had lost it in eleven years earlier.

Bret was laying in pain on the mat after a full ten minutes in the crossface chickenwing, and as soon as the bell rang, Owen rushed into the ring. However, instead of helping his brother up, he grabbed the towel his mother had thrown into the ring only seconds earlier and took off for the back with the towel raised in the air. As Backlund celebrated in the ring with his precious WWF Title, interviewer Todd Pettengill caught up with Owen backstage and asked him how he could do what he had just done. Owen was jubilant, and smugly told Pettengill that all he wanted was to see Bret lose the WWF Title, and he was even that determined to see it that he was willing to sucker his parents into doing his dirty work for him. Even though he wasn’t able to do it himself, he had accomplished his goal of causing Bret to lose the WWF Title.

Bret was out for two months with his injuries, but as soon as he was healthy enough to compete again, he received an unexpected gesture of goodwill. Diesel, who had defeated Backlund for the WWF Title just three days after Survivor Series, granted Bret Hart a shot at the title, in part due to the cheap fashion in which he had lost the title, and in part to erase the indecisive finish of their own first match at King Of The Ring the year before. They had another great match at Royal Rumble 1995, but unfortunately this one was marred with interference as well, with Shawn Michaels trying to cause his former bodyguard (whom he had made a target) to lose the title, while Owen and Backlund attacked Bret to prevent him from regaining the title. In the end, the referee had no choice but to throw the match out, and again Bret and Diesel were denied a satisfactory finish to their match.

Bret gained a measure of revenge later in the night by attacking both Owen and Backlund on their way to the ring for the Royal Rumble match and caused them both to quickly be eliminated, but it wasn’t enough. In addition to conspiring to take the title away from him, they were now openly trying to prevent him from regaining the title. Bret defeated Owen again following the Royal Rumble, this time in a No DQ match, but it meant relatively little to Bret, who just handed one more loss to a man he no longer treated as his brother, but as just another wrestler he had repeatedly defeated the year before. The man he really wanted to get his hands on was Backlund, who Bret now felt had stolen the title from him at the Survivor Series.

Bret got Backlund again at Wrestlemania 11 in an I Quit match. This time there would be no cornermen with towels, just Bret and Backlund and the only way either was going to win was if the other said “I Quit”. To ensure a fair outcome, Roddy Piper was made the guest referee. This match was much shorter than the Survivor Series match, and would not be one Bret looked back on fondly, but he did end up coming out on top after reversing the seemingly inescapable crossface chickenwing into a crossface chickenwing of his own, and this time Backlund couldn’t escape, and told Piper that he quit.

Bret had now avenged himself against both Owen and Backlund, but not being in line for another shot at the WWF Title left him somewhat directionless. Hakushi, a Japanese newcomer to the WWF, challenged Bret to face him, and he and Jerry Lawler accused Bret of being racist against Japanese people in order to goad him into a match. Members of “the Japanese press” gave Bret an “award” to disprove these allegations, and Bret gladly accepted, but Hakushi crashed the party and attacked Bret, moonsaulting onto him off of the interview platform. Following this attack, Bret agreed to wrestle him at the first ever In Your House PPV, but then Lawler accused Bret of trying to duck him since he claimed to have already had a contract to wrestle Bret that night before Hakushi made his challenge. Bret, never one to back down from anybody, agreed to wrestle Lawler that night as well in a separate match.

At In Your House, Bret and Hakushi had an excellent match and Hakushi pulled out moves like the Asai moonsault that had never been seen in the WWF at that point. In the end though, as he tried toget Bret up for a German suplex, Bret rolled forward and caught Hakushi in a victory roll for the win. Now there remained just one more obstacle: Jerry Lawler. Bret was very anxious to get his hands on Lawler, since he had left the WWF before their feud could be settled in 1993. Now he would finally get the chance to put Lawler away and get some closure on that feud, but would unfortunately be denied once again. Although he appeared to be well on his way to putting Lawler away, Hakushi’s manager Shinja ran out and climbed up on the apron, distracting the referee just long enough for Hakushi to sneak in, attack Hart, and drill him with a headbutt off the top rope. Hakushi dove out of the ring just as the referee turned around and saw Lawler roll Hart up for the pin.

Hart was incensed, and as Lawler unsuspectingly sat at ringside doing commentary on Raw the next night, Bret came out and tried to attack Lawler, but was pulled off before a fight could break out. Another match was agreed to between the two for King Of The Ring 1996, only this time it would be a Kiss My Foot match, in which the loser would have to kiss the winner’s foot. Lawler spent weeks training for this match in horse stalls and public bathrooms all kinds of other disgusting, smelly places to ensure that if he won, Bret Hart would be in for the most revolting night of his life. Hakushi ran in again, but this time his interference backfired, and Hakushi nailed Lawler by accident. Hart drove Hakushi from the ring and put Lawler into the Sharpshooter to finally get the decisive win over his longtime antagonist.

Even though Bret had finally beaten Lawler, The King was not about to give up just yet, and if he couldn’t beat Bret himself, he would find somebody who could. To this end, he brought his evil dentist, Isaac Yankem, DDS, to the WWF for the express purpose of defeating Bret and putting a hurting on him. When Bret and Yankem met at Summerslam 1995, Yankem displayed some impressive skills for an evil dentist who had never wrestled before, but Yankem showed that he was just there to try and hurt Hart and not beat him, because the match ended when Lawler and Yankem tied Bret’s neck in the ropes and attacked him while he was being hung, causing the referee to call for the DQ.

As if Bret didn’t have enough problems, he soon faced another unexpected challenge from the wrestling pirate, Jean-Pierre Lafitte. Lafitte, like most pirates, liked to rob people, and one day Lafitte decided to steal the leather jacket that Bret wore to the ring for all his matches, which happened to be the one his mother had made for him. Hart faced him twice, first beating him and regaining his jacket at an In Your House PPV in September of 1995, then beating him a second time several weeks later on Raw. Now that he had finished dealing with the temporary distraction of the pirate, Bret was able to finally settle matters with the dentist, beating Yankem in a cage match on Raw.

Most wrestlers might not be the most enthusiastic people in the world when faced with a series of matches like the ones he had been slung into that year, but Hart had swallowed his pride and worked with them all, and had carried them all to much better matches than anybody probably thought him capable of. Somebody must have been paying attention, as following the victory over Yankem, it was announced that Bret would face the WWF Champion at Survivor Series 1995, which at the moment was still Diesel, although he still had to get past the challenge of a heel-turned Davey Boy Smith. During the Diesel-Smith match, Davey Boy ended up outside the ring next to the announce table where Bret was providing guest commentary, and Davey Boy piefaced him and rolled into the ring, prompting Hart to chase him into the ring and attack him, drawing the DQ.

Diesel retained the WWF Title as a result, but wasn’t happy that Bret had caused him to be disqualified, and after the scuffle with Davey Boy, Bret wound up tangling with Diesel as well. So now the third match between the two was signed for the Survivor Series, and this time there would be no DQs and no countouts. In other words, this time there would be a winner. Whatever aggression had built up between the two quickly disappeared, and the two men were friendly, but businesslike in their approach to the match. Bret said he liked Diesel, but this was business and would do what he had to do to beat the big man. Diesel said the feeling was mutual Bret, but pointed out that he wasn’t getting paid by the hour: he was going to go in there and try to finish Bret off quickly.

When the match started, they didn’t bother trying to dance around what they were going to do in the match. With no DQs in the match, both men walked to their corner and removed the turnbuckle pad as soon as the bell rang. Unlike what we usually saw out of Bret Hart matches, this one was an all-out brawl that saw Bret tie up Diesel’s legs with video cable from outside the ring, after which Bret smashed him with a chair. Diesel recovered from that attack and, while Bret was standing on the ring apron, Diesel tackled him and Bret went flying off the apron and through a table, which was something that wasn’t really done at that point in the WWF. Following the table bump, Bret was badly hurt, and when Diesel threw Bret back in the ring and prepared to give him the Jackknife, Bret simply collapsed to the mat. Diesel hesitated, allowing his compassion to get in the way of his killer instinct, and that was all the opportunity Bret needed. Diesel quickly recovered his determination to win and picked Bret back up to try the Jackknife again, but Bret quickly trapped him in an inside cradle to win the match and his third WWF Title.

Diesel was irate that he had lost the match and had his year-long reign as WWF Champion ended because of the one time he showed his opponent compassion. He snapped and shoved the referee out of the way, and gave Bret the jackknife not once, but twice. He left to a mix of boos and cheers, but the attack was too little too late, because Bret was now once again where he felt he belonged, with the WWF Title around his waist.

After suffering through a tough year of being put in ridiculous, degrading matches against opponents that ranged from past their prime to the ridiculously overgimmicked, Bret finished his time in wrestling purgatory by finally decisively winning the long standing feud with Diesel, and now was once again the WWF Champion. Most of the people he had spent 1995 wrestling were not contenders in the remotest sense of the word, so Bret could have entered this third reign below his usual level of excellence in the ring. However, this was not the case, as Bret was always in peak wrestling shape and was always 100% sharp, and he would need all the skill and conditioning he could muster, as his third reign would see him matched up against a mix of foes that would require everything he had to defeat.

Next Week: Ironman!