Is it cringey how serious Bret Hart took wrasslin?

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

Bret literally did not put anyone over who wasn’t in his own family

You telling me there was no one in the late 80s to late 90s who wasn’t worthy of beating Bret Hart?

You say this like Shawn Michaels wasn't doing the exact same thing for his people.

Dude literally cried on TV, then went home to avoid dropping the belt to Bret.

And that's after the fukkery with Shane Douglas.

He was so unwilling to do business at WM 14 that they supposedly had to threaten him with a beating from the Undertaker.

If you think they weren't all jealously guarding their spots back then - I don't know what to tell you.

 

[Dave24]

He tainted HBK’s first title reign by having it booked so that he didn’t lose in the 60 min the match was supposed to take place. All so he could say he technically didn’t lose.

Even had WM 9 booked as if Yoko who was more than twice his size needed outside interference to beat him.

I could keep going

I would argue WrestleMania XII was still a clean finish, even though the match went to Sudden Death. If he had won, nobody would've argued that it wasn't a "clean" win.

 

[Dave24]

@JQ Legend

Let us go through a rundown on how unprofessional Shawn Michaels was shall we



burying Vadar and cancelling their long tern program, in 96


politicking the day of One Night Stand to beat Davey for the European title Sept 97, with the promise to return the favor after Mania, of which none of that happened instead he gifted the title to HHH and Davey never got the win back


telling the entire locker room after SummerSlam 97 he no longer would put anyone over and refused to lose period


Shawn “lost his smile” instead of putting Bret over at WM13.


Shawn realized he would be 3rd , 4th or 5th fiddle behind Austin, Rock, HHH, during the Attitude Era so he claims he had career ending back injury but somehow returned in 2002 and managed to wrestle almost a decade.


made Chris Candido's life a living hell after his affair with Sunny


the only people he lost titles to were Razor, HHH, and Austin at WM14 of which the Undertaker had to threaten him


Bret protected Austin at WM13. He suggested Austin blade because that visual of Austin passing out in a pool of blood , never quitting, would actually push Austin into the main event scene.....he was 100% right


WM14 - when Austin is white hot, HBK threatens to not lose, bad back or not has a shyt match...then after tries to sabotage the post Mania press conference.


And also Bret never wanted to leave the WWF. Vince told Bret he could not pay him his contract and if Bret did not go to WCW Vince would freeze Bret's contract and they would go to court. That was in Sept 1997 at the MSG show.


fukk Shawn "I'm not laying down for anybody" Michaels of the mid-90's.

Bret was just giving Shawn the same courtesy that Shawn was giving others.

Maybe Bret should've just "lost his smile" too.


Also go back and read about Hogan “doesn’t work for me brother” from WM4 up to WM9. People call Bret a mark for himself, well the Kliq and especially HBK were the biggest marks for themselves I have ever seen.

 

[K-Apps]

@JQ Legend

Let us go through a rundown on how unprofessional Shawn Michaels was shall we



burying Vadar and cancelling their long tern program, in 96


politicking the day of One Night Stand to beat Davey for the European title Sept 97, with the promise to return the favor after Mania, of which none of that happened instead he gifted the title to HHH and Davey never got the win back


telling the entire locker room after SummerSlam 97 he no longer would put anyone over and refused to lose period


Shawn “lost his smile” instead of putting Bret over at WM13.


Shawn realized he would be 3rd , 4th or 5th fiddle behind Austin, Rock, HHH, during the Attitude Era so he claims he had career ending back injury but somehow returned in 2002 and managed to wrestle almost a decade.


made Chris Candido's life a living hell after his affair with Sunny


the only people he lost titles to were Razor, HHH, and Austin at WM14 of which the Undertaker had to threaten him


Bret protected Austin at WM13. He suggested Austin blade because that visual of Austin passing out in a pool of blood , never quitting, would actually push Austin into the main event scene.....he was 100% right


WM14 - when Austin is white hot, HBK threatens to not lose, bad back or not has a shyt match...then after tries to sabotage the post Mania press conference.


And also Bret never wanted to leave the WWF. Vince told Bret he could not pay him his contract and if Bret did not go to WCW Vince would freeze Bret's contract and they would go to court. That was in Sept 1997 at the MSG show.


fukk Shawn "I'm not laying down for anybody" Michaels of the mid-90's.

Bret was just giving Shawn the same courtesy that Shawn was giving others.

Maybe Bret should've just "lost his smile" too.


Also go back and read about Hogan “doesn’t work for me brother” from WM4 up to WM9. People call Bret a mark for himself, well the Kliq and especially HBK were the biggest marks for themselves I have ever seen.

Solomonster said in a recent podcast that after Breakdown IYH PPV where they upped the price from 19.95-29.95 they had the money to keep Bret since they surprised buyrate wasn’t affected. But it was too late as Bret already had a deal in place with WCW. So I think Vince chose Shawn over Bret essentially and he got lucky on how it turned out.

 

[K-Apps]

Only thing cringy really was him refusing to lose the belt in Montreal. Montreal is a 37 hour drive from Calgary. He act like it's his hometown. That's like a nikka from California saying he won't lose a belt in Buffalo because he's an "American hero". In retrospect, that was dumb.

I understand it was more because Shawn said he wouldn't lose to him, but who gives a fukk. He was about to get 9 Ms from WCW. I would've lost in 3 seconds if they asked me to. Who gives a fukk.

Honestly Bret should’ve never gotten the title at SummerSlam 97 if Vince had thoughts on letting him out of the contract. Could’ve easily had Taker win and that would’ve been it for Bret as they work out a way from him to leave to WCW. Taker-Shawn feud for the title and Shawn wins the title at Badd Blood. It’s crazy, that Vince lucked out in a situation that he didn’t have to create lol.

 

[JQ Legend]

@JQ Legend

Let us go through a rundown on how unprofessional Shawn Michaels was shall we



burying Vadar and cancelling their long tern program, in 96


politicking the day of One Night Stand to beat Davey for the European title Sept 97, with the promise to return the favor after Mania, of which none of that happened instead he gifted the title to HHH and Davey never got the win back


telling the entire locker room after SummerSlam 97 he no longer would put anyone over and refused to lose period


Shawn “lost his smile” instead of putting Bret over at WM13.


Shawn realized he would be 3rd , 4th or 5th fiddle behind Austin, Rock, HHH, during the Attitude Era so he claims he had career ending back injury but somehow returned in 2002 and managed to wrestle almost a decade.


made Chris Candido's life a living hell after his affair with Sunny


the only people he lost titles to were Razor, HHH, and Austin at WM14 of which the Undertaker had to threaten him


Bret protected Austin at WM13. He suggested Austin blade because that visual of Austin passing out in a pool of blood , never quitting, would actually push Austin into the main event scene.....he was 100% right


WM14 - when Austin is white hot, HBK threatens to not lose, bad back or not has a shyt match...then after tries to sabotage the post Mania press conference.


And also Bret never wanted to leave the WWF. Vince told Bret he could not pay him his contract and if Bret did not go to WCW Vince would freeze Bret's contract and they would go to court. That was in Sept 1997 at the MSG show.


fukk Shawn "I'm not laying down for anybody" Michaels of the mid-90's.

Bret was just giving Shawn the same courtesy that Shawn was giving others.

Maybe Bret should've just "lost his smile" too.


Also go back and read about Hogan “doesn’t work for me brother” from WM4 up to WM9. People call Bret a mark for himself, well the Kliq and especially HBK were the biggest marks for themselves I have ever seen.

HBK took more clean losses by the end of 92 (including one to Bret in a world title match) than Bret has his whole career

HBK was right for losing his smile, Bret really wanted to have the same main event 2 years in a row just to make his character look better

And I don’t doubt everyone wanted their characters to look good but everyone was willing to take losses except Bret

You’re bringing up who HBK lost the title to, I wasn’t even tombout just title matches. Bret wouldn’t even take a loss in a regular singles match

Funny how Bret wanted to get Austin over so bad but made sure he found a way to do it where he still won the match. An Austin WM13 clean victory over Hitman would have gotten Austin over way more than the way it went down. And Hart could have just attacked him after the match to complete the double turn.

All you did was further prove my point.

 

[FreshAIG]

Honestly Bret should’ve never gotten the title at SummerSlam 97 if Vince had thoughts on letting him out of the contract. Could’ve easily had Taker win and that would’ve been it for Bret as they work out a way from him to leave to WCW. Taker-Shawn feud for the title and Shawn wins the title at Badd Blood. It’s crazy, that Vince lucked out in a situation that he didn’t have to create lol.

I think at that time he had intentions of honoring the contract.

 

[K-Apps]

I think at that time he had intentions of honoring the contract.

True, but I definitely think he was thinking about even then. My main point was the Screwjob was fukkery that didn’t need to happen knowing the egos of Bret and HBK and the hate those two had for each other. I bet Vince was loving it lowkey. Bret should have never had the title going into Survivor Series, but Vince probably wanted to squeeze as much out of Bret as he could.

 

[FTBS]

People don't care about 99% of wrestlers after their time is past. You got your outliers like Austin, Rock, Terry's hoe ass before he fumbled that shyt, and now Cena. But that's just not gonna happen for most guys. I certainly wouldn't suggest that taking the business seriously hurt Bret in any way. If it wasn't for him, HBK, and Taker holding it down in those lean years, we may not have got a chance to see Austin and Rock.

 

[YakSpiller]

I wish these gymnast that call themselves wrestlers in this generation treated the business more like him.

 

[GOAT]

He tainted HBK’s first title reign by having it booked so that he didn’t lose in the 60 min the match was supposed to take place. All so he could say he technically didn’t lose.

Even had WM 9 booked as if Yoko who was more than twice his size needed outside interference to beat him.

I could keep going

Good. fukk HBK.

And his first title reign might be up there with the most boring of all time. His feud with Bret was good because of Bret. Then once Bret took a hiatus after WM12, the product was pure until Bret came back to feud with Austin.

 

[MenacingMonk]

Good. fukk HBK.

And his first title reign might be up there with the most boring of all time. His feud with Bret was good because of Bret. Then once Bret took a hiatus after WM12, the product was pure until Bret came back to feud with Austin.

All everyone talks about during HBK’s first reign is the “lost his smile” promo. That says a lot.

 

[DANJ!]

HBK took more clean losses by the end of 92 (including one to Bret in a world title match) than Bret has his whole career

HBK was right for losing his smile, Bret really wanted to have the same main event 2 years in a row just to make his character look better

And I don’t doubt everyone wanted their characters to look good but everyone was willing to take losses except Bret

You’re bringing up who HBK lost the title to, I wasn’t even tombout just title matches. Bret wouldn’t even take a loss in a regular singles match

Funny how Bret wanted to get Austin over so bad but made sure he found a way to do it where he still won the match. An Austin WM13 clean victory over Hitman would have gotten Austin over way more than the way it went down. And Hart could have just attacked him after the match to complete the double turn.

All you did was further prove my point.

Nah, I gotta stop you here

The way that match went is exactly the way it shoulda played out. It spoke to Austin's character and made people like the way he never quit even with a bloody face and losing consciousness. That was the whole thing they kept replaying, an image they replayed for years, Austin walked out with his name chanted, arguably the only thing on that whole Mania that the crowd was super-invested in. You can't rewrite some shyt like that just for the sake of changing who wins and who loses. That's like saying Foley shoulda won Hell In A Cell and thrown Taker off the top instead. Also, given the kind of match it was and Austin's character, a "clean win" is kinda an oxymoron in a no-DQ submission match.

 

[Cartier Murphy]

Just wondering. I got respect for Hitgoat but...

Everytime i see old clips and docs, he's the only one who really felt like he was playing a real sport.

But now, he just old somewhere like the rest of his peers and somewhat forgotten


Meanwhile Austin still relevant with 3:16 day and Rock got a tv show.

For what it’s worth, that A&E documentary coming out focuses on Bret Hart as well as Steve Austin and others. Bret’s legacy is entirely pro wrestling (and that one Simpson’s cameo) so his identity will forever be tied to it. He’s not gonna be like a Rock with network TV shows well after he branched out to Hollywood. And Bret is consistently highly ranked and spoken of amongst his peers and fans alike so

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

no different than actors who've done the same