[1996-03-18-WWF-Raw] Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels training videos

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is terrific. Bret starts laying in some cheapshots at Shawn about his dancing and overconfidence while Shawn talks about how every day in wrestling has been a learning experience. I like the low-key build.

[Kronos]

There's a bit of great story here about how Bret's desperate to redeem himself in the eyes of his son. No wonder he's so quick to put down Shawn - he doesn't want his kid turning away.

[BruiserBrody]

Love Bret's bitter promo here.

 

Shawn buries Jose Lothario's training in his bit.

[PeteF3]

Very Pure Sports Build stuff, and well done. Bret discussing Shawn's "hiatus from the little beating he took" was laugh-out-loud funny.

[soup23]

This was so much better than the last week by toning down some of Bret's generalities and having him contrast the character of Michaels overall. Tremendous stuff and it got me excited for the match at Mania.

[tim]

The build to Bret/Shawn has gotten good with these video package, and it's Bret carrying them.

[flyonthewall2983]

The promos leading up to this match were probably some of the very best things they did during this otherwise creatively dismal period. When you have your two top babyfaces in such a huge match, giving it the Bud Greenspan treatment as a build-up isn't a bad idea. They did it again for the Cena/Rock matches off the top of my head as well.

[dawho5]

Bret isn't wrong in this one about Shawn, but he's clearly so much of a mark for himself just by the content that it's hard to really be on his side.  That said, the Bret/Shawn training part of Raw last week was easily one of the top 2 parts of the show.

The more I see of this period of Raw, the more both Bret and Shawn really have fatal flaws that show through anytime they have a microphone.  And both are phenomenal athletes and workers, but they are absolute polar opposites in the ring.  Bret is all about making everything he does basic and impactful-looking.  Shawn wants to make everything pretty and spectacular.  I'm obviously more of a Bret guy and I think that difference I just outlined is a major reason.  The WWE went the other way and I feel like the modern WWE style is very much patterned after Shawn Michaels specifically.