[1996-10-21-WWF-Raw] Interview: Bret Hart

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Bret does a really good interview announcing that despite a tremendous offer from WCW, he's not going anywhere. He also accepts the challenge to wrestle Steve Austin at Survivor Series. This was a really good segment, and when you see the domino effect Bret's return had, you realize that in some ways, the company owes their entire resurgence to Bret.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Watch for the Rock's TV debut standing backstage with the heels watching the monitor.

[PeteF3]

Bret supposedly refused to tear up WCW's contract offer on camera, and instead gives a respectful acknowledgment of his negotiations with them. At least somebody attempted to take the high road in this war. Vince does a great job of selling relief when Bret announces he's going to be with the WWF "forever" (HA!)--like he really didn't know what Bret was going to say beforehand. We even get a few traces of WHINY BRET here, as he points out that Shawn Michaels will never be as tough or as smart as him, drawing a verbal rebuke from Vince. Another great, real-sounding promo from Bret.

[El-P]

Watch for the Rock's TV debut standing backstage with the heels watching the monitor.

 

Yeah, that was strange.

 

Terrific interview here, Bret comes off like a big deal and a his come back as turning point for the company to get back into the right track. Vince selling Bret's announcement is quite funny. We see Bret already building a deeper character for himself, with the little shots at Shawn making him look like somewhat of a subtle heel at points. Austin turning back toward Pillman who gets a little bit too excited is a great detail also, foreshadowing what's to come. Really, this segment is looking like WWF making a serious move toward fighting WCW with star power and a first attempt at really building Austin up to main event status. And Bret deliver what may have been his best interview thus far to kick off his best year ever.

[Exposer]

Really great interview. Bret is one of the most underrated promos of all time. He covers a lot of ground here explaining why he left, why he's coming back, & accepting Steve Austin's challenge for Survivor Series. I loved the camera panning over to Vince showing how nervous he is about Bret's decision. Austin's reaction to Pillman's glee at Bret accepting the match is great. Bret puts over Shawn Michaels a little bit, but his bitterness comes out when he says he's tougher & smarter than HBK. He later takes a dig at his "sexy boy" gimmick towards the end. Just a tremendous piece of business & in a lot of ways the segment that kicks off the road to the hottest period in company history.

[soup23]

Really good interview. The backstage stuff of the heels watching is a whose who with Rock, Austin, Pillman, DWB all looking on. Bret seems genuine in his delivery and I liked how he switched from his negotiations to his beef with Austin to throwing shots at HBK. Vince was also strong on commentary looking on as an invested party.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Quoting Nixon was weird especially because it was a pretty lame quote. Bret calling out Shawn's manhood and then saying he is accepting the challenge from the best pro wrestler in WWF today, Steve Austin was a great slam on Shawn. Rock solid interview from Bret. Greedy for respect is a great line and really does explain who Bret is. Man, doesn't pose for girlie books, he really fucking didn't like Shawn.

[tim]

Bret really feels like the biggest star in the company here. Great promo and Bret/Austin is a great direction to go in.

[dawho5]

There are certain types of promos Bret is great at, and this is one of them.  He's never been a great "hype" guy, but give him a few topics with some meat he can really bite into and he will give you a really sincere promo it's hard not to believe.  Working in the shots at Shawn to show that he's not over that bitterness from WM is a great touch too.  I kinda thought he was veering into the cheesy side of things before he mentioned the kid he was talking about was his nephew.  One of Bret's best promos I've seen.