[1998-02-16-WCW-Nitro] Bret Hart and Brian Adams

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

Bret still has the terrible music. Bret calls out Hogan big time in this promo. He says Hogan has been running from him for years and we seem to set up Bret vs. Hogan in the not so distant future. Brian Adams debuted and Gene is shocked. Adams says he has a friend in the business that will watch his back. Adams says Hogan will have to go through him to get to Bret. Adams offers his hand leading into Adams clenching it and turning NWO. A big beatdown of most of the NWO B-team commences on Bret. Yeah, the NWO is getting way too saturated now. Hogan struts down and punches Hart. Flair comes in to make the save and him and Bret clean house. Really enjoyed that and it feels like a capper to the best rivalry of January as Flair can now respect Bret for beating him.

[Zenjo]

Whenever I see Brian Adams/Crush my mind goes back to that wonderful tag match with Kronik vs the Brothers of Destruction. A fitting memory of his fine career.

[Matt D]

I have a hard time placing EXACTLY when I started watching wrestling again in 98 since I really didn't totally dive in until the build up to Wrestlemania in Boston, but I distinctly remember this, so, maybe?

[Migs]

There's at least a couple of episodes of TV burned through here. Why not do Adams/Hart against two nWo guys on Thunder? They haven't even explained who Adams is before he turns!

[Loss]

Bret is already an afterthought. His entire storyline seems to be that he is indeed in WCW. That he is. Bret points out that Hogan is scared of him and it gets a lukewarm reaction at best when just three months earlier it would have been the single hottest match either company could have run. Crush shows up and goes by his real name of Brian Adams and his promo cuts like a knife. Gee, he's wearing a trenchcoat with a black t-shirt peeking out from underneath, I can't imagine what his intentions are. This leads to Hennig beating down Bret and Hogan coming down and getting his shots in. This segment is pretty irritating because they weren't even building to Bret-Hogan at this point. Ric Flair comes out to make the save and clears the ring and the Flair-Hart mutual respect tag team is something that could have been a big deal, but of course it wasn't. Flair is still way more over than he should be considering how he was being used.

[Childs]

Yeah, this was seemingly innocuous but actually another sign of how they were fucking away Bret's post-Montreal momentum. He should have spent exactly zero time dicking around with C-list NWOers.

[PeteF3]

I don't know what you people are talking about, this left me PUMPED to see Bret Hart against some guy no one had ever heard of. Yeah, yeah, it's Crush, but calling him "Brian Adams" like we all know that name (well, we do, but you know what I mean) doesn't do him, the NWO, or Bret any favors.

[TravJ1979]

Last month, Bret was having a hot promo battle with Ric and the WCW MOTY candidate. Now he is relegated to interacting with Brian fucking Adams in a turn seen coming from a mile away. Yeah, good guys always come to the ring through the crowd with a long, black trench coat. Ugh.