Bret Hart

[Righteous River]

Bret to me is a legitimate #1 contender at worst, top 3. He may be the most intelligent pro wrestler I've ever seen. His matches flow so perfectly, just a master of pacing. I think a major reason of why I never get bored watching him is because he is so skilled. For example, when he is striking, I am enthralled because of how heavy but quick his punches look. His counter wrestling is beautiful. He has creative uses of limb-work. He does it all so well.

I don't really agree with the premise that he didn't brawl enough. The majority of his matches have brawling segments, his matches often go wild. Even in his more "technical" matches like vs. Owen, Mr. Perfect or the Austin Survivor Series match, there is plenty of fire, intensity, and chaotic fighting.

[Gregor]

The most impressive thing about Bret's career is how his matches shaped the story of the WWF. Whenever the Bulldog challenged for the world title, the announcers would remind us of that night at Wembley that he beat Bret. Owen Hart went into WrestleMania X as an undercarder and left it as a world title contender. The iron man match with Shawn has lost its status as a classic, but up until Bret's exit from the company it was treated as a monumental event, one of the biggest matches in history, and rightly so. It was the beginning of Bret's downfall, and I don't think Shawn ever really escaped it either. Of course the submission match with Stone Cold is one of the moments that set Austin's rise to the top in motion. Those are just the big ones. There are also the Backlund and Diesel heel turns, both the result of frustration over getting outwrestled. For Bret-centric moments, you have SummerSlam '91 and WM VIII.

Bret has great matches that didn't mean much at all (Perfect '93, One Night Only), but to me his case as an all-timer comes down to the weight of his performances rather than just how many there were or how good they were. That's not all his doing, as the WWF was organized and stable enough to use those matches as part of its lore, but at the same time they were never as good at making one match seem like it could define someone's career as they were in the '90s. I think that comes down to the fact that Bret really was the best at blending his matches with the company's vision, so that they weren't just part of a satisfying show but integral, memorable parts of the WWF timeline. The goal in something like Bret-Austin wasn't just to entertain the crowd for 20 minutes. At the same time a shift in a wrestler's character is a lot more profound when it comes after or during an enthralling match. That's what really sets Bret apart for me, that his great matches were almost necessary to the WWF's goals, so instead of just trying to have a great match he'd have to craft a classic around this one plot point that they needed to get across.

[Microstatistics]

Top 20 lock. Almost certainly the best US-based wrestler of the 1990s. His 1991-1997 prime is absolutely loaded with a plethora of good-great matches against a vast variety of wrestlers. Though, you could penalize him for the brevity of that timeframe, which might be enough to knock him out of Top 10 contention for me. A logical, thoughtful, deliberate wrestler who did follow a template but could mix it up when called upon and was able to gel well with just about anyone.

 

 

[strobogo]

Without spending excessive time searching, here's nearly everything on Grimmas' Bret top 100 list. A handful of matches I couldn't find at all, some are split up into parts, and a couple I could only find by looking up the entire tape they were included on. The Rumble 1995 and WM Owen match I could not find online, which is wild. 

 

Bret top 100 playlist

[Matt D]

Some Bret matches I really like aren't online I think, things like Bret vs Backlund -- MSG and Bret/Perfect vs Luger/Ramon - MSG. I think handhelds tend to help Bret more often than not.

[SegundaCuerda]

When I was a child and I only knew the Attitude Era I started looking for tapes of older WWF shows and I loved Bret and tought he was damn better that all the wrestlers I was watching on TV, he's like the one that makes me appreciate wrestling as a whole, the selling, the submissions, the storytelling, maybe I already did that without acknowledge it, but it started to be a conscious thing. Until today I still love Bret style and persona, he's easy to love and want him to win the match just for his entrance and how he wrestles. One of my favourites, maybe because a big nostalgia thing, but after watching a lot of wrestlers from different eras and countries, he still keeps that magic for me.

[Grimmas]

44 minutes ago, strobogo said:

Without spending excessive time searching, here's nearly everything on Grimmas' Bret top 100 list. A handful of matches I couldn't find at all, some are split up into parts, and a couple I could only find by looking up the entire tape they were included on. The Rumble 1995 and WM Owen match I could not find online, which is wild. 

 

Bret top 100 playlist

Wow, amazing. Thank you.

[Frankensteiner]

43 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Some Bret matches I really like aren't online I think, things like Bret vs Backlund -- MSG and Bret/Perfect vs Luger/Ramon - MSG. I think handhelds tend to help Bret more often than not.

The Bret/Backlund match got uploaded to youtube a couple of weeks ago (along with the rest of the show). 

[Matt D]

3 minutes ago, Frankensteiner said:

The Bret/Backlund match got uploaded to youtube a couple of weeks ago (along with the rest of the show). 

If I'm not mistaken, he works that the night before KOTR, and it's a pretty long match, so that's a hell of two day stretch for him.

[Shrike02]

I know the WM X match is on Dailymotion. I'll try to dig up a link when I have time.

[strobogo]

Both the Owen and Rumble match with Diesel I could find in pieces but one part missing for both so I didn't include since I mean surely everyone posting here has seen both many times anyway and I had their other matches in the series so whatever. I was pretty amused I could easier find fan cams from the 90s than some stuff that aired on TV and was up on the Network for years.

[PhilTLL]

They don't have automated tools to search for copyright violations on fan cams. Everything that's ever been officially released is in that database, pretty much. I recently got an advisory on an upload from a WCWSN episode that hasn't aired in 25 years.

[strobogo]

That makes sense but it's still funny to me. I occasionally will get a notice about some Memphis or 70s AJPW stuff I have up, I think even some JWA stuff, and it will come years after its been uploaded.

[elliott]

I ranked Bret Hart 76th in 2016 and I feel fine with that. He'll likely make my list in 2026. I don't think I have anything left to say about Bret Hart. 

[Tetsujin]

Best wrestler ever when it comes to making the basics feel big (maybe tied with Hashimoto). The stiffest non-stiff worker ever. One of the longest peaks I've seen (92-97, those are six whole years working as one of the best wrestlers in the world, and in a moment where WWE was almost dead). If his Hart Foundation stuff is good enough, he could be top 15 for me.

[overbooked]

6 hours ago, Tetsujin said:

One of the longest peaks I've seen (92-97, those are six whole years working as one of the best wrestlers in the world, and in a moment where WWE was almost dead). 

This is a great point. It is one thing being one of the best wrestlers in the world when you're surrounded by other world-beaters, it is quite another thing to achieve that in an environment like mid-90s WWF that didn't have the depth of workers or the general booking mindset to support great wrestling. I'm not sure many other wrestlers could have thrived in that environment.

[KB8]

I had the Hitman at number 59 in 2016. I'll probably have him lower in 2026, but he was very good at the professional wrestling and has lots of very good professional wrestling matches. He had excellent stompy punches and his backbreaker was very tidy. I like the pink and black colour scheme. I've long since felt the need to type many words about Bret Hart. 

 

BRET HART YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Owen Hart (WWF Wrestlemania 10, 3/20/94)

v 123 Kid (WWF RAW, 7/11/94)

v Steve Austin (WWF Survivor Series, 11/17/96)

v Steve Austin (WWF Wrestlemania 13, 3/29/97)

w/Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, Jim Neidhart & Davey Boy Smith v Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock, Hawk & Animal (WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede, 7/6/97)

[kid dracula]

Bret Hart was my first favorite wrestler, and I've never loved a wrestler more. The first time I saw him I was probably ten years old, and my family had randomly rented Summerslam 91 from the video store. I loved the match against Hennig (up to and including the part where he randomly rips his singlet off, seemingly just out of spite!) and there was something about the way Bret carried himself that distinguished him from everyone else in WWF.

I love Bret, but I'm struggling with the idea of where to put him on my list. I feel like his case is build on a relatively small handful of great matches that he had over a six year period in WWF. I remember a while back, Bryan Alvarez had rewatched Bret vs. Bulldog 92 and said something to the effect that it was a very good match, but he had seen 4 matches that were as good or better in a week of G1. This brought into focus something that had been in the back of my mind for a while. (Maybe you disagree with his assessment of the top modern G1 matches, but the point is that a single four star match doesn’t seem as special as it used to, back when I was a kid watching WWF TV.)

I think Bret’s best WWF work stands out for two reasons. First, he was delivering strong main events at a time and in a promotion where they weren’t necessarily expected. Second, he was having those matches against guys who did not reliably produce great matches (Bulldog, Diesel, Undertaker, etc.)

He also had some strong matches against guys who you could call his peers, in terms of their skill and their desire to have a good match. I like the Hennig matches. Flair seems like a weird match-up for him every time I see it, but it’s good. It seems fair to call his matches against Shawn good but not great. One very good match against Austin, and one all-time classic – a match that will live forever.

The problem is that I think I could probably list most of the good-to-great Bret matches off the top of my head. (Owen, Sean Waltman, uh… tag against Steiners? His okay matches in WCW?) I haven’t gone back and watched 90s WWF TV, but my understanding is that Bret is not known as someone who has a lot of little hidden gems on TV.

Over the past few nights I’ve been watching Kobashi & Misawa matches from All Japan & Noah on youtube, and last night I saw the title change from 2003. What Bret match do I think is on the same level as that one? *Maybe* Austin at WM13?  But I think I’ve seen a ton of Misawa matches that are in the same ballpark, and I’ve really barely scratched the surface with my dive into that stuff. To give a more recent example, I’d put most of Okada’s title defenses 2017-2018 over the majority of Bret’s career.

That’s all output, though. If you weigh input more heavily, Bret’s case probably improves. His nickname was fitting, because he executed his offense flawlessly. (In this respect I would easily put him over, for example, Okada.) Great selling of course. I’ve heard the criticism that Bret looked like a weak champion because he so rarely got big wins with his offense, but I like that his character’s motivation in the ring was often “just find a way to get the other guy’s shoulders down.”

Also worth noting that there’s a big difference between having a great match against Kenta Kobashi and having a very good match against Kevin Nash. Maybe Bret would have thrived in an environment like All Japan; or maybe he would have seemed less special in a promotion with a deeper well of talent.

I realize this long-winded post is mostly just rehashing a lot of the philosophical issues surrounding GWE 2016. All of that debate is sort of swirling in my mind, and right now it has coalesced around Bret. I like seeing that people are going to have Bret as high as #1, but I just don’t think I can get there. I still believe the greatest wrestler of all-time should have a huge catalog of great matches. At the end of the day, Bret will probably end up somewhere between 40 and 20 on my list. I just can’t decide if I’m being too hard on him or too easy!

[Boss Rock]

Well said and is pretty much my conundrum with Bret.

[MoS]

I do think 2026 will be kinder to Bret than 2016 was. His stock seems to have improved in general - the terrible Shawn-agented NXT main events have played a role there, fairly or not - and anecdotally, I see more and more prominent wrestling voices rank Bret ahead of someone like Flair (sorry..I don't want that thread to re-start either), something I barely noticed 5 years ago 

[Tetsujin]

I think 2016 GWE nailed it with Bret. Top 20 but not top 10 sounds perfect for him, to me. I have him a bit lower, he's definitely a top 25 contender, it's just that there are more than 25 amazing wrestlers fighting for a top 25 slot.

[DR Ackermann]

A guy with a lot of nothing, throwaway, pedestrian matches during his prime. If the match wasn't about showcasing Bret in some special way he could really phone it in. I think his input negatively effects his candidacy more than his output when you look out how often he delivered uninspired, listless performances.

[NintendoLogic]

When I did the Bret Hart podcast with Loss and goodhelmet, I remember being laughed at for predicting that Bret's work would resonate with future generations more than Flair's. I have no problem with taking L's when it's warranted, but I'm also not above taking a victory lap when I feel vindicated, and I think I nailed that one.

[kid dracula]

11 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

When I did the Bret Hart podcast with Loss and goodhelmet, I remember being laughed at for predicting that Bret's work would resonate with future generations more than Flair's. I have no problem with taking L's when it's warranted, but I'm also not above taking a victory lap when I feel vindicated, and I think I nailed that one.

Not saying you're wrong, but what's the evidence to support this claim? And do you mean future generations of wrestlers, or of fans?

[MoS]

Anecdotally on Twitter, I have seen a lot of "younger"/modern fans who frequently list him as among their favourites. You also have wrestlers like Dax and so many others frequently pay tribute to him. His interviews and general cool gives-no-fucks old dude personality certainly help.