[1999-10-04-WCW-Nitro] Bret Hart vs Chris Benoit

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

So much to say about this. I don't think this match is more than very good, but I dug the artistic statement they were trying to make here - Owen died because the beautiful simplicity of wrestling had died. So in this match, they were going to pay tribute to Owen, but they were also paying tribute to the art of the wrestling match in general. 1999 was a year where wrestling was more popular than it had ever been in the U.S., but it had become something very different. It's not often that you watch a match this good that feels somber, but this does. I think in a way it also adds to this that the crowd doesn't get all that hot for it - not necessarily as a match, but as a viewing experience. I had hoped the WWE DVD version of this was from the Nitro Backstage Blast, and I was sure someone told me it was, but commercials appear to have still been edited out. Is the uncut version of this online somewhere? I know it exists.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Bret Hart vs Chris Benoit - WCW Nitro 10/04/99 Owen Hart Tribute Match

 

I don't want to take anything a way from the true intention of this match, which was to honor Owen Hart, but in a lot of ways this was WCW saying goodbye to classic pro wrestling. In a couple weeks, Russo would take the helm and nothing on WCW TV ever really resembled wrestling again. Here just a scant few weeks before, WCW put on the most classic wrestling match seen in America probably since Hart/Austin at Survivor Series '96 (I might be omitting something obvious). There was a great build in this match with great counter moves swinging the match in Bret's favor for longer and longer periods of time, before Benoit big one last gasp match. The match really had the feeling on Benoit trying to prove himself to Bret. Bret would hold back and pick his spots to strike. If we ever got a Bret vs Owen match with the dynamics reversed (Bret as the heel, Owen as the face), I think it would have been similarly laid out to this. I loved the different tests of strength early and how they chained around them. Benoit asserts himself, Bret sees an opening and accelerates with the Russian Legsweep. I liked Bret using the Russian Legsweep as go to counterhold as later in the match after Benoit misses an elbow, he hits again overcoming Benoit's struggle. I thought Bret worked the match a little too heelish with the punches to the head, boot choke and working his general heel heat segment. It is not a strike against him more of a weird setting for this type of work. Benoit was great at timing his hope spots and at first they are more frequent and he gets more. You see the nasty spike tombstone. My favorite seqeunce of the match is Bret takes his classic bump into the ropes and sells it by going to the floor and Benoit follows with a wicked dive. But as the mistakes and Bret's offense accrue they become roll-ups and are fewer and farther between. They do so much of the little shit right in this match. Bret wants a superplex, but you should never give your opponent the high ground and initially he pays for it. However, since he is the fresher of the two, Benoit takes too long to capitalize so Bret cuts him off and then gets the superplex. Taking the extra minute to properly set up the superplex enhances the viewing experience greatly. The Hitman thinks he has Benoit primed for the Sharpshooter, but we get a really sweet counter into the Crossface. Benoit is feeling it and rattles off three snap suplexes and signals for the diving headbutt to big boos. It hits, but kick out. The fans right on cue start a Lets Go Bret chant that is really good work by the wrestlers. You knew they wanted to transition to the Bret finish run and the crowd was totally in sync with them. Benoit hesitates because he does not what shot to hit next so Bret capitalizes with a wicked back elbow and then a piledriver, but he is too close to the ropes. Benoit fights back with the chops and looks for the Rolling Germans. Benoit wants to bring him down into the Crossface, but Bret is able to wrangle Benoit's legs into Sharpshooter. Watching the Kansas City slowly realize that Bret is applying the Sharpshooter is a cool sight. People slowly are rising to their feet inquisitive, there is a rising noise and then when he turns him over a great pop. There were points of this that were a little dry or mechanical, but overall they put together a strong meat and potatoes match with Benoit peppering in some great hope spots and Bret timing his hope spots immaculately. The finish run built to a perfect climax. Really strong stuff and one last great match for Bret Hart. ****1/2

[Tim Evans]

Really good match. I'm guessing this was Bret's last good match. Crowd is mostly quiet except for the finish. Tony and Tenay do a good job calling the match and ignoring Heenan's bad jokes.

[GOTNW]

This was an ok but completely bland workrate match. Fascinating how a match built on emotion managed to be completely devoid of it. It was mostly based on execution, which was crisp and very good for the most part but didn't have anything to hook me.

[Zenjo]

The Owen Hart tribute. Two of Canada's wrestling greats were freed of all constraints and allowed to express themselves artistically. I guess they were out there half an hour total. 23m made TV. The fans were amazingly respectful given this was the ADDitude Era. In this instance a shorter duration would've been beneficial as Bret wasn't match tight. The moves were well executed, the transitions fine. Fundamentally sound wrestling. But it needed a sharper focus to the work to be any more than a top 50 match for '99. The exhibition type feel precluded an intense rivalry. Nonetheless it was one of the Hitman's few highlights in WCW. Given that his career would soon be ended, this proved a fitting tribute to Bret as well as his brother.

[tim]

This was one match I was never able to get into. Everything was well done and there was some cool stuff but this was bland overall. I feel like in a different setting with a different goal for the match they could have done something a lot better than a by the numbers technical exhibition. But as a tribute, it was fitting.

[soup23]

This grabbed me more on this viewing than in previous. The logical way the moves and simplicity overall felt really calculated and conscious helping make the match overall and provide a tribute to Owen. Benoit is always looking for the crossface throughout which is a good story narrative and Bret is able to create some neat counters from being placed in the hold. We will see but I imagine this is Bret's last great match and maybe even very good match. He is always someone that excelled in face vs face matches and this continued the theme. ****1/4 (8.5)

[PeteF3]

A little over a year after Flair's return, *this* is probably the last great WCW moment. I don't know if I'd call this a MOTYC--it's more just a good fundamentally solid bout than an epic, but at the time this really felt like a farewell to wrestling as an art form in and of itself. In-ring performance seemed to matter less than ever in the U.S., and we didn't know the changes that would come to the WWF in 2000--just that Russo was likely to send WCW in a similar direction to the Attitude Era. For one last night, so we thought, we got a hard-hitting 20-minute match with a clean finish on free TV. Heenan really came off as a jackass at times and I wonder what the hell he was thinking or what direction he was given, but I liked the total silence from all the announcers after the finish.