Sadly, due to a very heavy workload, this will be the final Fantasy Warfare in the current series. Worry not though, because Fantasy Warfare will return later in the year. Now though, for the finale, we look at what would have been the greatest Fantasy Warfare yet, should it have taken place in our life time. Whilst they have fought before in the latter stages of the 1990’s, we’re going to look at what would happen if today’s Triple H took on Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart in his prime. A match which would transcend time.
Triple H
Biggest Victory
Defeated Cactus Jack – Royal Rumble 2000
It was a time when nothing was certain. The Attitude Era still existed but the faces that people had previously brought pay per views to see were slowly dwindling out. The Undertaker had left WWE because he couldn’t agree on personal terms with Vince McMahon on where WWE was going. The Rock was just beginning to connect with his ‘People’. Stone Cold Steve Austin was out due to injury and WWE were left with Triple H and the ‘McMahon-Helmsley Era’. An era which has to go down as maybe the most underrated era in WWE history. Sadly, Stephanie and Triple H don’t get enough credit for holding the WWE firm as WCW was beginning to die away around them. Without them tough, I hate to think what the landscape of wrestling would be today.
Triple H was a little wobbly in the main event scene towards the end of 1999 and only really had the Big Show and the Rock to defend against, once Steve Austin left the company. Anyone who saw Triple H as WWE Champion in 1999 will know that the man who labelled himself ‘The Game’ didn’t look like a main event star and more importantly didn’t look like he could carry a company on his shoulders, as Austin had previously. Maybe it was unfair to pin Triple H down to whether the company failed or succeeded but that’s the role he gladly stepped into when it was clear Austin couldn’t carry on without surgery. All credit to Vince McMahon for going with the idea and not just putting the strap on Big Show and hoping for the best. Back then Vince had faith in his younger talent, seeing how successful Austin had become almost paved the way for Hunter to follow.
The problem with reinventing yourself and the company around you though, is that you have to have the right opponent to do it with. Had Triple H stayed in the colourful tights with the bleached blonde hair then we can be pretty sure he’d have failed in the long run. It’s because he reinvented himself as the serious, take no prisoners wrestlers that the whole thing worked and luckily for WWE, they had the perfect opponent for him to kick start the new century and a new era in WWE.
Mick Foley as Cactus Jack was the foil that Triple H had been waiting for ever since he’d first taken the WWE Championship in 1999. Triple H was the perfect champion who wanted to rule over his new domain and Foley, who stepped into the rebellious Austin role was the man who wanted to bring the new regime down around Hunter and Stephanie’s ears. Without the wrestling world knowing it, a lot rode on the 2000 Royal Rumble. If the Street Fight was dull and uneventful, Triple H would have been ruined and no one would have believed that his run at the top of the company would bring anything but silence. The match had to succeed for Triple H to flourish and Foley made sure that the company that had given him so much did just that.
On the night, both Triple H and Foley entered exceptional performances. Triple H totally changed his wrestling style and adopted a brand new, ruthless streak which was visible when he was bombarding Foley with baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire shots amongst other things and Foley brought into the whole underdog pin cushion role he was given for the night. Without Foley, we wouldn’t be able to look back on that match and hand pick it as the moment Triple H became a star. I seriously doubt the Rock would have allowed Triple H to make a pin cushion of his body and willingly land on thumbtacks just to get a man over he really couldn’t stand, at the time. Triple H may not admit it much but he really does owe a great deal of his career to Mick Foley.
We all remember the match, a classic plain and simple and we all remember wincing when Triple H drove Cactus Jack face first into the pile of thumbtacks with the pedigree. What a finish that was. By the time the match was over, even though the ending would never eclipse that of their rematch at Now Way Out 2000 when Triple H back dropped Cactus Jack through the top of the Hell in a Cell and straight through the canvas below, no one in Madison Square Garden or watching around the world was in any doubt that Triple H was not only the future of the company, but the company was in safe hands.
Victorious Moment
Overcoming Two Career Ending Injuries
Anyone who has ever broken a leg will be able to tell you that overcoming one minor injury is hard enough. Overcoming two career threatening injuries is something a person can count at the top of their most victorious moments. Triple H is one of these people. Just before WCW and ECW’s invasion of the WWE, Triple H and Steve Austin had formed a less than stable partnership working with Vince McMahon.
In Triple H’s own words, he’s been red lining for a long time when he reached Monday Night Raw, the night after Judgment Day 2001. For those of you who don’t know what read lining means, it means that he’d been pushing himself to the limit without any rest. It stands to reason that sooner or later something had to give. That something was the thigh muscle in Triple H’s leg the following evening on Raw. During a tag team match with Austin against Jericho and Chris Benoit, Triple H planted his leg to hit Jericho and the whole thing snapped and rolled up his leg. Yes, I cringed too when I first heard the extent of his injury. Credit where credit is due though, Triple H finished the match. A feat any other wrestler would not have been able to accomplish.
It took eight months for Triple H to resurface in WWE, during which time the Invasion had come and gone and ‘The Game’ had gone through extensive surgery and rehabilitation to repair the leg. It’s fair to say that WWE missed Triple H during his absence, the whole Invasion angle would have been better had Triple H been involved. Indeed there’s still many people wondering to this day which side Triple H would have taken. A question that now we’ll never get an answer to.
Upon his return to WWE Triple H was treated like a hero and rightly so. He’d overcome something his doctor had told him hardly anyone had. Triple H had a right to soak up the adulation of the audience. What he went through just to get back into the ring was, I imagine an arduous affair, one that is covered with some good behind the scenes footage of his operation and recovery in ‘Triple H; The Game’ DVD. The man who had held the WWE together in the ratings must have hoped that it wouldn’t happen again and for five years, Triple H performed like a warrior in the ring, helping elevate talent such as Batista and to a lesser extent Randy Orton. Nothing ever lasts forever though as Triple H would find out at New Years Revolution 2007.
Maybe we should have seen it coming. Once again, without anyone really noticing, Triple H had been pushing the accelerator hard in his and HBK’s feud with Rated RKO, it was just a matter of time until the inevitable happened again. Thankfully this time, Triple H learned his lesson. In the DX vs Rated RKO tag team match at New Year’s Revolution 2007, Triple H went to hit Orton with a spine buster only for his other leg to pop just as the first did in 2001. It was an identical injury. This time Triple H couldn’t finish the match and it was left to Shawn Michael’s quick thinking to come up with a quick finish on the spot. Which he did with aplomb. I can’t imagine what went through Triple H’s mind when it happened for a second time, maybe there was a part of him that thought about giving it all up.
That never happened. Triple H did get back into the ring after months of rehab on the leg and proved to the world that he wasn’t just one of the best wrestlers, but one of the toughest as well. It’s not everyone that comes back from two identical injures, both which could have easily ended his career. A lot of people would have thrown the towel in, in fear of it happening again. Not Triple H.
A man who comes back continuously from obstacles such as Triple H has, deserves respect no mater how you feel about him. They might have kept him out of the business he loves and will one day take over, for a very long time but Triple H refused to allow the injuries to stop him. It’s somewhat ironic then that the two things that have caused him so much trouble in his career, are the two things he can thank for his greatest victory.
Greatest Match
Vs Cactus Jack – No Way Out 2000
As has been the case so often in this Fantasy Warfare series, the choice for Triple H’s best match came as a real struggle. Thanks to his ability to tell a gripping story with his body, Triple H throughout the years has contested countless wonderful matches, some with opponents whom you’d never have thought could have done what they did when they were in the ring with Triple H.
‘The Game’s’ matches with Shawn Michaels at SummerSlam 2002 and Bad Blood 2004 were simply stunning. His three matches with the Undertaker covering Wrestlemania 17, Wrestlemania 27 and Wrestlemania 28 were nearly flawless and his series with Steve Austin giving us the best matches of the feud at Survivor Series 2000 and No Way Out 2001were a fine piece of work. I have chosen none of these encounters for Triple H’s greatest match. I couldn’t go with just one which is why this may not be his single greatest but it certainly one of his greatest. As you can see, I have plumped for his all out brawl inside the Hell in a Cell at No Way Out 2000 against Cactus Jack. Let me tell you why.
After their clash at the Royal Rumble 2000 the previous month, which did more to cement Triple H as a future and current main event player than his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin had done in 1999, it was deathly important that WWE followed up with a match that would be even more important than the Street Fight four weeks earlier. With Wrestlemania 16 approaching fast, Triple H had to be tested one last time before WWE booked him in the excellent fatal four way main event of the grandest stage of them all. Proving they could put together a killer combination, Foley and Triple H were once again given permission to bring the house down, this time with a vital stipulation. If Cactus Jack lost, then Mick Foley’s career would be over. It was obvious that Foley would return a month later for Wrestlemania 16, but adding the stipulation to that match, finally elevated Triple H as a regular main eventer.
Had the pair fought without the stipulation then Triple H would have course gotten over. As WWE Champion it was always designed that way and the breathtaking ending in which Triple H backdrops Cactus Jack through the roof of the Cell and straight through the canvas put a stop to any nagging doubts anyone may have had. Adding the retirement stipulation was a sheer touch of genius by WWE because anyone who was seen to have ended a career the likes of Foley’s would command to be seen as the very best the company had to offer. Did it matter that Foley and WWE had no intention of following through with the promise? Not really. Because to anyone who was looking in from the outside, Triple H had been screwed over by Linda McMahon, who had brought Foley back for the Wrestlemania 16 main event.
The Royal Rumble Street Fight advanced Triple H as a main event player and a future headline star. But the Hell in a Cell match at No Way Out one month later cemented Triple H in that position and built him heavily as a real threat to anyone he opposed. Had Triple H been given another opponent or even lost the match, which was never going to happen but for instance let’s just say it would have done, then Triple H’s image would have been severely hampered by the loss and WWE may have found they suffered as a consequence. It’s only because of the two matches against Foley on pay per view at the birth of 2000, that Triple H is the man we know today. And if that doesn’t qualify this match to be one of Triple H’s greatest ever then I’m stumped as to what does.
Will Be Remembered For
Being One of The First To Break Through The Glass Ceiling
It’s a well known hurdle for wrestlers who aren’t as fortunate as the likes of John Cena. The glass ceiling has held many wrestlers back and for those who are scratching their heads at what it, is allow me to take a little time to explain.
The glass ceiling is what Vince McMahon uses to keep the wrestlers who should be in the main event, firmly in place in the mid card or even lower. The Miz and Christian are perfect examples of some of those currently stuck under the glass ceiling and in the mid 90’s there were an abundance of wrestlers who were pushed up against it. In the end, the glass was bound to start cracking and sooner or later someone was going to break through. That someone turned out to be Triple H.
Some reading this will say that Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were the first two men to truly break WWE’s glass ceiling but I disagree. After the steroid scandal that nearly put an end to Vince McMahon and the business he worked so hard to build up, WWE were through with the steroid freaks who propped up the company and steadily the likes of Hulk Hogan slowly disappeared from WWE programming and the main event scene all together. There had to be a natural balance to restore order in WWE and whilst the steroid scandal will be looked at by McMahon as one of the worst times in his professional career, I say that it was one of the best things that happened to WWE.
Had WWE not done away with the jacked up bodybuilding freaks, then Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels would have been held under the glass ceiling. When they began to disappear, the WWE effectively removed the glass ceiling completely and allowed the smaller superstars to come through. It was a time and a move which changed the course the company was sailing on and one for the better. Seeing as Hart and Michaels and everyone else who flourished had no glass ceiling after 1992, Triple H has to be one of the first to be credited with breaking through it when it was finally reinstated.
No one ever made any secret of the fact that Triple H was going to be a star in some shape or form, but his Hunter Hearst Helmsley gimmick held him back so much, that it could have needed him before he really began. When Triple H finally did begin to break out on his own towards the middle of 1996, WWE had planned to give him the King of the Ring crown which eventually went to Stone Cold Steve Austin and history was made. It’s only because of the infamous ‘Curtain Call’ incident that Triple H didn’t defeat Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament. Just think how different everything could have been had the stars aligned in another order that month.
After the ‘Curtain Call’ incident at Madison Square Garden, Triple H began to see the glass ceiling slide back into view in WWE and even more disheartening for him, it began to slide directly over his head. For the next year Triple H would be punished and held back. Given such humiliating tasks as being slopped by the Godwins and booked in a match with Henry Godwin in 1996 at an In Your House event which would ultimately see him back dropped into a pig pen full of crap. Maybe Triple H thought that was the end of his career in the WWE. I’m sure that when he constantly tried to punch his way through the glass ceiling and it never broke under his weight, he probably felt like giving it all up and heading back to WCW. But it’s funny how things work out in the end. Something you believe is right for you can turn into another beast which may look like it’s keeping you behind but in actually fact is just waiting for the right time to strike.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley’s involvement in the creation of D-Generation X was the beginning of the movement that would change his life for the better. Immediately, through association with Shawn Michaels, Triple H went from aristocrat to rebel. From mid carder to upper mid carder. A lot of things eventually had to happen to allow Triple H to break through the glass ceiling and whilst he can be considered one of the best WWE superstars of all time, one has to think of Triple H as one of the luckiest as well.
Had Triple H won the 1996 King of the Ring tournament and been given the Austin role then we wouldn’t have the Triple H we know now. Had Triple H not been a part of DX then he would have never gained the sort of acceptance that he finally got from the audience. Whilst in DX, had Shawn Michaels never done so much damage to his back which forced him from the company in 1998, Triple H would have never have been given the reigns of the group, which would ultimately catapult him into the main event scene. And had he not been in the high profile spot he was, then who knows, maybe he would never have had the involvement with Stephanie McMahon he was given and history, both personally and professionally for Triple H would been a hell of a lot different.
There wasn’t a lot of people in WWE in 1995 who were keen on Triple H. There weren’t a whole lot of people who wanted to see him succeed let alone be put in the main event years later. Vince McMahon held his future son in law down for so long that it inspired a revolution inside ‘The Game’. A revolution to be better, to do better and force himself into the public’s approval. Once there, there was no way WWE could hold him back because in the attitude era, what the people wanted, the people got. That revolution finally, in 1999, saw Triple H break through the glass ceiling. That hole he made began to crack further and further, making bigger holes and allowing more talent who had either been previously held firmly under or were refused acceptance into WWE’s main event scene out.
Some people say that Triple H is the most hated wrestler of all time because of who he married and that prevents him from being one of the greatest of all time. That’s bollocks and we all know it. Who you marry, who you choose to spend your life with does not and should never prohibit one from being remembered for exactly what they are. Triple H is one of the greatest of all time, but sometimes it’s better to be remembered for something different. Triple H was a trailblazer, in the fact that he was one of the very first men to break the glass ceiling allowing others out into the spotlight. Triple H set a standard in WWE, one that sent a clear message to those who sit in their board rooms, drink tea and go home in the evening and cry into a Vodka bottle and one which stated that just because a wrestler wasn’t in favour with the management in WWE, it didn’t mean he could be a star and that no matter how hard you try, you can keep real talent down.
WWE learnt the hard way with Triple H and years later with C.M Punk. For the man born Paul Levesque, in Greenwich Connecticut – where nothing ever happened and no one made it to the big time, that’s a hell of an achievement and a memory Triple H can be uber proud to leave behind.
Bret ‘Hit Man’ Hart
Biggest Victory
Defeated Ric Flair – Saskatoon, Canada: 12th October, 1992
When the steroid scandal broke in WWE, Vince very quickly replaced mostly all of his big guys with more athletic wrestlers who didn’t rely on their muscles to get them noticed and recognised in wrestling. I always thought it was very lucky WWE had Bret Hart in 1992 otherwise it would have been at a loss as to whom the WWE Championship would have fallen to. ‘The Hit Man’ had a reputation of being a solid worker in the ring, with a very dependable selling routine that could get anyone over at a moments notice. Some wrestlers are born to be the hero and some are born to be the victim. Bret Hart was an awesome victim.
Wholly believable when he was attacked by a bigger foe, Hart sold each injury like he’d just been hit by a snipers bullet in the second world war. His perfect timing in the ring and also coming back from said injuries made him seem the ultimate hero for the audience to back as he valiantly fought off the injury to vanquish the evil. There was no better choice to replace Flair at the tip of the tree in 1992 than Bret Hart and not being the most built of wrestlers, it was the perfect chance for Vince to put Bret on a pedestal as someone who wasn’t jacked up on steroids and show the world that wrestling was taking a new direction.
It wasn’t only a new direction for WWE, it was a new direction for Bret Hart who had been languishing in the Intercontinental Championship division for far too long. However Hart is a perfect example of what WWE can accomplish with the Intercontinental Championship and its future main event scene, should they choose to reinvest in the title in 2013. The same can also be said for the WWE Tag Team Championship which Hart held several times with his brother in law Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart before he broke away from the doubles division and decided to go it alone. A decision that was wisely made and benefitted the WWE in the long run.
It’s a shame, because not many people have seen this match and short term fans who have only just gotten hold of this crazy business we live vicariously through may have never even heard of it. It’s out there on the right DVD and You Tube should you wish to give it a viewing which I thoroughly recommend you do. Maybe WWE should have bided their time and had the Championship swap on pay per view, Saturday Night’s Main Event or Superstars, it would have been a lot bigger for the company and had it been announced in advance you can’t help but think it may have drawn WWE it’s biggest television number in quite some time. The fact that the Championship change happened on a house show which was then shown later on television diminished the victory for Hart somewhat.
The match itself was very good indeed. Then again did ever expect a match between a Ric Flair and Bret hart in their prime to be anything less? Somehow though, when its talked about by various people involved, the major fact that came out of the match wasn’t that Bret defeated Flair for the WWE Championship, instead it was the fact that Bret dislocated his finger during the encounter and then put it back in place which gets a brilliant cringe from Mr. Perfect who was at ringside.
In the end, this is thought to be Bret Hart’s biggest victory because like so many in this series, for what it meant. It was the turn around for a company who had previously put the likes of Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior before those who could actually wrestle. It ushered in a new era with Bret Hart leading the charge and it also opened up the playing field for people like Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, the 123 Kid and a young Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Over all of Hart’s victories, opening the flood gates not just for those who were around him at the time but also for the future generations has to be considered a hell of an accomplishment and a huge victory for anyone credited with such an accomplishment.
Victorious Moment
Returning to WWE, 13 Years After ‘The Montreal Screw-job’
It was something Bret Hart swore he’d never ever do. After Montreal, ‘The Hit Man’ trashed WWE, quite rightly, every chance he got. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon, the McMahon family and almost everyone else who knew what was going to happen in advance at Survivor Series 1997 found themselves on the wrong end of Bret Hart’s tongue over the years and with not so favourable character assassinations in Hart’s quite wonderful autobiography, which is longer than War and Peace, but if you can stick with it is one of the best wrestling autobiographies ever to have been published.
You can understand Hart’s stance on the company that literally screwed him over. Why would anyone want to return to somewhere that did that to them after they’d give so much? The problem was that the ‘Montreal Screw-job’ followed Hart around wherever he went. Even in WCW, Hart’s presence in the company was overshadowed by what had happened to him in November 1997. It was an albatross that Bret never seemed to shake off whilst he was distanced from the biggest wrestling company in the world and ultimately it was the reason why Hart didn’t make it big in WCW.
There’s no way it couldn’t have been eating Bret up from the inside, ever time he stepped into a WCW ring. We’d be fools to think that it wasn’t that one constant course of frustration that always played on his mind and though it was never confirmed, the stress Bret Hart was put under both publically and personally may have added to the stroke he suffered later on in his life. I can speak from a personal stand point here, as someone who has had something happen. It constantly plays on the mind, going over itself until you’ve just had enough and no matter how much you try to move on, without a logical outcome to put said incident to bed, it’s always there with you. Sometimes you forget it, other times it just sits there like a giant leech and consumes you.
It is understood that after Owen Hart’s tragic death, Bret and Vince met at Owen’s funeral where apologies were offered and handshakes made, but from what I gathered Bret couldn’t forgive McMahon. Not until years later when the ‘Excellence of Execution’ was stuck down by a stroke. A stroke which Hart has done miraculously well to recover from and all credit goes to him for that. Funny things happen when something as serious as that happens. Things that seemed important before suddenly seem stupid and insignificant and feuds which have eaten you up can easily be forgotten. When you’re close to death, I’m told you gain a new perspective on life. After his recuperation, Bret openly admitted that he hadn’t got room or time to hold grudges anymore and that he was prepared to move one with the future and leave the past behind. The only real way he could do that though was to go back to the one place he had never found peace with.
Despite his constant sheer bloody mindedness, it took Vince McMahon and WWE to issue a statement that they were going to release a ‘Self Destruction of Bret Hart’ DVD to follow on in the tradition of ‘The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior’ DVD, telling their version of the Montreal Incident which would of course have been all lies and painted Hart as a difficult arse to work with, who had to have it all his own way. Which anyone in the business knew was a complete and utter lie. We can only guess how close WWE were to releasing the DVD, Bret himself has said that they were days away from putting it out, others say it was just a mere threat to get Bret Hart to sign a deal to help produce his own DVD and others say the DVD was actually recorded and then deleted when Hart put pen to paper. We’ll never know for sure, the only certainty that came out of it was that Hart saw the light and we got the brilliant ‘The Best There Is, The Best There Was and The Best There Ever Will Be’ DVD.
It took for WWE to threaten to destroy his career and memory for Bret Hart to come home to WWE. It may have been a shrewd move by WWE but it was undoubtedly the best decision Bret Hart could have made. Even though he didn’t appear on WWE television for another four years, Bret Hart had finally made peace with the demon from his past and in 2010, thirteen years after his last appearance on WWE television, Bret Hart took the momentous step to prove he was better than the company that screwed him by burying the past with Shawn Michaels live on Raw.
Make no mistake, it takes a big man to offer his hand to someone who caused him years of pain and in January 2010, Bret ‘Hit Man’ Hart showed just how big of a man he really is. No pun intended but Bret has a big heart. He showed it throughout his career and he cemented it in his first appearance on Raw in 13 years. Hands down, stepping foot back into the ring and putting the past to rest is by far Bret Hart’s most victorious moment.
Greatest Match
Vs Mr. Perfect – SummerSlam 1991
Curt Henning and Bret Hart had a storied history. They’d fought numerous times on house shows, pay per view events and WWE television. Their match at SummerSlam 1991 for the WWE Intercontinental Championship was by far one of the greatest matched Bret Hart has ever contested in a wrestling ring and that is saying something. It topped Hart’s SummerSlam match with the British Bulldog one year late and was the first time in WWE when we really stood up and took notice that Hart was the next big star in a company which like today was scarce on main event talent.
The match has a different meaning for everyone who watches it. Some say it was special because of the two men and their history in and out of the ring. You can speak to other people who will say it was special because it was Henning’s last match for a while in WWE due to a serious back injury. In reality Henning shouldn’t have even been wrestling but he wanted to good a good job for Bret to hold him in good stead in the future. The rest will say that this match was one of the single greatest shows of technical wrestling you are ever likely to see. Everyone would be right. Because it was all of those and more.
I have harped on about how good matches were and quite frankly I’m sick of the sound of my own text. You could quite easily pick up a copy of SummerSlam 1991 and see for yourself have stunning this match is. It wouldn’t be the last match the two contested of course, upon Henning’s return to WWE he and Hart fought another top quality match in the King of the Ring 1993 tournament and again in WCW. None of their matches though would top their clash at SummerSlam.
Mr. Perfect was a spectacularly unselfish wrestler in the ring and if he could anything to elevate his opponents then he would so without question. It’s a shame that wrestlers like Curt Henning never held the WWE Championship because history tends to remember them less. Curt Henning will never be remembered by most for the terrific wrestler he was which is a crying shame. For those who never saw Henning wrestle, he’ll be remembered as an announcer and a manager to Ric Flair which he was great at but some people need to be remembered as the great talents they were and Curt Henning is one of those people.
Bret Hart went into this match as a great prospect for the future. When the match was over, it was clear to everyone watching that during the twenty or so minutes the pair fought, Bret Hart had come of age in the ring and in less than half an hour Hart had gone from future prospect to guaranteed future WWE Champion. There are only a limited number of matches where this has happened to a wrestler tipped for greatness and it can only happen when both men are as good as the other. At SummerSlam 1991 stars really did align for two second generation superstars and this business was all the better for it.
Will Be Remembered For
Being The Best There Is, The Best There Was and The Best There Ever Will Be
Okay, so it could be looked upon as a cheesy thing to say in 2013, but I don’t get many chances to be cheesy in my life or line of work so I’m taking every one I can. You’ll all agree wit me I’m sure when I choose this as the one thing Bret Hart will be remembered for. Bret Hart was never going to be remembered as the biggest guy or tallest guy. Bret Hart was always the best.
It didn’t matter if he was put against Yokozuna or Diesel, Bret Hart never looked out of his depth. With other wrestlers it was always a struggle to make bigger guys look good whilst maintaining you own image. Bret Hart though, had the skills and the technical knowhow to maintain his talents in the ring whilst elevating those around him. It’s something that could be invaluable to WWE wrestlers today and if WWE were on the ball the it would have offered Bret Hart a trainers job long ago. I know he can’t physically get in the ring and show the younger guys how to put on a flawless technical performance but sometimes all you need is someone to stand at ringside and point out where you’re going wrong. There are a lot of young men and women in WWE Developmental system and on its main roster who could greatly benefit from Bret Hart’s knowledge and I’m sure in the future Hart will want his technical knowhow to be passed on.
Was it always destined to be do you think? That Bret Hart would be as good as he was? The son of a wonderful technical wrestler and all around tough guy, it was bound to rub off on Bret in some way and whilst only Bret and Owen made it big in the wrestling business out of all the Hart brothers, it was ‘The Hit Man’ that Stu Hart’s raw silks passed to. That’s not to say Owen couldn’t hold together a great technical match in the ring because he did. But for some reason ‘The Rocket’ never took off like his brother did. And I will never know why.
The dedication, the hart, the desire to be the best made Bret Hart one of wrestling’s greats. Every move he applied in the ring looked great and his matches seemed to be flawless. He may have suffered great personal loss in his career and life but it hasn’t ruined Bret Hart’s outlook on life or wrestling. His preciseness in the ring made his career and put him right at the top of the tree as far as dependable wrestlers went. His infectious ability in helping make stars around him passed on to his brother Owen and even to a certain extent his brother in law the British Bulldog. More than his own family though, Bret Hart passed this on to others. Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin were made by Bret Hart. Had their feuds with Hart been nothing but an ego trip for Hart then both men would have suffered greatly.
Bret learned how to be unselfish in the ring from his father and those he wrestled with like Curt Henning and proceeded to take their example and help elevate others. Had it been anyone else in the main event of Wrestlemania 12 Shawn Michaels may have not been the wrestler he turned out to be. Had Bret Hart not been chosen to feud with Austin then that unforgettable picture of Austin locked in the sharpshooter at Wrestlemania 13 wouldn’t have happened and Austin’s face turn wouldn’t have been as effective. It all has a knock on effect and as much as people can say they were in the right place at the right time, you also need the right person to complete that equation. Bret Hart was always that person.
I can’t imagine that in 2013 and looking to the future, Bret Hart has any regrets left in wrestling. He’s put the whole Survivor Series 1997 incident behind him and its time we and wrestling followed suit. Bret Hart has weathered the storm of losing his parents, a huge majority of his brothers, his brother in law and countless friends, one of them being Brian Pillman and it still hasn’t dampened his attitude towards wrestling. Hart’s style and dedication can be seen in WWE today with Tyson Kidd, Natalya and all those who grew up idolising him. One day I hope to meet Bret Hart, just to thank him for everything he did for wrestling and his inspiration on a generation of young, impressionable children, for which I was one.
You will be hard pushed to find anything negative to say about Bret Hart’s wrestling career. Everything he did was as good as flawless. WWE could and probably will go on for another hundred years, but I doubt there’ll ever be another Bret Hart. He’s said it on numerous occasions, his matches and technical ability backed it up when he was in the ring and if you’re left in any doubt the available DVD’s and upcoming Bret Hart release will undoubtedly prove that he really was ‘The Best There Is, The Best There Was and The Best There Ever Will Be.’
The Match
Triple H and Bret Hart have fought before, on WWE television when Triple H was Hunter Hearst Helmsley, when DX and the Hart Foundation were waging a war and on house shows during the mid 90’s. That though isn’t what we’ve looked at here. What I’ve tried to convey is what a match between a 2000 – 2013 Triple H and a 1990 – 1997 Bret Hart would have been like and we all know it would have been superb.
Triple H’s wrestling knowledge and hard hitting style would have perfectly set off Bret Hart’s submission and technical style, with both men being able to reverse the roles and take on the others. Bret Hart could be hard hitting at time and Triple H has displayed enough technical wrestling knowledge over the years to suggest that had his Triple H character been present during the mid 90’s instead of his aristocratic, pompous persona then these two would have waged a hell of a feud. Both are worthy Hall of Fame inductees. Bret Hart has already taken his place and there’s no point denying Triple H will join him in the next few years. And they’ve earned it.
Even thought the match would be used to prove who is the best, neither would need to prove their status to the die hard fans. Triple H has done so much for the company he’ll own when Vince McMahon passes on or retires and his contribution can never be diminished even though the moronic among us still seem to think that his marriage to Stephanie means he’ll never be considered one of the greatest. Once again, that’s bullshit. Like Triple H, Bret Hart has paid his dues and proven his worth in the squared circle. Win lose or draw ‘The Hit Man’ has nothing to prove and deserves if not demands our respect for everything he has put up with and still given to us as an audience.
In the end though, Bret Hart’s relentless style and extended technical knowledge would get the better of Triple H. The old adage of the bigger you are the harder you fall would always come into play in matches like this. Bret Hart may not have been as built as Triple H was during his peak but that would only help Hart in allowing Triple H to punch himself out. On numerous occasions we’ve seen Bret Hart take a beating and still come back as where Triple H has tapped out too many times to believe that with an injured leg or back, he could survive the Sharpshooter or any other submission manoeuvre in Bret’s arsenal. The real life heat between the pair, even though Bret has shaken hands and forgiven doesn’t mean he likes Triple H – which he doesn’t, would ensure we were witness to a super heated match. One which Bret Hart would cement his status as ‘The Best There Is, The Best There Was and The Best There Ever Will Be.’
Winner: Bret ‘Hit Man’ Hart
Onwards and upwards...
