My Favorite/Hated Bret Hart Matches and Storylines

Here are a few of my favorite Hitman matches.

House match Boston Gardens

Ricky Steamboat vs. Bret Hart

King of the Ring 1993

Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect

Survivor Series 1995

Bret Hart vs. Diesel

Summerslam 1994

Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart

Wrestlemania 8

Bret Hart vs. Rowdy Roddy Piper

Summerslam 1992

Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog

In Your House 1995

Bret Hart vs. Hakushi

My favorite Bret Hart match was…

Wrestlemania 13

Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin

The story and pace of the match made it my favorite. The action was nonstop from the beginning and the story telling was phenomenal.

These are the matches and storylines relating to Bret that missed the mark.

Wrestlemania 11

Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund in an “I quit” match

By the time this match rolled around, the storyline was as good as dead. While Backlund’s gimmick did work for a time, when Wrestlemania rolled around it wasn’t working anymore. To put Bret, who was main event caliber, into a gimmick match was not good use of talent.

Summerslam 1993

Bret Hart vs. Doink, then vs. Jerry the King Lawler

Bret had won the King of the Ring tournament, which should’ve given him a shot at the title at Summerslam. Instead, they failed to capitalize on Bret’s status and started a heated feud with Jerry Lawler.

When Lawler came out injured and had Bret wrestle Doink, it seemed more like something to pass the time, since there was no storyline between the two. When the King and Bret finally clashed, it was intense and made for good television.

But after watching the main event between Lex Luger and Yokozuna that night, it was painfully clear they gave the wrong guy the push.

Fall of 1995 through spring of 1996

During this time, Bret beat Diesel at the Survivor Series, and then had a great match with the British Bulldog at In Your House in December. Most of this was going unnoticed as the WWE was pushing Shawn Michaels as their next great thing.

Instead of pulling the focus to both athletes hyping the contest equally, they chose to focus on Shawn’s “boyhood dream” and largely ignored Bret, who was having some of his best matches at the time.

Wrestlemania 12

The Iron Man Match

Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart

While the last half of the match told a good story and the pace was pretty good, the first thirty minutes were very drawn out and I had a hard time paying attention. The match would’ve been much better if they would’ve had just a normal match and allowed them to pace naturally, instead of building for an hour.

Look at the first few minutes of their Wrestlemania match compared to their Survivor Series match and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

So what’s your take? What’s your favorite Bret Hart match? Which storylines missed their mark?