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Wrestling: Bret Hart

I am the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be!

~ Bret Hart

Bret "The Hitman" Hart was one of the biggest stars of Professional Wrestling in the '90s and is simultaneously one of the most technically gifted performers to ever step into a wrestling ring and one of the most troubled and tortured personalities in the history of the industry.

Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Bret was a member of the Hart Wrestling Family and was trained by his father Stu in the famous "Hart Dungeon". Easily the most successful member of the family, he is a double Triple Crown Champion. He is a 5x WWE Champion

, a 2x WWE Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion

, a 2x WWE World Tag Team Champion

with brother-in-law Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, a 1x WWE United States Heavyweight Champion

, a 2x WCW World Heavyweight Champion

, a 4x WCW United States Heavyweight Champion

and a 1x WCW World Tag Team Champion

with Goldberg.

Bret had a very troubled career. The most notable instance of this is the infamous Montreal Screwjob, where he was screwed out of the World Title in Canada as he was leaving for WCW and Vince McMahon feared him leaving with the belt. Bret was poorly used in WCW, never again attaining the levels of success of his WWF run and his stint would be marred by the death of his younger brother Owen Hart. His career would eventually end due to a concussion suffered in a match with Goldberg and a stroke several years later would ensure he would never wrestle again.

Bret would return to what is now the WWE in 2010, making sporadic appearances in a non-wrestling role at pay-per-views and Raw.

As per usual, That Other Wiki

has an extensive article on his career and life.

"These are the best tropes there are, the best tropes that were, and the best tropes there ever will be!"

Arch-Enemy:
- Shawn Michaels. On 1/4/10, they buried the hatchet on RAW. When Shawn retired later after Wrestlemania 26, and thanked Bret Hart for putting up with him backstage. By that point it was clear that both wrestlers were on speaking terms once again.
- Allen Coage (Bad News Brown in the WWF) was possibly Bret Hart's worst enemy. Bad News has commented in many interviews that Bret was the most difficult wrestler he ever worked with. And Bret Hart has called Bad News his nemesis (the only person he refers to as this in his book.) Unlike Shawn Michaels, they never buried the hatchet, although this is possibly because Bad News died in 2007.
- In the days of the Hart Foundation Tag Team with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, the British Bulldogs (the Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith), the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers (Jacques and Raymond), Demolition
Ascended Meme: On Bret's Twitter, he referenced the Five Moves of Doom and linked to the El Dandy interview on YouTube, labeling it his favorite moment from his time in WCW.
Breakup Breakout: After he split from the Hart Foundation, Bret was catapulted to the main event. Ironically, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart was initially considered to be the stronger performer. Bret's singles push came during the WWF's infamous steroid scandal, where McMahon wanted to push someone smaller.
Bullying a Dragon: Perhaps the one time where it worked. On the March 29, 1999 WCW Monday Nitro, which was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Bret called out Goldberg. Goldberg ran out and speared Bret, and got knocked out. Bret took off his Toronto Maple Leafs jersey to reveal a steel torso protector.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: At King of the Ring 93, Jerry "The King" Lawler objected to Bret being named "King" just by winning a tournament, and apparently stiffed Bret hard with a sceptre, and did so again with crutches at SummerSlam. Lawler had shown up on crutches in an attempt to get out of the match, and introduced Doink The Clown, still a Heel at the time, as his replacement. Bret basically squashed him, and Lawler threw down the crutches, thus revealing that his "injury" was faked, and attacked Bret, leading to Kayfabe President Jack Tunney forcing Lawler into the match. Bret claimed to have really cranked on the Sharpshooter in retaliation, though Lawler told him that he thought "that was how the Hart boys worked." They made up sometime later.
Canada, Eh?: Not normally the focus of his gimmick, but his 1997 heel turn played up his Canadianness as Hart would use it as a source of pride against Americans, who he believed didn't deserve a hero of his caliber.
Catch Phrase: The page-topping quote.
Cluster F-Bomb: Bret Hart's promo on the Raw before WrestleMania 13, after losing a steel cage match to Sid Vicious.
Bret Hart: If you don't like it, TOUGH SHIT!
Coats and Jackets: Black leather jacket with "Hitman" and a skull on it.
Cool Shades
Curb-Stomp Battle: His WrestleMania 26 match against Vince McMahon. It wasn't so much a match as it was an extended beatdown.
Demoted to Extra: Especially during his time in WCW.
Determinator: Bret once wrestled a match against Dino Bravo, which saw Bret get bumped a little too hard to the outside, where he broke his sternum on the steel guard rail. Despite Bret's nonverbal cues that something was wrong (i.e. he couldn't even breathe) the match kept going. Bret was supposed to win, but ended up losing by countout.
Despair Event Horizon: In-character version: his 1997 heel turn and reformation of the Hart Foundation, complete with What the Hell, Hero? speech against America's failing family values.
Enemy Mine: Michael Cole was such a huge Jerkass that Bret was more than happy to come to the aid of Jerry Lawler in putting him in his place.
Evil Versus Evil: The Hart Foundation feuding with DeGeneration X in 1997.
Face Heel Turn: After WrestleMania 13. Following his move to WCW, Bret would switch back and forth between Face and Heel until Goldberg's heel connected with his face.
Finishing Move: The Sharpshooter.
Five-Bad Band: The Hart Foundation
- The Big Bad: Bret
- CoDragons: Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith
- The Brute: Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart
- The Dark Chick: "The Loose Cannon" Brian Pillman
Five Moves of Doom: A fan commentary on Bret's matches from the newsgroup rec.sport.pro-wrestling included this phrase, making Bret sort-of the Trope Namer.
Flanderization: The Montreal Screwjob has become pretty much the be-all and end-all of his entire career, as if everything he had ever accomplished before that didn't happen or didn't matter. In fact, the emphasis this page puts on it makes it into a Self-Demonstrating Article.
Foreign Wrestling Heel: At least in the United States after his Face Heel Turn in 1997. Overseas, he is more popular.
Friend To All Children: Bret would always give his glasses to a lucky child sitting in the front row during his entrance.
Handsome Lech: According to his book, he's slept with many women during his first marriage and doesn't fault himself for his actions.
- Not so much that he doesn't fault himself, but more that he kept finding excuses to justify it even though he knew on some level that it wasn't ideal behavior. His biggest self-justification was that every wrestler needed to find ways to relieve the stress and boredom of spending 300 days a year on the road, and (in his mind) picking up women was far less harmful/destructive than using drugs and/or alcohol to cope with the stress like so many other wrestlers did.
Montreal Screwjob: The target.
Obfuscating Stupidity: See Wounded Gazelle Gambit below.
Pet the Dog: Would frequently give out his Cool Shades to young fans at ringside. This is lampshaded by R-Truth, who borrows the shades to give to a kid, with the reasoning that it'd make him more popular and thus more likely to get a championship match.
Bobby Heenan: There he goes, buying fans again!
Playing Possum: One of Bret's trademark tropes.
Popularity Power: Bret is really, really popular in Canada. So much to the point that during an infamous promo by Shawn Michaels at Montreal in 2005, when Bret's music played and it seemed like he was going to come out and confront Shawn, the crowd erupted.
Power Stable: The New Hart Foundation.
Real Life Writes the Plot/Shocking Swerve: The Montreal Screwjob.
Real Men Wear Pink
Reasonable Authority Figure: As Raw General Manager, to the point where he won't even give preferential treatment to The Hart Dynasty.
Signature Move: You can be damn sure that if someone uses the Sharpshooter it is in some way related to Bret Hart, whether to taunt or show respect to the man.
- Or to Owen, as when Jeff Jarrett, Owen's tag partner at the time of his death, used it on Test on the Owen tribute episode of Raw.
- Unless it's Sting or a tribute to Sting.
- Or, less likely, Riki Chōshū, who pretty much originated it in Japan, where it was named Sasori-gatame, or Scorpion Hold.
Unrelated Brothers: Subverted; pretty much anyone who was said to be a member of the Hart family actually was, be it by marriage or blood.
Who's Laughing Now?: His win against Mr. McMahon at WrestleMania XXVI.
Worf Had The Flu: A rather literal case: just prior to the 1992 Royal Rumble, Bret, at the time Intercontinental Champion, had a flu that ranged at nearly 104 degrees. He lost the belt the night before the event to The Mountie, who then set the record for the shortest IC title reign ever when he lost it to Roddy Piper one day later at the Rumble itself.^note
Wounded Gazelle Gambit/Batman Gambit: Bret puts a Gambit twist on his Playing Possum routine to screw with Vince McMahon.
WrestleCrap: Yes, even Bret has had some stinkers in his career.
- MADTV's Will Sasso's involvement in the match where Piper d. Bret for the WCW United States Heavyweight Title
- WrestleMania: The Album from 1992, featuring Bret, Randy Savage and other non-singers.
- He's included in the entry for Jean-Pierre Lafitte, aka Pierre Carl Ouelette doing a pirate gimmick in 1995, which involved him stealing Bret's jacket.
- WrestleMania The Video Game Video, which seems to involve Bret programming a game by driving a forklift while wearing a tie.
- The Montreal Screwjob's completely nonsensical inclusion in the TV movie The Jesse Ventura Story.
Wrestling Family: The Hart family.
Wrestling Psychology: One of the masters.