Friday, February 24, 2012

History of Professional Wrestling by EatonBeever

Source





The History of Professional Wrestling


Introduction

To start things off, as all my 'History' threads, I apologize for my sloppy and poor grammar. I type all of this from the top of my head, don't really re-read my work. This isn't so much a 'history thread as its more of a significant moments of the business of professional wrestling. I won't type too much on the deaths of this wrestler or that wrestler because everyone already knows deaths in wrestling is 'business as usual' due to steroids & drugs. I think I want to make this thread to show the positives of professional wrestling and the great moments in the sports entertainment world. Things that really stood out and are mentioned whenever someone mentions history of wrestling.The last history thread I've made was the 'Rise & Fall of Bret Hart' which I was repeatly asked 'did you copy and paste that or did you type it yourself'. And the answer is my grammar sucks and of course I typed it all myself. I enjoy making entertaining or interesting history threads. It always provokes good conversation on my favorite subject matter, which in this case is something very close to my childhood - Professional Wrestling. But if you enjoy this thread, please feel free to check out myRise & Fall of Bret Hart as well as the History of Pride threads Parts 1-4 which is located on the UG. I will also mention, I sadly stopped watching pro wrestling in 2005 as I felt John Cena as the champ that carries the company along with HHH really turned me off from wrestling. So as this thread will end, you will probably notice a lack of history from 2006-present so for those current wrestling fans, I will apologize in advance and gladly hope you reply to the thread of any new things that happened recently that I might have missed in my research.


Back in the very early days, pro wrestling was more of a circus act. It was a sideshow exhibition in North America. The matches started as 'shoots' (real fighting) but the grappling matches were very boring. Through time, the industry started to change. Matches began to become 'works' (predetermined matches). A revolution of the industry came as television became popular. They televised the matches. Another very significant moment happened when the wrestlers were allowed to be interviewed. This built characters and the wrestlers became more remembered by the audience. The promoters started to realize that the 'bad guys' who were being interviewed drew more money. So then, the gimmicks and fake personas became popular within the industry to draw more money.




When Pro Wrestling got popular and many organizations got involved, what happened was each promoter took his'territories'. So the wrestling was more of a local thing back then, shown to the audience of that particular area of the States. The popular organization was the 'NWA', National Wrestling Alliance which started in 1948. This organization really had a chain of 'territories' throughout the United States.
Here is where wrestling changed completely. Vincent McMahon Sr. was the promoter of the North East section of USA, mainly New York. He was known for holding shows in Madison Square Garden and even promoted boxing matches as well. Vince McMahon Jr bought his company from his father. He did not tell his father that he was going to go national and dominate the wrestling industry in America. He said in many interviews, if his father knew what he would do, he wouldn't have gave the company to his father. Vince got money when he left his abusive home with his real mom and step father to go live with his real father. His real father was a promoter and told Vince one day "one of my organizations was stealing too much from me" and needed to fire that guy. Not stealing...but 'stealing too much'. So Vince went to that part of North East and made some money , enough to buy the WWWF from his company. After he bought the company , he got rid of one of the 'W' - World Wide Wrestling Federation into just World Wrestling Federation aka WWF.The WWF began to expand and go into territories which PISSED off all the traditional old men who for years and years held its own territory. Vince started to go national and expand. Vince used television programs of his wrestling event to really capitilize on the market and build a fan base of his organization to gain money to buy out other promotions.



 
Meanwhile, a North Carolina based wrestling promotion - Jim Crockett Promotions, noticed Vince's take over of the wrestling world and decided to do the same thing, expand and try to take control of other territories. Jim Crockett was sort of an old school traditional company that had Ric Flair, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk - those type of southern classical wrestlers. However, unlike Vince, he went bankrupt in trying to expand....


By the mid-80's Vince had control of wrestling world while Crockett's NWA was failing to expand and went bankrupt. To avoid going out of business, in 1988 - Jim Crockett sold his company to Ted Turner who needed a wrestling program for his TBS cable network. Ted Turner was not a wrestling guy, but he was a Georgia southern guy who liked wrestling and knew it could draw ratings. He was in the TV business, not wrestling. He bought Jim Crockett's company and re-named it 'WCW' , World Championship Wrestling. At first, Ted didn't have ambitions to take over wrestling world. In fact, he only bought the smaller company to fill a time slot on his network, like I said - he was in the TV business. He was friends with Vince back then because when Vince bought a Georgia NWA branch, he merged Georgia & WWF together and still was allowed to stay on Ted Turner's network. But they mutually parted ways and Ted now had the WCW for his TBS network.


Before WCW, some key players in NWA were Harley Race who won the NWA Title. The person that beat him was Dusty Rhodes, aka the American Dream. Dusty then lost the belt to the Nature Boy - Ric Flair. These group of old school wrestlers def made up NWA , southern territory and was a huge part of wrestling history as that old school classic southern style wrestling transcended to the WCW in 1988.


As Vince McMahon's WWF grew nationally, Vince understood that marketing pro wrestling would take some superstars that the audience would be interested in paying money to see live and on tv. A very huge wrestler came from Vince's dad's company. His name was Terry Bollea and was responsible along with Vince for bringing pro wrestling to mainstream. Terry was signed with Vincent Sr's WWWF and named 'Hulk' Hogan after the 70's tv series. Hogan was contacted by Slyvestor Stallone to make Rocky 3 in a rather large part including speaking role. Stallone based his Rocky movies off of Chuck Wepner who was a boxer that went the distance with Muhammad Ali and knocked him down, but lost the decision. Stallone also saw Wepner take part in a pro wrestling match , wrestling Andre the Giant. Stallone once again memicked Wepner's life and wanted to do that on the big screen, so he took notice to Hogan. Vincent Sr fired Hogan for taking the part, he didn't want wrestlers to be 'actors' on movie. After Hogan was fired and after taping Rocky 3, he went to Japan to became a big player over there with Antonio Inoki. Inoki & Hogan got along well in Japan. Afterwards, Hogan went to Minnesota for Greg Verne's AWA. At that territory, he met and did some programs (storyline fueds) with Jesse Ventura. After Vince Jr took over WWF, he signed Hogan back to the company. Hogan gained a lot of attention with fans who also knew him from Rocky 3 and just his stature as a wrestler. And on Jan. 23rd, 1984, Hulk Hogan beat WWF champion Iron Shiek to win the WWF world title. This would dawn the Hulk Hogan era that would last a very long time.


McMahon wanted to do a wrestling 'supershow' that countered Jim Crockett's very successful Starrcade ppv that was their 'supershow' since 1983. Two years later, Vince wanted to do "Wrestlemania". He aired wrestling specials on MTV to promote the supershow and signed on some celebrities to bring attention to the event. He even managed to get Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time, to participate. Hogan also enlisted the help of his Rocky 3 co-star Mr.T who would wrestle in the main event against the 'bad guy wrestlers' Piper & Mr.Wonderful Paul Ornoff. Hogan & Mr.T hosted Saturday Night Live prior to the event as a massive promotion by Vince. On March 31st, 1985 , Wrestlemania aired and was a huge success. It was held in Madison Square Garden where Vince's father ran a lot of shows and meant alot to Vince Jr to put the show there. Besides the main event, the card also featured wrestling superstars Steamboat, King Kong Bundy, Andre the Giant, Big JOhn Studd, Iron Shiek, DAvid Sammartino, Tito Santana, and more. 



 
Although Vince's WWF was not the only wrestling company in America, the truth is WCW was small pototoes and wasn't that much of a competition unlike later on in the history (90's). Vince never felt he had to put WCW out of business at the time because he was too busy doing his own thing. Vince had visions and was a revolutionist when it came to business of wrestling. Vince knew it would take superstars and characters to draw money. Hulk Hogan was wildly popular. What if you took the biggest superstars of the company and put them together on the biggest show of the year ? Thats what Vince did. In 1987, on the third Wrestlemania event - Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant in the main event. The event took place in the Pontiac Silverdown in Michigan drawing a record audience of 93,173 fans. Almost one million fans watched the events at 160 closed circut locations in North America. PPV revenues was esimated at 10 million and the number of people who watched the event was in the millions. Hogan ended up body slamming Andre the Giant and winning the match. Andre had a bad back injury and was known to be a jerk who would not put any wrestler over, but he did it because he did like Hogan and had a job to do. Not only was Hogan vs. Andre the single most important moment in wrestling, but it wasn't even the best match of the card. Ricky Steamboat vs. Macho Man Randy Savage was watched by everyone in anticipation of the main event. The match was fantastic and the two wrestlers gained a great amount of fame from the match...

In 1988, Pat Patterson constructed an idea for a WWF wrestling show called the 'Rumble Royale'. Each wrestler would enter the ring after amount of time and the idea is to throw the wrestler off the top rope eliminating him until everyone buy the winner was eliminated. The first edition aired on USA network for free in 1988 in Canada. Jim Duggan won. The event was a hit and the following years, they would make it a pay per view. Big John Studd won in 1989 and Hogan won two times in a row in 1990 & 1991.


In 1990, WWF was dominate with the help of Hulk Hogan. But other superstars were popular as well and people also tuned in for them. At this time, a lot of wrestlers had outlandish 'character' gimmicks to make them memorable to the audience. Some characters connected with the fans, others did not. But some very popular characters besides Hogan were Sgt. Slaughter, Rick Rude, Macho Man Randy Savage, Jim Duggan, Ted DiBiase the Million Dollar Man, Mr. Perfect, Big Boss Man, Earthquake, Demolition, Bad News Brown, Roddy Piper, Jimmy Snuka, Jake the Snake Roberts, Brutus Beefcake, and of course, the Ultimate Warrior. These 'characters' went over with the fans well. But one of the characters began to really get as much pop (cheers) as the main event Hulk Hogan. That was the character, The Ultimate Warrior. Warrior was a very cartoonish gimmick. He was cheered loudly. The Warrior music blasted at each arena and Warrior used to run to the ring. He was a high impact wrestler, not a great technical wrestler, but everything was slams and running, and more slams and getting the crowd behind him. His matches would be short and sweet. Hogan was a good guy. Warrior was a good guy. In the world of wrestling, good guys always wrestled bad guys and no exceptions. All the good guys would help out all the other good guys while the bad guys would always help the other bad guys. But with the massive popularity of Hogan & Warrior, Vince McMahon thought it would be an interesting idea to put a good guy vs. a good guy in the main event, just to see if it would actually work. Breaking the 'tradition of wrestling'. On April 1st, 1990 in the SkyDome in Toronto Canada, the intercontinental champion - Ultimate Warrior would face the world champion Hulk Hogan with both belts on the line. The Intercontinental Championship (IC) was a secondary belt that sort of signified who was the second best in the company. Hulk Hogan would for years win all of his matches. I believe Vince was worried people would get tired of the same ole formula. So the storyline for the two leading up to the event was that Hogan put forth "The Ultimate Challenge" to the Warrior, and had to know whether Hulkamania or the power of the Warrior was the strongest force in the World Wrestling Federation. Very cartoonish like storyline, but it drew money. In the main event, the two epic good guys of the company really split the fans in half which was also interesting at the time. Warrior was popular enough with the audience, Vince felt he could take the championship, really change things up with the audience. And it was also a passing of the torch to Warrior from Hogan, the former champ. Warrior won the match clean and Warrior was the new champion. Hogan, backstage, was a different story. He felt that Vince did that to bring down 'Hulk-a-mania' (the phrase of the fanbase of Hogan) because he thought Vince didn't want Hogan to get too big, so big that he would be bigger than the company. Vince on the other hand, felt like his company needed a little change. 


Putting the belt on Warrior was more of a mistake than anything. At the time, it was done strictly for business decision. Warrior was over with the fans. He drew money and was popular. Backstage, Warrior was an asshole. He was a loner without any friends in the business. He also wasn't a 'wrestler' from day one. Jim Helwig (warrior) was a body builder who was obsessed with working out. He didn't have a passion for the business. After he won the belt, wrestlers and production team said he simply didn't even care. Most wrestlers who personally knew Warrior thought that he didn't deserve it. Warrior had his ego, as did most people, but his ego got in the way of WWF at one point. The date was August 26th, 1991. SummerSlam 1991, was an annual ppv event held each summer that was sort of a sequel to wrestlemania. It had a great card minus all the celebs and hype and such, but an all star card never the less. During the Iraq war in 1991, Vince used that real life event as part of his wrestling storyline. He used three wrestlers as Iran sympthasiers (Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa and General Adnan) against the all american good guy heros - Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior and it would take place in Madison Square Garden. The problem was with the Ulimate Warrior. Before the show, Warrior claimed Vince owed him money for WM 7, so he threatened to pull out of the card right before the event. Vince was so upset by this and as a business man who felt he needed to please the fans, he agreed to pay him the money. The match did take place and Vince fired Warrior right after the event, and he did pay him his money that he verbally agreed to. Vince claimed he 'could not wait to fire him.'



 
In 1991, outlandish and cartoon characters drew money. We saw this with the Warrior and such. But there was one wrestler that had the height and presence to make a great character. His name was MArk Calaway. He was a wrestler for the territories in mid-80's and eventually made his way to WCW where he wrestled as Mean Mark Callous. He did tag team matches but didn't really take off. In 1990, he signed with WWF and made his debut as 'Kane the Undertaker' in November of 1990. His gimmick was a 'dead man' modeled after a morticial from old Western movies, wearing trenchcoat, black hat, boots, gloves. He was allowed to no-sell his opponents moves to seem like he didn't feel pain. He was brought in as a heel. Survivor Series 1991, Undertaker defeated Hulk Hogan for the world title. Hogan won his title back on a "Tuesday in Texas' event. Undertaker switched managers (since he didnt speak) from Ted Diabiase, to Brother Love, to finally Paul Bearer who worked very well with Taker as they both looked very strange outlandish. Paul Bearer would hold an 'urn' where Taker got his powers from. Undertaker's gimmick would be the longest lasting 'cartoonish' gimmick that also worked the longest as well.

In 1991, Ric Flair had major problems with his employer, NWA / WCW. He had the NWA title, but signed with WWF in August of 1991. He began appearing on television as the 'Real World HW Champion'. Flair would issue many challenges to Hogan & Piper. Flair appeared on WWF with the NWA belt. WCW sued him in an attempt to reclaim the belt, but when you won the NWA belt, the wrestler had to put a 25k deposit for the belt. Since they never returned the 25k to Flair, he went out on WWF television with it. Back then, it rocked the Wrestling world if you were a hardcore fan. Flair was the KING of WCW and that type of wrestling south. After the Taker / Hogan fued where the belts were exchanged, the belt was announced as 'vacant' due to the crazyness of the Hogan/Taker matches. Royal Rumble 1992, Jan.19th, 1992 would be the decision of who was the WWF champion. The winner of the rumble would take the belt home. Hogan & Taker entered, but would be eliminated. Ric Flair entered the ring as the third wrestler and lasted in the ring the entire time. He won the Rumble & and the title. 


Macho Man Randy Savage had the look, the skills and the gimmick to be a great pro wrestler. He used his real life wife, Miss Elizabeth to enhance his character. His signiature quote 'OHHHHHH YEAHHHH' would be used for years. At Wrestlemania 8 on April 5th, 1992, in a great fued with Ric Flair, Macho Man won the title from Flair just three months after Flair won it. The main event for Wrestlemania 8 was Sid Justice vs. Hogan. Sid was a larger than life villain character that only Hogan could win. Hogan won by DQ when he was attacked by other villains and the unexpected happened as Hogan was being beat up, the Ultimate Warrior music blasted and the return of the Ultimate Warrior. Warrior ran to the ring to save Hogan and knock out the evil Sid Justice.

Wrestlemania 8 would also feature Bret Hart really breaking off into a single's star. Hart came from a tag team, the Hart Foundation, but wanted to be a bigger star so he went into singles. He defeated Roddy Piper for the IC title, this was significant because no one had pinned Piper's shoulders in 17 years straight, but that night, Hart pinned him clean. Hart was the IC champion and was a singles champion who got over well with the fans. He could wrestle better than the old men who were the main events who had charisma, but not the technical wrestling like Bret did. At the end of 1992, Warrior was once again missing shows, being a pain in the ass and Vince was tired of a bad employee. Hogan was larger than life and did movie projects and his time was being used in other areas to make money. He wasn't with the company that much. 




At this point the main players were Hogan, Warrior, Flair, & Macho Man in 1992. The common element of these wrestlers were they were older. Without Hogan & Warrior, Vince wanted to promote some new up and coming superstars to main event champion status. Flair was a God of Wrestling to the hardcore fans and the southern WCW fans (which werent alot). But Flair couldn't carry the numbers like Hogan. Hogan was able to carry his name to a household name. EVERYONE knew who Hogan was. Flair couldn't produce that popularity as a champion. Flair had better technical skills, mic skills, everything but he didn't have that Hogan-esque popularity. With that being said, Flair needed to do a job to a younger champion which Vince would risk banking on that could continue to make the company money as a champion. He chose Bret Hart to be that Hogan successor.

Bret Hart came from a wrestling family. He was one of 12 children of Stu Hart, a legendary wrestling promoter of Canada. Vince managed to purchase Calgary Stampede Wrestling, which Stu Hart ran, so Bret Hart naturally continued his career through the WWF. Bret Hart & brother Owen Hart found great success in Vince's company. Bret started as a tag team with Jim Anvil Neidhart and their tag team was known as 'The Hart Foundation'. Hart Foundation took off and became a great tag team and eventually captured the belt. But Bret wanted to become a single's champion. He won the IC title from Mr. Perfect, Curt Hennig in SummerSlam 1991. He continued great success in that sort of mid-card position as a secondary champion (IC belt). Bret Hart was a good worker in the ring and was a loyal employee behind the scenes. His gimmick was a good guy that wrestled out of honor and family tradition (Hart Family). At SummerSlam 1992, Bret told Vince that he could have a great match for the IC title against Bulldog in UK where it was held. Vince let Bret and Bulldog main event and the two had a great match, the belt was won by Bulldog in his home country and that allowed Bret to be available to wrestle for the WWF World Title if Vince felt he was marketable and 'over' with the fans (Over means the crowd gets either behind or really against the wrestler). When Hogan was gone here and there for his movie career, Vince took the risk of making Bret the champion. I believe Vince felt that Bret wasnt the biggest guy in there, but his in ring abilities would make up for the fact he wasn't a roided monster. Roids were rumored among the business and Bret was a perfect guy to get away from that aspect of the business. It was honestly good PR, Bret would be a loyal company man champion and he was a wrestling guy, unlike Warrior who had a body building background and absolutely no love for the business, just there for the fame / paycheck.... On October 12th, 1992 - Bret Hart was booked to win the title against champion Ric Flair. Hart put Flair in his 'finishing move', known as the sharp shooter and submitted Flair for the WWF world title, signifying a new era in the WWF. Out with Hogan and in with Bret Hart. A new era would begin. Now wheather or not the fans would enjoy this new era will always be up for debate.

As Bret Hart was now the WWF champion. This meant that the smaller guys like Bret Hart could rise to the top of the WWF mountain. Bret Hart was part of a tag team that managed to win over the fans enough to get to the title. As this was happening, another similar wrestler was also on the same exact path. His name was Michael Hickenbottom from San Antonio , Texas. He wrestled as 'Shawn Michaels' part of the Rockers along with tag team partner , Marty Jennetty. Shawn also would go off as a singles star, but he would go off on a very different route than Bret Hart, his future rival in wrestling. Shawn Michaels would turn heel and turn on his tag teammate. The way he did it would really make an impact on his character and future career. December 2nd, 1991, on an episode of Brutus Beefcake's talk show, Shawn would turn bad guy by super kicking Marty threw a glass window. It looked brutal for the time period (1991). Shawn would be a pre-madonna villain which would be cocky, arrogant, and would call himself sexy which would be his theme music. He teamed up with Sensational Sherri who managed him as a singles star. He was on the same route as Bret Hart except for the fact Bret did it as a baby face while Shawn was on his way as a villain. Something very important that I should mention is that in order for a wrestler to be successful, they have to be themselves with the volume turned all the way up. The cartoon gimmicks in the past never last long and become dated. Undertaker gimmick is the longest lasting 'gimmick' cartoonish character, but only had longevity because he kept changing the gimmick up along with the times and re-invented the character, even began speaking later on. Bret Hart was a stoic individual who took the business very seriously, that is who he was backstage and he displayed that on camera, which made him famous. Shawn on the other hand was a wild child behind the scenes. Rumored to doing drugs, getting in fights in bars, typical immature things that got him into trouble all the time. Well, when he became a heel and allowed him to be ultra cocky on camera, it WORKED for the fans. They hated him with a passion and he became very famous. It doesn't matter if you are a good guy or a bad guy in the business around this time, as long as people will pay money to see you wrestle (pay for the good guy to see win or pay to see the bad guy get his ass kicked), you were successful. Shawn was himself with the volume turned way WAY up in the ring. He had the ability to put on extremely good matches and had the charisma to catch the audience's attention even if he wanted them to hate him. So as Bret rose to the top, he left the IC belt vacant and the company was looking for someone that possibly could be the NEXT guy...And Vince believed Shawn Michaels was that next guy. On October 27th, only two weeks after Bret won his world title, Shawn beat Bulldog for the IC title as the second champion. The two would eventually elevate their fame in the company to meet each other at a higher stage. They have worked together during the 'Hogan era' including were the first two to have a latter match in WWF. They also wrestled each other in tag team matches (Rockers vs. Hart Foundation).



 
On Jan. 11th, WWF Raw made its weekly debut on USA Network. Raw would continue to be on television to this day (2012), 19 years. Raw would be a weekly wrestling show on primetime television. Before, wrestling programs were always taped with small audiences. They taped the show live audience and used the camera angles as they happened, rather than editing it later. The program featured Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Yokozuno & Steiner Brothers. The show would be a hit for years and even had to expand into two shows, Raw on Thursday and later Smackdown on Thursday Nights, but I'll get to that later. Macho Man would serve as a commentator along with Vince McMahon. Vince loved to be a part of the show and wasn't just going to be a behind the scenes guy, so he took the part of a commentator. Macho Man was NOT happy as a commentator and not a main wrestler in the organization. He eventually left the WWF to head to WCW.

A few weeks after Raw aired, Royal Rumble 1993 took place and had Yokozuno win the Rumble to set up a Bret Hart vs. Yokozuno match for Wrestlemania 9. Bret Hart would defend his title against Razor Ramon (Scott Hall). Scott Hall was a guy from WCW that was hired by Vince. He came up with a 'scarface' gimmick, so he came on screen as a cuban villain using Al Pacino catchphrases to get over with the crowd. He became very successful at this gimmick. Hart beat Razor to set up WM 9. April 3rd, 1993 - Wrestlemania 9 was held in an outdoor arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This would mark the first event Jim Ross (who worked for the smaller WCW organization) would make his WWF commentating debut. Wrestlemania 9 would mark the first issue Vince would have with Bret Hart and his ego. Bret was always a good worker, but like every wrestler who makes it at the top, their ego is inflated naturally and makes it harder to deal with. Vince saw these problems with Hogan, Warrior, Sgt Slaughter and others. Hogan finished his side projects and Vince still knew he could draw money from him.  Now it was time for Vince to try to hold two superstars at the top at the same time, Bret Hart & Hulk Hogan. The two had nothing in common, both were good guys and from different eras. Hart would later refer to Hogan as a 'dinosaur' in many interviews. The idea was that Hogan would lose to Bret Hart as a 'passing of the torch', similar to Hogan-Warrior in WM 6, but this time Bret would be the 'right' guy to get the torch passed, since Hogan wanted to do other stuff. Hogan on the other hand had absolutely no intentions of doing that again. The truth is Hogan was very upset about WM 6 and thought Warrior didn't deserve that win that he gave away. Hogan wouldn't want to make that mistake again. It was widely rumored that Hogan refused to lose to Bret Hart, he wanted to lose to Yokozuna who was a much bigger in stature rather than losing to a small Bret Hart. Hart was upset about this. Vince decided and came to terms with Hogan that Hart would lose to Yokozuna by cheating and the good guy Hogan would return to the ring and then beat Yokozuna to win the belt, thus avenging the loss of a fellow good guy (Hart). Hart did it and the whole thing looked silly. Hart lost to Yokozuna, and somehow Hogan ran in the ring and won the title. From a business stand point , it made sense. Hogan was still the biggest wrestler of all time and could draw attention. On the other hand, it upset Bret Hart who felt he deserved to beat Hogan and officially proclaim himself as the champ of the company.


King of the Ring 1993 was established as a unique PPV which featured an eight man tournament of the wrestlers. Bret Hart, Bam Bam Bigelow, Curt Hennig, Razor Ramon, Lex Luger, and more. The main event featured Hogan losing the belt to Yokozuna. Bret Hart, who was still very popular despite Hogan being back in the WWF, won the tournament by beating the three heels, Mr.Perfect, Razor and Bam Bam Bigelow. Bret Hart was the first King of the Ring winner. The event also had Shawn Michael continuing to be the IC title holder.



 
Later on in 1993, Survivor Series 1993 featured the Hart Family against Shawn Michaels' Knights. Survivor Series was a gimmick PPV where they would pit four wrestlers against another four wrestlers. Each time one was pinned, he was eliminated until the team was left with winner(s). Bret was able to wrestle next to his brothers Owen, Bruce & Keith against Shawn, Barry Horowitz, Greg Valentine, and Jeff Gaylord. 1993 also had one other signinficant moment in wrestling history. The birth of Lex Luger all american wrestler gimmick. Lex started as a bad guy in WWF, but then when Hogan left, they tried to emulate that gimmick on luger since he had the body for it. Luger even did an all american bus tour where he went city to city to meet fans. But the fans did not rally behind Luger the way they did for Hogan. Luger did go well over with the crowd, but never had the 'it' factor. He was a wrestler that would be a part of the main event, but never THE main event, if that makes sense. Luger did manage to have a great moment where they had a wrestling show on a navy ship and body slammed 400 lb Yokozuna that def got him over with the crowd.


Kevin Nash was a wrestler who worked strange gimmicks in WCW. He was a seven foot , very powerful charismatic wrestler. Shawn Michaels, one day, went to Vince McMahon and said you need to hire this guy, I can work well with him. Vince signed on Kevin Nash and he appeared for the first time in a house show as Shawn Michael's bodyguard named Diesel. He didn't speak much, wore dark sunglasses and looked after Shawn Michaels. Michaels being the IC title holder with Diesel backing him up. It was a very great gimmick because the two seemed to work well together and have great on screen chemistry. Diesel entered the 1994 Royal Rumble. 1994 was the beginning of an era featuring Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Razor Ramon, Underaker, Yokozuna, and Owen Hart. It was a new crew of a younger generation of wrestlers. Silly gimmick characters still bounced around during 1994 such as Doink the Clown , Repo Man, and other goofball gimmicks, but the top guys were chosen by the fans and Vince listened. Without Hulk Hogan in the company, Vince had to supply new superstars that would draw money. Razor & Diesel were taking off in a big way in the company.


WCW was pure garbage. It was always available on Ted Turner's TBS and even managed to get Ric Flair away from the WWF back to the company. They had talented wrestlers, but did not have the leadership to take the company to the next level to actually compete with Vince McMahon. The leadership and bookers came and went. They first tried non-wrestling guys like Jim Herd and Kip Frey, but completely failed. So they turned to Ole Anderson who was not a likable guy and hard to deal with. Next came Bill Watts, a very old school wrestling guy. But Bill Watts and the others were so stuck on the system of old school southern wrestling, the program was not entertaining. It was atheletic, the wrestlers WORKED matches, but there wasn't great characters, storylines and even the rules were made to make the matches more boring. No jumping off the top rope, Watts got rid of the mats on the floor. The program was stuck in the NWA territory roots and needed desperately to get out of that and get with the times. Each 'new' president came in , changed everything, failed and onto the next guy. This happened frequently. Finally in 1994, a young savvy business man named Eric Bischoff was working as a color commentator. He started with commentating for AWA in Minnesota and eventually threw his name in the hat as the next 'leader' of WCW. He got the job when he went to Bill Shaw and Bob Dhue who was the VP of WCW and asked for the job. Somehow, Bischoff got the job in place of Bill Watts and named the Executive Vice President. Bob Dhue worked with Eric as partners, but clashed various times and resigned. It seemed now Eric had control of WCW. And he wasn't going to stay in that traditional southern boring NWA style wrestling. He was going to change things in the company to save money, get the program more interesting and attract big superstars to the company using Ted Turner's money as leverage. Bischoff moved WCW to Orlando, Florida to shoot shows in a MGM studio to save costs, the audience would be there as they were coming to the theme park, saves money, better lighting, better product. At the time in Orlando, Hulk Hogan was filming his Thunder in Paradise tv series for TNT. Eric and Hogan met up and Eric convinced Hogan to sign with WCW. On June 11th, 1994, Hulk Hogan signs with WCW. That attracted a lot of media attention. Hogan back, but not with the popular WWF. Suddenly eyes were turned to see Hogan in this different company. 



 
The obvious match up would be Hogan versus the current WCW champion, who was Ric Flair. It was a dream match for hardcore fans, but it was done low key in WWF years before. Hogan vs. Flair would be signed for Bash at the Beach 1994 on July 17th, 1994 in Orlando. Shaq escorted Hogan to the ring and also had Mr. T with him as well. Hogan naturally won the title in his first match by pinning Flair after his signature leg drop. This was more significant than what it seemed because it was the FIRST ppv that actually beat a WWF ppv (King of the Ring 1994) in buyrates! All of a sudden, with the signing of one wrestler, Vince McMahon had some major competition.

Back in the WWF, Wrestlemania 10, the 10th anniversay took place back in Madison Square Garden. And even though you had a Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Luger, and Yokozuna storyline going in the beginning and main event, everyone turned their attention to the IC match. Shawn Michaels wrestled Razor Ramon in a latter match for the IC title. The match went down as one of the greatest matches ever in wrestling. Razor ended up winning the IC title after 19 minutes.

Wrestlemania 10 proved another time that Bret Hart was the leader of the company. He beat Yokozuna in a WM rematch from the previous year to win his title back. But Hart and Yokozuna was well played out storyline and Hart needed another wrestler to have a great storyline with. What storyline could Bret do that would connect with the audience and or sell tickets ? The answer was a family fued. Owen Hart played the villain, a jealous younger brother tired of hearing about his more famous older brother, who believed he should be champion. The two brothers had a brilliant fued that connected with the audience. Most people have siblings whom they've had fueds with. The audience related to the storyline going on. Bret HArt was quoted on saying that people came up to him saying "I have a brother i have a problem with.." etc, etc. The storyline worked well and evolved into a great match up at SummerSlam 1994. The title was on the line and it was Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart in a cage match. The match was incredible. Owen and Bret knew each other so well, they knew how to put on a great match. Bret Hart said in an interview, the storyline made it look like they hated each other, but in real life, behind the scenes, they couldn't have been more close. Working together brought them closer and better relationship. Bret ended up winning and keeping the title.



 
Hogan pretty much was the face of WCW in 1994. Right away, he brought in his friend to work for the company, Brutus Beefcake. He rematched Flair in Halloween Havoc 1994 in a cage match and then proceeded to work a storyline with his friend Brutus Beefcake for Starrcade 1994. The company had Hogan all over it with some very talented wrestlers on the undercard, Vader, Sting, Harlem Heat, Nasty Boys, Arn Anderson, Jim Duggan and even managed to get Mr.T to wrestle Kevin Sullivan at the big WCW ppv, Starrcade. 

While WCW failed to produce good storylines and great memorable match ups, WWF was still sitting as king with Bret Hart, Taker, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, and Diesel. WWF decided to go a route that would gather much attention to their annual Wrestlemania (11) in 1995. Bret Hart was on the card, but against Bob Backland. The focus actually was not on Hart in this event. The focus was on two things. One , was the signing of a NFL legend, Lawrence Taylor. Unlike Muhammad Ali or other celebs from the past Wrestlemanias, Lawrence would actually COMPETE in the squared circle against a WWF superstar. Vince chose Bam Bam Bigelow. Bam Bam was a very popular wrestler, never a world title holder or anything, but def a face of the company at the time. Bret Hart was quoted to saying he thought Bigelow was one of the best big guys in the company. The Main Event would be Lawrence Taylor versus Bam Bam Bigelow that would attract attention of ESPN and other media outlets to promote the event. It was a smart marketing move to bring in LT and not really put him against the top guys like Hart, Diesel or title contenders to sort of lower the level of credibility to the belt or those guys having to sell to him. Bigelow was actually a smart move. LT was booked to win over Bigelow. The co-main event was the WWF Title, Diesel versus Shawn Michaels. Although Diesel was Shawn's bodyguard, in a classis 'oops, i started a fued', Shawn accidently superkicked Diesel previous event forcing the two to have a fued with each other. Hart lost the belt to Bob Backlund, which in turn lost it in a squash match against Big Daddy Cool, Diesel. Diesel vs. Shawn, and to add some hype to it, Diesel was escorted out with Pamela Anderson Baywatch who at the time was considered the world's most beautiful woman and Shawn was with Jenny McCarthy. Diesel ended up winning the match keeping the belt.

Vince was having success with his ppvs, so decided to add some more to the year. He invented 'In Your House', a series of ppvs in between the 'big' ones. The first In Your House debuted on May 14th, 1995 and featured Diesel against another big man, Sycho Sid. Sid Justice left the WWF to work for WCW for a period of time, but resigned with WWF. Sid would continue to bounce around the big promotions including an ECW run in the following years. Jerry Lawler was also booked against Bret Hart in a fan favorite fued. Jerry Lawler was an old school wrestler who worked as the champ in the memphis region of the territory days. He became nationally known when actor / comedian Andy Kaufmann wanted to work as a wrestler because he enjoyed being a bad guy. It was actually one of the first celebs to participate in wrestling. Kauffman began working his gimmick as a famous hollywood guy that beat up women until one day Jerry Lawler, the King of Memphis wrestling intervened and started a fued with him. Kauffman and Lawler appeared together on the David Letterman Show, a very popular talk show and the two got into an altercation on tv where Kaufman was slapped by Lawler. Kaufman responded by cussing , which the networks had to beep out, and then threw coffee on Lawler. The altercation looked real and for years people thought it was legit, until the Jim Carrey movie, "Man on the Moon" came out which exposed the truth that in fact, Lawler and Kaufman were actually good friends and just were really good actors that fooled everyone to thinking it was a shoot. Lawler still had some popularity and worked matches with Bret Hart. Lawler later got involved as a commentator where he remained until this day.


Paul 'Paul E. Dangerously' Heyman worked for WCW in 1988. He started as a wrestling photographer that made his way to being an onscreen manager for wrestlers. Paul Heyman was worked for WCW from 1988 until 1992 when Bill Watts fired Heyman on basis which he said Heyman was faking his traveling expenses. Paul Heyman then went to ECW which was ran by Tod Gordon. ECW stood for Eastern Championship Wrestling. A Philadelphia independent wrestling organization. After the booker left the company, Heyman was doing creative stuff behind the scenes as well as being a manager. The NWA title was out of place. The NWA still was around led by the President, Dennis Coraluzzo. The belt was still defended in different territories. The title was vacant after the Flair / WWF fiasco where Flair went on tv with the belt. NWA sued WCW to not use NWA to describe their title, so WCW had to invent its own world title belt. NWA withdrew from WCW in 1993 , so NWA turned to ECW as the place to put their belt & name. ECW was chosen because it was the most independent televised wrestling event at the time. So in 1994, an tournament was held in ECW to proclaim the NWA champion. Shane Douglas was the ECW champ and was booked to win the tournament against Too Cold Scorpio (later known as Flash Funk). Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon along with Shane Douglas decided to destroy the NWA title and make it worthless. After Douglas won the title, he took the mic and said tha NWA is dead and proclaimed the NWA belt as the ECW World Title. On that point, ECW changed its name from Eastern to 'Extreme' Championship Wrestling. The NWA president was furious and made interviews about how upset he was because he had no idea what Heyman, Gordon and Douglas was going to do that. ECW was born for a company that catered to hardcore wrestling fans that wanted something more than just cartoon gimmicks like WWF at the time or the boring format of WCW at the time. Heyman was a very creative individual who had the intelligence and experience to change the face of wrestling. Tod Gordon left ECW and Paul Heyman was the sole owner of the company.



 

Eric Bischoff walked into a meeting with Ted Turner to discuss WCW. Ratings were up higher than ever before with Hogan, Flair, Macho Man & Sting in the company by 1995. Eric begins speaking and Ted interupts him within the first minute and says "Eric, what can we do to compete with WWF ?". Eric wasn't prepared to answer that question, but quickly responded "uh, uh, give me prime time tv like Vince". And Ted turned to his network guy and said "Give Eric primetime on TNT". On September 4th, 1995, Monday Night Nitro appeared on TNT head to head with Vince's WWF Raw on USA Network. This would mark 288 weeks that WCW would go head to head with WWF in a 'ratings war'. This also marked the beginning of the "Monday Night Wars", a legendary fued between two companies - Vince McMahon versus Eric Bischoff & Ted Turner. The first Nitro was held in the Mall of America in Minnesota. The card featured double main event, Sting vs. Flair & Hulk Hogan vs. Big Bossman. Back then, Vince took wrestlers at their word. They didn't have exclusive contracts. Lex Luger said 'dont worry Vince, I'll resign with you soon', and kept putting it off. Vince trusted him. Sting was good friends with Luger from the days of WCW. Eric didn't like Luger, but Sting kept pressing Eric to sign Luger, his friend. So Eric, thought okay, I'll try it. Lex saw the sum of money which was much more than Vince offering and took the deal. Luger's contract was up and Vince expected him to stay with the company and resign, but behind his back, Luger signed with WCW and Eric asked him to appear the night after his WWF show on WCW Nitro. So as Flair vs. Sting was going on, Luger walked to the ring and the fans were shocked. It did what Eric Bischoff wanted to do which was create an 'anything can happen so you have to keep watching' atmosphere. Vince was pissed, not only at Luger, but he finally knew he had some REAL competition for his wrestling company. Nitro still could not beat Raw in the ratings as WWF had a loyal fan base and still had many marketable wrestlers, but all that would change later.

 
The problems behind the scenes of WCW was an ongoing thing. Eric was the new guy in charge, but you still had booker problems, wrestlers feeling they were screwed, etc. Paul Heyman was one of those guys from 1992 and made it clear his company's arch enemy was WCW. He never had a problem with WWF. Shane Douglas felt Flair was always holding the newer guys down, so he left and went with Heyman in ECW. Steve Austin was a tag team wrestler fired for an injury in WCW. Heyman knew him and called him up and said would you want to come on ECW and just express how you feel and Steve said sure. He had promos where he mocked Hulk Hogan. Heyman in 1995 was also bringing in some very great technical wrestlers. Eddy Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit were amazing performers that performed all over the world. Those technical guys really put on great matches for ECW to bring a 'great wrestling' aspect to ECW. WCW and ECW got into a lawsuit and part of the settlement was actually a talent exchange. ECW got Cactus Jack from WCW, whos real name was Mic Foley. Mic hated the politics in WCW and really made a big impact in ECW in 1995. The 'dream match' at the time was ECW superstar Sabu against WCW superstar Cactus Jack, so the two had some matches together and Foley never went back to WCW. He was WCW tag team champ and spit ont he belt and threw it down on ECW tv.  In Philidelphia, people loved the local ECW. It connected with the fans on a personal level. The local Philadelphia crowds began chanting 'ECW ECW ECW' at a WWF King of the Ring 1995 PPV featuring Mabel vs. Savio Vega. That is when Vince first took notice that they are an up and coming wrestling organization.


1995 ended on a very interesting note as WWF women's champion Alundra Blayze signed with WCW. Eric Bischoff convinced her to show up on Nitro and throw the WWF belt in the trash can. Madusa would never again allow to be in the WWF. In October , Hogan wrestled The Giant (Paul Wight). Giant was brought in as Andre the Giant's son , part of a storyline. He was massive in size, 7 feet tall, largest man in professional wrestling at the time. Hogan vs. Giant did sell well for Halloween Havoc. Macho Man wrestled Ric Flair for the title in their annual Starrcade PPV. It seemed to be mimicking WWF's past (WM 3 - Andre vs. Hogan, WM 8 - Savage vs. Flair). Vince went on record saying that WCW copies the WWF, a dated model, which he probably wasn't far off until 1996 rolled around where WCW managed to break away and begin a new era of wrestling.




As 1996 rolled around, the plans of the epic famous match of Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels Iron Man match weren't exactly invented yet. Bret Hart actually lost the championship to the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble 1996, while Shawn did win the actual Royal Rumble. In the following two months, Vince would want to take the belt away from Hart and crown a new champion to carry the company against WCW who was catching up with Vince. Bret Hart had been wrestling since 1992 as a good guy champ. His gimmick never changed and people believed he lacked charisma. What Bret lacked, Shawn had. Shawn was a performer that had all the in ring abilities of Bret Hart, but had much more charisma. Vince took notice that Shawn was over with the crowd. It was time for a change. But Bret Hart , or his ego, was not ready to hand the championship off to another performer. In his mind, he was the best. As people make Shawn / Bret to be enemies, they really didn't have that much bad blood in 1996 leading up to the WM 12. It was more of Bret just ego hurt that he wouldn't be 'the guy' anymore. That he would have to take a backseat to Shawn Michaels. Probably a little jealousy, but their 'real life' fued would happen in 1997 which I'll get to soon. Bret was discussing things with Shawn and Shawn told Bret that he would take the belt and have matches with Diesel, Razor, 1-2-3 Kid, and HHH - who were all of Shawn's friends in the locker room (known as the Kliq). Bret felt like he would be a poor leader of the company and all he would do is take advantage of his situation and put his friends over. Bret was a guy that could work a match with anyone and was always open to working with different type of guys. He also broke Hogan's tradition of being a champ. He dressed with the guys in the locker room, he didnt have special treatment like Hogan. He hated the 'dinosaurs' as he called them and wanted to be different than that. But all these really good things he was doing for years, he would have to let another guy rise above him and he didn't like that. The angle Vince used for WM 12 was that this was Shawn's real title shot and the chance of a lifetime to capture the wwf title. It was a good guy vs. good guy match up to a certain extent, however the storyline did push that Shawn was the guy to cheer for. The match went down on March of 1996 and was one of the greatest matches of all time. The rules were that in one hour, the wrestler with most pins or subs would win. It was tied 0-0, and Shawn won in over time. Now, Bret seemed to get mad at Shawn on screen and rumors he was mad at him for putting on a match that didn't benefit him, but Bret claimed later in life that he was only doing that as a 'work' because he had plans they would rematch at WM 13, the following year and this could build a long fued between the two rivals. The two had a lot in common. They both were near same height, age, in ring ability, same build, etc.. They were tailor made to put on a great match. 


WCW at this time had Giant, Luger, Sting, Flair, Hogan, and Savage for their program. Nitro and Raw would exchange victories each week for their Nitro & Raw programs. June 10th would be the last time for another 82 weeks that Raw would beat Nitro in ratings. In June & July of 1996, everything in both companies would change and go a different direction with one company would win the battle for the next few years and the other winning the war. May 27th, 1996 on an episode of Monday Night Nitro, Razor Ramon would walk down in the crowd, jump over the rail and interupt a match to speak on the microphone. "You people know who I am. But you don't know why I'm here...." Fans went completely crazy. Two weeks later, Diesel appears on WCW Nitro and they intimidate Eric Bischoff. "You want a war???" - Scott Hall. How did these WWF superstars end up on Nitro for May & June of 1996. Let me go back a little bit. Vince McMahon did not have exclusive contracts. Hall & Nash contracts were up. Vince was told by Hall & Nash, yeah we want to stay in WWF where we are superstars. Hall gets a phone call from WCW and they offer him a ton of money. Hall leaves. Nash didn't even speak to Vince about him leaving. He just sent a fax saying he's been offered a better deal at WCW. On May 19th in the Madison Square Garden, Razor and Nash would wrestle their last match before leaving to WCW. Nash wrestled Shawn and Razor wrestled HHH. Razor and Shawn were the good guys wrestling the bad guys Nash and HHH. After the Nash / HBK match, Razor and HHH entered the ring. At this point, they BROKE character and hugged each other and held each other's hands up. Vince was okay with them doing this, but felt they took it too far. For decades, wrestlers in the ring would never break character and only have good guys wrestle bad guys and never doing it any other way. Well you had two bad guys celebrating with two good guys. The audience has never seen this before. No one really knew Nash and Hall's contract was up. It was known as the 'Curtain Call'. Nash and Hall left for WCW. Shawn was the WWF champion. So the ONLY thing Vince could do is punish HHH for his involvement and thats what he did. HHH was booked to win the King of the Ring 1996, but after the Curtain Call, the push went to another wrestler which would be the best decision Vince has made. 




 
June of 1996 in WCW was the program to watch at this time. Nash and Hall were on Nitro in street clothes, not wrestling gear. Eric Bischoff was able to sign Hall and Nash with Ted's money, but what to do with them ? Eric did a lot of business with Japan. In Japan, they had a very successful 'invasion' angle, where a group of wrestlers from another organization would invade that company and draw a huge crowd. Thats what Eric was going for. An 'invasion' angle. Nash and Hall would 'invade' WCW and leave the fans wondering if the invasion was a real life thing happening or if it was just more worked storylines. People back then didn't have internet. So when they watched Nash and Hall invade WCW, they thought it was actually WWF invading WCW! That Vince was sending Diesel and Razor to disrupt the company. Fans just saw Razor and Diesel on WWF programming a month earlier, and now they are on Nitro. It was a really great concept and worked well. Worked well for the fans, but NOT Vince. WWF sued WCW claiming they were using their company as part of WCW storyline. Nash and Hall were known as the 'Outsiders', a name which would refer to their tag team name later in the company, but people thought 'outsiders' meant 'wwf'. Eric had to interview Hall and Nash and directly ask them on live tv "do you work for WWF" and both had to answer "NO" to help WCW win their lawsuit. Since Hall and Nash were not using their WWF alias' 'Diesel' and 'Razor', using their real names - that helped win the lawsuit for WCW. WWF was unsuccessful, but Vince was still not happy. Vince retaliated in a very dumb way. Nash and Hall were all everyone was talking about, so later in the year, Vince would have a fake Razor Ramon and a fake Diesel (Played by Kane) in the WWF. The 'fake' wrestlers did not go over well. A copycat gimmick was a dumb idea and would not be able to recreate the real thing. WCW did this in 1995 by using a 'Renegade' character which was a copy of WWF's Ultimate Warrior. And that gimmick was not over as the original like the rest of them.


June 23rd, 1996 - King of the Ring 1996. Steve Austin left ECW to sign with WWF as the Ring Master with Ted Diabiase as his manager. Typical heel wrestler, cheated to win, broke the rules, nothing new... Ted Diabiase left WWF and Steve Austin was by himself. Management, said just let the guy do what he wants to do as a villain and the fans began to react very differently with his character. Instead of hearing 'boos' , people started to cheer for Austin. His nickname was 'Stonecold'. IN the finals, Austin wrestled and beat JAke the Snake, who was very religious man. Stonecold on the mic said, "You talk about John 3:16. Well Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass". And people connected with his attitude. He had a 'Fuck You' attitude that the fans began to enjoy watching. The audience was changing in 1996. They were sick of good guys vs. bad guys every single week for the the past years. They tried to make Austin a heel, but every time they went live on Raw or a PPV, the more and more cheers he got. They identified what they needed to do with Austin and that was let him 'raise hell' and the fans can cheer him if they want, which they did. Around this time, Vince tried to sign the Ultimate Warrior once again to gain some ratings over WCW and thats all it was really, just to try to get fans back to the WWF. Warrior once again , starting missing wrestling dates and was fired by Vince. His 1996 run would be his last time he stepped foot in the WWF ring. HHH wrestled him at WM 12 and said it was one of the worst experiences working with Jim Helwig. Called him unprofessional and a douche. 


As the 'invasion' angle was going on in WCW, it lead to a main event ppv match at Bash at the Beach 1996. Outsiders claimed they had a third member of their group and he would be their partner in the main event against WCW's Sting, Luger and Randy Savage, but not reveal the third mystery man. This created a buzz in the wrestling world about which WWF star would be crossing over next and everyone had to tune in. It was a great way to steal WWF fans. Because WWF fans were fans of a particular superstars and they would follow their career rather than stay loyal to a company that lost their favorite superstars. WWF fans are now watching WCW. WCW fans are still watching WCW. It was a bad time for Vince. Behind the scenes, there was no WWF wrestling coming over to parter with Nash and Hall. Originally it was going to be Lex Luger, but then Eric thought it would be a bad idea, so 3 days before the event, it would be Sting that betrayed WCW wrestlers and join Nash and Hall. But Eric met with Hogan. Hogan was using the same ole gimmick of an all american hero good guy and noticing more and more boos each time he went to the ring, as I mentioned, the audience was changing. They wanted to cheer for the anti-heroes rather than the heroes. So Hogan mentioned, what if I turn heel. And its something that Eric felt hasn't been done before. Hogan would be the third member and become a bad guy villain. This would re-launch his career into another run as the most successful wrestlers in the business of all time. Nash and Hall wrestled the three without a third member. Hogan walked to the ring , the audience expecting to help Team WCW, but in a shock to the audience, he leg dropped Macho Man twice and held the hands of Outsiders. Hogan got on the mic and a ton of debree was thrown into the ring. Trash, sodas, popcorn, you name it, was thrown in the ring. A big fat fan tried to jump in the ring, but Nash held him out with his foot and Hall started to stomp on the kid's head. Security rushed him out. Mean Gene got in the ring and Hogan proclaimed this the "new world order" of wrestling. It was an amazing epic event that rocked pro wrestling, that lifted it into new heights beyond the "Hulk-a-mania" days of the late 80's.


(to be continued)

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Rise and Fall of Bret Hart

Source




Since I've been not really into MMA lately and find UFC product boring, I've been going back to the glory days of Pro Wrestling, which in my case was the mid-90's-late 90's. I always was a Bret Hart fan, he never was my absolute favorite but I did really enjoy him as a wrestler. However, although I wasn't the biggest Hart mark, I find his place in history absolutely fascinating and feel that I should make a FRAT thread about the story of Bret Hart.

Bret Hart was born into a wrestling family. I'm sure most of you who are reading this don't need me to go into details. Bret was born and rasied in Canada with Stu Hart, a legendary wrestling promoter for Canada. Vince bought his business and Bret was with the WWF. Vince dominated the local terrortories promotions and wanted to expand national and eventually international, which he did. Vince built enough esteem to promote his first Wrestlemania in 1985 which featured his main event star (Hulk Hogan) and even managed to persuade some popular celebrities to particiapte in the show including the most famous boxer of all time, Muhammad Ali. 


WWF Wrestlemania was successful. Vince managed to build a show around the popularity of his champion, Hulk Hogan and managed to also promote other big stars at the time of the 80's such as Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage, Million Dollar Man, King Kong Bundy, Jimmy Snuka, and more. WWF ruled the world of wrestling in the United States and did manage to go international. Vince McMahon participated on the show as a color commentator.

When a company gets as big as WWF , problems are going to occur no matter what. In this case, it was sexual abuse rumors and steroids that rocked the WWF. The steroid trail was huge and Hulk Hogan testified about using steroids and Vince had a PR problem with his company. 

In 1992, Hulk Hogan aka Hulkamania grew so successful, that Hogan could go on to do other projects and make money without being a performer for Vince McMahon's company. At this time, Bret Hart was a mid-card type guy that was gaining lots of momentum. He won the intercontinental belt. Bret was a guy that was a hard worker and a loyal worker behind the scenes. He started as a tag team with his brother in law, Jim Anvil Neidhart. A little unknown fact was that Bret put on his trademark sunglasses to hide his nerves as he was not good at promos. He let Anvil do most of the talking while he was taking care of the in ring skills. By 1992, Hogan started to leave the company more and more to do other things and left the belt vacant. 


Bret Hart was a guy that had a fan base for his in ring abilities as well as his good guy character that was based on honor, values and respect. People liked that. He was a good guy that was a great wrestler in the ring who won his matches. Vince wanted Hogan to pass the torch to a new wrestler. But it wasn't Bret Hart he had in mind. It was actually the Ultimate Warrior. In 1991, probably after MUCH negociating, Hogan dropped the belt to Ultimate Warrior at WM 6 in Canada. Warrior was over with the crowd and had the physic to carry the belt. He was a cartoon character in the ring and people loved the excitement of watching a high energy, high impact wrestler. Backstage, was a different story. Warrior was a guy who came from body building background and was a pain to deal with. He didn't care about wrestling. He was an asshole behind the scenes, had no friends. Loner. Complete nutcase too. 

Vince has one pet peeve about his wrestlers. Make it to the show. Vince always said that he as a promoter has one job to do - make sure the audience gets what was advertised. The number rule was do not no-show events and leave the fans upset. Warrior was such a dick, he began to miss shows and be just a pain in the ass. At SummerSlam 1991, Warrior and Hogan were scheduled for a tag team match against Sgt. Slaughter, Shiek. Warrior told Vince he would not go out there unless he got paid more money that night. Vince was furious. Vince agreed to pay Warrior whatever the number was, and when Warrior came back to Vince office, Vince did pay him the sum of money (even though he wasn't contractual obligated to do) and fired him on the spot. Warrior was unprofessional and was not a guy to have carry the company.

So after Warrior didn't work out, Hogan wanted to do other things outside of wrestling like acting, Vince needed a guy to carry the belt aka carry the company and draw MONEY.





Vince tried to 'clone' Hulk Hogan after he left by taking Lex Luger and making him patriotic, he had the body like Hogan, American patriot, good guy, etc - but the fans did not like this Hogan "sequel"......Vince decided he would put the belt on Bret Hart, the dawn of a new champion for various reasons.  If you think about it, Bret was the perfect choice.  Vince wanted someone that wasnt a roided monster to get away from the bad PR of steroids.  He wanted someone smaller in stature, but could make the audience believe he was good enough to beat a guy 400 lbs like Yokozuna.  Bret fit that role with his in ring abilities.  He was a great worker in the ring and could make the audience believe he could submit a guy like Yoko.  Also, Vince learned from his mistake of the Warrior.  Warrior was a difficult person to deal with, wasn't a wrestling guy.  Bret WAS a wrestling guy, grew up in the business and was a very loyal and professional worker.  Bret fit that role as well...  So he could be controlled backstage and erase the roid image of WWF - Bret was appointed to take the belt.


He won it from Ric Flair.  Ric Flair was a guy that was a wrestler for the hardcore fans.  His fame, his body, his age didn't carry well to mainstream america.  Hogan was larger than life in everyone's eyes.  But Flair was larger that life in only wrestling fan's eyes.  Flair's character couldn't connect with mainstream audience.  Flair was such a big name among hardcore fans, that his name is legendary.  Then again, Hogan was in Rocky 3 which helped boost his popularity with mainstream America, while Fliar was more dedicated to the wrestling world, which is why fans loved him so much.  Hart over Flair was an obvious choice by Vince because there would be a chance Bret , the younger star, could possibly get as high as Hogan.  Bret Hart beat Flair and Hart era began in 1992.

Bret Hart as the champ in 1992 wasn't exactly as perfect as it would seem.  You have to realize that it is a hard thing to do to fill Hogan's shoes.  Hogan was such a success, it would be hard for ANYONE to equal that, let alone top that.  So ratings did drop.  But the fans that were watching, did recongnize Bret as the champion and the leader of the company.

Bret was a guy who started from the bottom and worked his way to the top, so it wasn't just handed to him.  He wanted to do things different than Hogan.  Hogan had his own dressing room, Bret wanted to dress with the other wrestlers and be an equal to them all.  Bret continued to be a loyal worker to Vince, never missed any shows during his era.  Bret felt he would be a different leader than Hogan and not have a big ego, follow boss' orders, and the main thing was be a better performer than Hogan who was NOT a great in ring worker.


The first problem with Bret occured at Wrestlemania 9.  Hogan wanted to come back for a little bit and Vince couldn't resist turning down the money he would draw from Hogan who was still the biggest name in wrestling, and even indirectly promoted wrestling from his other projects he was doing.  Bret was the established champion, but Hogan wanted to return, so the decision was made to take the belt away from Bret and put it on Hogan.  Since Bret and Hogan were both baby faces, they would have to go through a heel (villain) to get the belts from Bret back to Hogan.  Bret was obviously pissed about this.  Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna was the main event and Yoko won the belt when his manager threw powder in Bret's eyes.  Then as Yoko held the belt, Hogan ran in the ring as he was so upset by what happened and Hogan leg dropped Yoko and the ref counted three and somehow , which really didn't make any sense, put the belt back on Hogan all in one match at WM 9.

Hogan stayed and left again.  Bret felt that he saw this was going to happen where Hogan would just up and leave again for Hollywood.  He was going to film Thunder in Paradise tv show for TNT.  Now the belt was once again up for grabs and since no one in the company had star power more than Bret, it was decided that Bret would win a King of the Ring 1993 tournament to reclaim the belt once again.  The KOTR 1993 was designed specifically for Bret to win the belt back and win fans over to see him beat three ppl in one night and make the audience believe he was the best.


So now 1993-1995 was Bret Hart as champ.  He had his prime during these years.  He did a GREAT storyline with his brother Owen Hart.  Owen was a big name mid-carder that was ready for a push.  The two had a storyline where Owen was the jealous younger brother who resented his older brother and wanted the title, so the two had a falling out.  That was the story line that connected with the audience.  It was a great storyline too because everyone watching had issues with his / her brothers / sisters....  But behind the scenes, Owen and Bret were closer than ever and had a LOT of fun doing the storyline fued.  They were brothers and knew they each other so well so could put on a great match.




1993-1995 was Bret's era.  Top of the mountain.  But in order for Bret to become larger than life and over with the fans to draw money, you need other wrestlers to help Bret achieve that success.  Vince was great at marketing superstars of his company.   You have to try to create as many superstars as you can because thats how you draw money.  You can't just have one guy.  To make one great, you need to have that champ compete against other great superstars to get him to reach higher level of success.  Vince still ruled wrestling in 1993-1995.  WWF contained superstars that were helping the company draw money including the Undertaker, Owen Hart, Bulldog, Razor Ramon, Diesel, Lex Luger, 1-2-3 Kid, Tatanka, IRS, Yokozuno, Syscho Sid, and of course Shawn Michaels.....


There were always other companies trying to start their own organization to compete with WWF and gain success.  NWA was an old school company that reformed into a company called WCW with the ownership of Ted Turner.  They had loyal southern fans and featured great wrestlers such as Vader, Sid, Ric Flair and his Four Horsemen, Road Warriors, an early Steve Austin with Brian Pillman, Sting, Cactus Jack (Mic Foley).  But it was a organization designed for the southern old school wrestling fans.  A very rich and wealthy billionare named Ted Turner who owned Atlanta Braves, CNN, tv networks such as TNT and TBS bought the company in 1988.  Ted was a Georgia based business man who wanted a wrestling show for his cable networks, so he bought one , renamed it WCW and they did okay, nothing like WWF.


As the company was small potatoes compared to Vince, a young color commentator threw his name into a hat of people to take charge of the company.  His name was Eric Bischoff.  He started making some changes to the company to make it more successful.  He wanted the old school southern company to 'get with the times more'.  In 1994, Eric met with Hogan since they both were in Florida, Eric for WCW filming shows and Hogan for filming Thunder in Paradise.   Eric talked him into signing with WCW.  This was in 1994 and that meant a possible rivalry with WWF since Hogan was the biggest name in wrestling history and could actually put WCW on the map and make it as big as WWF, the same way he did with WWF back in 1985.   Hogan immediately fueded with the champion of WCW at the time, Ric Flair.  At Bash at the Beach 1994, Hogan beat Flair winning the belt.  That gained a lot of fame for WWF.  Ted Turner brought in Eric Bischoff and sat down with him and said "What do we have to do to compete with Vince ?" ... Eric answered "Give me primetime."  WCW was always on shitty time slots.  Saturday afternoon.  Ted turned to his guy and said, give Eric primetime.    In 1995, WCW Nitro debuted on TNT at the exact same time as WWF Raw which was on USA network.  That was the dawn of the Monday Night Wars.    Now WWF had Hart as their champ and WCW had Hogan as their champ......  And as history showed us, Hogan was still way more popular than Bret Hart.



 

During Bret Hart's era, a new name was growing in fame and success.  His name was Shawn Michaels.  He ironically had a similar path toward success as Bret did.  He started as a smaller tag team guy like Bret.  Like Bret, he was not a roid monster like Warrior or Hogan.  And also like Bret, he was able to do the in ring abilities and perform much better than the older guys like Hogan, Macho Man, etc...  But Bret's weakness was his gimmick and his charisma.  Bret wasn't that great on the mic back then.  He was obviously getting better as time went on, but Shawn Michaels aka HBK had a natural charisma that really got to fans.  Shawn was excellent on the mic.  He could be a GREAT heel.  In fact, many will say that HBK was a better heel than a baby face.  The thing that makes a great pro wrestler is when that wrestler is himself in the ring with the volume turned wayyyyyy up.  HBK was a cocky arrogant guy backstage.  A pre-madonna.  He was fucking Sunny behind Chris Candino's back (who was dating Sunny), he befriended Razor Ramon, Kevin Nash, 1-2-3 Kid and they became known as the 'Kliq' , a group of friends that sort of ruled the locker room.  The problem was these guys were cocky and had their egos.  Razor, Diesel and Shawn were all three main event level wrestlers that were extremely popular.



Bret didn't have a problem with the Kliq or Michaels at the time.  They all respected Bret and they had to work with Bret alot.  Diesel and Bret had many storylines together.  But as Bret Hart continued his reign as champion, fans were really starting to take notice to Shawn.  At WM 10, where Bret Hart rematch Yokozuno so he could get his 'clean' win as sort of a way of Vince apologizing to Bret for WM 9 with the Hogan fiasco - Shawn had a ladder match with Razor Ramon.  That match was voted one of the greatest of all time.  Shawn was equal to Bret  in almost every level, but exceeded him in charisma.  Vince noticed this and the fans were being listened to.  With WCW breathing down Vince's neck, Vince had to do what he had to do in order to stay at the top of the wrestling world and not let WCW take over.


It was decided that Vince would go the direction of Shawn as the new champion over Bret Hart.  Hart's era was from 1992-1996.  During this time, he gained much success and even made it as a guest appearance on an episode of the wildly popular tv show 'The Simpsons'.  Bret knew months in advance for WM 12 in California that he would drop the belt to Shawn Michaels.  He didn't have a problem with that on the surface.  Deep down, Bret's ego was probably a little hurt and upset that he wasn't going to be 'the guy' anymore.  A conversation with Shawn took place where Shawn said "when i get the belt, im going to work with HHH, 1-2-3 Kid, Diesel, Razor", which Bret felt was a little unfair that Shawn just wanted to work with his friends , members of the Kliq and help them over.  Bret always felt that when you are the champ,  you're the leader of the locker room and have a responsiblity to do the right thing.  Bret felt uneasy about Shawn as the champion.  Shawn was also very cocky backstage and was even beaten up by 6-10 guys at a bar after a show.



 

Wrestlemania 12 - HBK vs Bret Hart for the title in an iron man match, which was an hour long match who ever got most pin falls or submission would win the match.  The match went over time as the score was 0-0, and HBK won the title in OT.  Bret was upset he had to pass the torch as anyone would be in his shoes.  Can't really blame him.  No one likes to be told, okay - this guy is better than you, you have to lose to him.  As Bret continued 1996 as the number two guy,  Bret was starting to get more upset at Shawn.  Shawn kept getting injured.  One thing that Bret was upset about as when Shawn couldn't wrestle and had to give up the title, but was doing flips in the ring.  Bret felt Shawn didn't care about being champion, he only cared about the fame and money aspect of it.  Bret truly felt he was the best wrestler in the company and deserved to be the champ.  Another thing people didn't really realize was that Bret wanted to do a rematch at next years wrestlemania (13).  He wanted to continue a long storyline with Shawn as he felt they were the two top guys in the company and the iron match was very popular with the fans who would want to see them wrestle again.  So when people say they really didn't like each other at the WM 12, it was more of a work than people realize.  Bret didn't HATE Shawn until 1997, which I'll get to.  In 1996, it was just an ego being hurt for Bret and a little bit of resentment of Shawn, but no bad blood between them at all.  In fact, Bret said it was one of his best matches ever at WM 12.


Times were tought for WWF in 1996.  As Shawn and Bret were trying to carry the company, WCW managed to sign two of Vince's biggest stars - Diesel (Kevin Nash) and Razor Ramon (Scott Hall).  Not only did Eric Bischoff managed to get the top talent from WWF, but its how he used them that put WCW over WWF in 1996.  Nash and Hall entered WCW as 'Outsiders', people thought that the WWF was invading WCW.  Hall would walk down from the crowd and jump in the ring and interupt the matches which back then was unheard of.  And since there was no internet (al gore didn't invent it yet), people really thought WWF was invading.  The ratings for WCW Nitro soared....  Vince sued WCW claiming they were using his company in their storyline.  He even made a fake Razor and fake Diesel as a way to show that he owns these characters, and the fans resented the fake Razor and Diesel as it was one of the worst ideas ever.  At Bash at the Beach 1996, Outsiders wrestled Sting, Macho Man, and Luger with a third mystery partner.  Plans were to have Sting or Luger as the third member, but Hogan expressed interest in turning heel.  As Hogan walked down to the ring and joined the bad guys, Hall and Nash to form the nWo - wrestling world was rocked.  Eric had done it with the help of these wrestlers and ted turner's money.  WCW over took the wrestling world and Vince was now number two....

Back over at WWF, Shawn was not a good champion, kept getting hurt, people were tired and bored of Bret Hart.  Same good guy gimmick - people wanted something new and they found it on WCW Nitro with the nWo, the hottest thing in wrestling.  King of the Ring 1996, a bad guy wrestler known as the Ring Master, Steve Austin tried his best to be a villain.  He cussed, he spitted, he gave the middle finger to people he didn't like, he was managed by Million Dollar Man.  But WCW at the time was stealing all of Vince's talent and bringing them over to WCW, so Austin was left with no manager - so they didn't know what to do with him , so they just let him go out there and raise hell.  He broke the rules, he cussed at everyone.  King of the Ring 1996, Steve Austin beat Jake the Snake to win the KOTR tournament.  But something happened, instead of people boo'ing him like Vince expected people to do - they cheered him.  Stonecold was born.  A wrestler fired from WCW back in 1995 was now a fan favorite when he was suppose to be a heel !  


Vince was warming up to the idea of Austin as an "Anti-Hero", but didn't want to break his formula of good guys vs. bad guys just yet.... Bret Hart returned for a storyline with this up and comer, Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1996.  In the 80's, Hart would have been cheered to beat Austin - but now here in 1996 , the fans changed, the times changed.  People were boo'ing Bret Hart !  The good guy.  Austin was being cheered even though written as a villain.   If they are going to boo you, you mine as well just embrace the boo's and become a villain and thats what Bret Hart did.....


Wrestlemania 13 - HBK vs. Hart rematch was scrapped.  HBK was hurt and Austin was a new character that fans were excited to see.  Hart vs. Austin rematch from Survivor Series 1996, only reversed roles - Hart being the villain, Austin being the hero, a more of an anti-hero.  Hart put him in the sharp shooter and Austin refused to quit and tap out, so he passed out, blood was pouring down from his face and the fans loved the fight of Austin.  Hart kept beating him after the match to truly make himself the heel now.    Ironically, this new version of Bret Hart might actually surpass his 1992-1995 era as champ. 
 

 A great wrestler is a guy who is himself in the ring with the volume turned way up.  And this is how Bret Hart become even better in 1997.  Bret was an old school traditional wrestler.  He liked and embraced honor , respect, and values gimmick and he enjoyed the fans liking this gimmick.  It was himself in a way, or how he thought of himself.


But as the fans were changing and boo'ing him when he was all about respect and cheering a guy flipping everyone off and cheating to win, cussing etc - that pissed off Bret Hart.  He had a resentment toward the fans.  So he went out to the ring and expressed himself.  He really was himself and turned the volume up and attacked the fans verbally saying they suck and how he can't believe they boo Bret who is about honor and cheer Austin.  It made a great heel.  The best part was Bret was still cheered for in Canada.  Vince picked up on this and decided to create a mega USA vs. Canada angle.  Using Bret as a heel in America and a hero in Canada shows - and Austin, HBK a heel in Canada and a hero in America.  It created a rivalry between the fans of the two countries, which made great television.

WCW was trying to steal all of Vince's top talent.  In 1996, Bret's contract ran up.  WCW wanted to sign him, obviously.  Bret was the top dog and Vince's people convinced him that he can't let Bret go.  They saw the Nash and Hall success over in WCW and thought Bret was bigger than both of them and would really bring huge ratings to WCW.  So Vince gave Bret a very big contract to stay and Bret stayed.

As 1997 rolled over, Austin was gaining huge fame and it was obvious that he would be the top champ very soon.  HBK came back in 1997 and convinced Vince that they should be degenerates heels, causing mischief, chaos, anarachy - sexual humor, anything goes type of thing.  Shock value.  SInce Austin proved that the fans were changing, HBK also backed up this theory that the fans were indeed changing as him and HHH formed 'D-X' , a group that crossed lines and boundries of the old school WWF.  

Austin was fueding with Owen Hart and Owen accidently piledrove him on top of his head to injure his neck and Austin, the guy that was going to take over the as the champ was now hurt badly !  With WCW still on top, Vince used D-X vs. Hart and his Canadian family angle in 1997.   


Bret Hart starting getting vocal backstage and was really upset at everything.  He was upset that the fans indirectly forced him to become heel.  He was upset about the shock tv Vince was doing.  Like I mentioned, Hart was an oldschool type guy, a traditionalist.  He began to get on Vince nerves backstage.  Bret Hart was beginning to become  a crybaby backstage when he wouldn't get his way...Undertaker vs. Bret Hart match happened at SummerSlam 1997, and Shawn was the special guest referee.  The match was designed to set up a Taker / HBK fued without Bret in the picture, this pissed off Bret.  He felt that he wasn't getting involved in the proper storylines, Austin, Taker, HBK was really getting pushed to the main event, with Bret not really having a place except just a good wrestler that was popular.  Once Vince realized Austin was back in the picture and going to be healed, he knew it would be Austin to be the answer to overtake the ratings war with WCW, not Bret nor Shawn for that matter. 


Bret Hart was holding onto the belt and not wanting to let it go on Vince's orders.  He was being a pain backstage.  HBK and Bret Hart fued was turning into real life.  HBK would tell Bret, "yeah go out there and rip me a new one".  Then Bret would do it and HBK would be like "You didn't have to go that far"...Really alot of miscommunications between the two that esculated into a real life fued.  Their characters were going from the ring to real life / backstage.  Bret didn't like HBK and didn't want to drop the belt to him.

Vince was having money troubles. WCW was kicking his ass in the ratings. They had Hulk, the nWo, more and more former WWF stars were signing with WCW including 1-2-3 Kid, Bossman, Million Dollar Man, etc. The nWo was the biggest thing wrestling has ever seen. Budget cuts had to be made.  Vince called up Bret and told him to go back to WCW negoications and get a good deal.  Vince couldn't afford Bret anymore.  He wasn't worth the money.  He had D-X, Austin, Taker and he was working on the other mid-card talent like Bulldog, LOD, Nation of Domination featuring The Rock, Owen, Ken Shamrock, HHH, Goldust, Vader, Mankind, and a new character named Kane.  Bret was not worth the money.  No one liked that good guy gimmick anymore.  They were going in a new direction.  Bret was great as a Canadian heel and his mic skills improved as he was turning the volume way up - but as great as that was , it wasn't worth the millions of dollars vince was paying him.



 
Bret went back to WCW and negociated himself 9 million dollars for 3 years, an amazing contract that could secure him for a long time.  It was settled.  Bret was going to leave, save Vince a lot of money and Vince could focus on D-X, Stonecold, Taker and other directions he was going known as the "Attitude Era".  People thought Eric wanted Bret to come over with the belt, but that wasn't true.  Bret made it clear he wouldn't do that to Vince and Eric claims he told Bret to finish up with WWF and get rid of the belt to come over to WCW fresh.  Bret's ego really got the best of him.  He had to leave the WWF on a high note and make himself look good to enter WCW as great.  But it was a difficult task to leave without losing the belt to someone.  So Bret had it in his contract that he had creative control of his character the last 30 days of his departure.  So Bret was telling Vince he wouldn't drop the belt this way or that way.


Vince claims that Bret was refusing to do things before the 30 days hit, he was being real big pain backstage.  Vince knew without Bret, WM 14 would probably be Austin obtaining the title from the number one guy in the company, most likely that was going to be HBK.  So he needed to get the belt on HBK in order to set up Austin vs. HBK angle by Royal Rumble 1998.  Many don't realize Survivor Series 1997 wasn't suppose to be a 'bret last wwf show' or a farewell match - it was designed on paper to be the seeds of a future Austin / HBK storyline, but that needed to be set up, so HBK needed the belt...  But Hart flat out refused to drop the belt to HBK.  There are many, many different versions of WHY Bret did not want to drop the belt to Shawn in Survivor Series 1997.  One of the big rumors was Bret did not want to lose in Canada.  Another one was that he just hated Shawn and he would have dropped it to anyone BUT Shawn.  Another one was he didn't want to lose at all because he didn't want to go into WCW as a loser. 


Survivor Series 1997.   November 1997.  The last match Bret had before his WCW career.  Bret was being a pain and refusing to do the job to Shawn.  He had it in his contract that he had creative control and was going to exercise that right.   Bret decided that the main event would end with DX / HArt foundation interferring and it would be a DQ and Bret would go on Raw the next night go on Raw and give up the title..  Vince knew Bret was contracted obligated to return on Raw the next night, he could literally go on Nitro with the belt the next night and not be sued what so ever.  

A large conspiracy backstage happened.  Shawn, HHH, Vince, the ref and Vince all agreed that for the best interest of the company, they got to get that belt away from Bret and onto HBK that night at all costs....  None of Bret or his entourage knew what would happen.


The match was a great match, Canada was a fun crowd.  Austin just beat Owen for the IC title in the co-main event.  Toward the end of the match, Shawn put Bret in a sharp shooter in which BRet was suppose to reverse the move.  As Shawn put Bret in the sharp shooter, Vince told the ring announcer to ring the bell and HBK's music blasted.  Bret and Shawn had a very awkward stoppage and they both turned to Vince, which was the one of the first times a match just stopped and broke character.  Almost like a play stopping and the actors just stopping what their doing for one thing or another.  Bret knew right away what happend.  He spit in Vince's face.  Vince and the crew went backstage.  Bret continued to throw a temper tantrum in the ring.  He signaled WCW letters and them smashed equipment.

Vince waited for Bret backstage.  He told his entourage "I'm going to let bret get in one good hit and thats it"  Vince is a guy that takes responsibility for his actions.  He was ring side when he made the call.  He was never ring side for any reason except color commentary.  But this was different.   Bret came back and told Vince "You're dead and your company is dead".  He mumbled something else.  He got out of the shower and Vince walked up to him and said he would give Bret an explainiation if he wanted one.  He felt Bret was entitled to know why he did what he did.  Instead, Bret clocked him , hit him right in the eye.  Vince left and Bret left.    Bret was WCW bound.......



 
WCW had many of their own problems.  Top named wrestlers had creative control in their contracts which was a huge mistake.  Eric Bischoff couldn't control the locker room.  Egos ran wild.  Hogan had a lot of power in the company and he was talent.  The truth is WCW had no idea what to do with Bret.  They just wanted all the top guys and had no direction for any of them.  The nWo was running stale.  Too many people, people were bored with it.  But EVERYONE was anticiapting Bret's WCW debut.  In the Hogan vs. Sting match at Starcadde PPV, the biggest match they were building for two years, Bret ran in to help Sting win the match from a 'corrupt' ref , sort of playing off the survivor series fiasco.   Bret looked odd in the ring with Sting / Hogan.  He was painted in WWF colors and did not look like he belonged at all.  

Bret said Eric treated him very good.  But they didnt know what to do with him.  Eventually, they did a Ric Flair / Bret Hart angle for the US title.  Eric claimed he brought in Bret because WCW was so big, Ted Turner wanted a TBS 'Thunder' show on Thursday nights, so he needed some talent for that program.  

Over at WWF, Vince was the most hated.  He single handedly 'killed' Bret Hart.  He embraced the negativity and became the 'boss' gimmick.  He did an interview after Survivor Series saying the days of good guys vs. bad guys are over and everything will be shades of gray.   Wrestlemania 14 had the Austin / HBK match and even managed to sign Mike Tyson to participate in it, he was coming off of the Holyfield 2 ear biting incident, so everyone was tuning in to see what part Tyson would play in WWF.  Ratings started to pick up for Vince while WCW was decreasing more and more.  They had Bill Goldberg who was a rising star and had a great program where Hogan did the job to him and he won the title in 1998 on Nitro, which would have been a successful ppv, but Eric was obsessed with beating Vince in the ratings rather than make money.

Hart was left with nothing to do in WCW.  Too many egos and main event guys.  Nash, Hall, Goldberg, Hogan, Sting, Luger, Macho Man, Flair, DDP, Giant - all wanting to do different things with their characters... Just utter chaos.  They gave him the US Title and stuck him as a mid carder.  He would never regain the success of his WWF days.

Vince stopped being color commentator as internet was more popular in late 90's and everyone now knew he was the owner of the WWF.  So he played the boss role and Austin was the renegade anti-hero that rebellled against the system and his boss.  Austin vs. Vince main event on Raw was the first Raw in years that beat Nitro in ratings.  Austin / Vince storyline with the rise of HHH, Rock, Kane and the Mankind and Taker character changed for better entertainment.    WWF was heading back on top and they did just that...


Sadly, Owen Hart, doing a blue blazer gimmick which he was carried down from the rafters of the arena went wrong and he died on a PPV.  Eric told Bret to take as much time off as he needed. Vince paid for the funeral, but Owen's widow blocked that, possibly on the advice of her lawyers who were setting up a wrongful death lawsuit against WWF.  At the funeral , Vince did as much as he could to make Owen's family happy, but Bret was not a guy that would be pleased.  At the funeral, Bret walked up to Vince and went on and on about how Vince ruined his career, kept bringing up Survivor Series incident.  Vince couldn't believe what he was listening to.  Vince said that it was like looking at a skeleton.  Bret didn't even mention Owen Hart, Bret was just talking about himself and his career and his character.  Vince was horrified at what Bret had become.  A bitter old man who's best days were behind him.  Bret used Owen's death as a way to get back at Vince.  I hate admitting he would do something like that, but it was obvious.  He became best buddies with Owen's widow and was in her ear at all times after Owen's death.   Three weeks after the death, a lawsuit was filed.  It was settled in 2000 when Vince paid Owen's widow 18 million.


Eventually, WCW signed Bret's closest friends and family, Bulldog and Anvil.  WCW also didn't know what to do with them either.  WCW signed Ultimate Warrior and had him as a magical character where he vanished in the smoke and reappeared in different places.  A fued with Hogan where Hogan gets his win back from 1991 Wrestlemania, or at least that was the rumor.  A trap door was used for Warrior's disappearing act.  Bulldog was wrestling an opponent and accidently landed on the trap door where wrestlers weren't suppose to take bumps.  Bulldog injured his back badly, got addicted to pain killers from the incident and died.


An 'Off the Record' episode where wrestlers do shoot interviews, the host asked Bischoff "What are you going to do with Bret Hart".  Eric replied "I don't know yet".  Then he hinted that he does know what ot do and will have a great fued with Hogan in 1998.  WCW was choas.  Bret Hart would do main event matches with tag team stuff with Goldberg, Hogan, Sid, Nash, Hall, etc...  But nothing ever came from the matches.  No great story line was told like the USA vs. Canada angle in WWF or the brother vs. brother angle from WWF.   Bret Hart won the WCW Championship by defeating Chris Benoit in a tournament final.  He then faced Bill Goldberg at Starcadde 1999.  This would be Bret's last match.  During the match, Goldberg kicked Bret right in the head, giving Bret a concussion and forcing him to retire out of injuries. Bret was fired in a letter.  He felt disrespected they didn't tell him face to face or even a phone call.  That a letter saying his services are no longer needed.....

After retiring in 2000, Bret suffered a stroke while riding his bike.  Bret was taken to a hospital.  The first person to call Bret to see if he was okay was Vince McMahon.  Vince has an uncanny ability to forgive people and put things in the past in the past...  Bret cried on the phone to Vince.  Bret later met with Vince to discuss a DVD release of his career.  Bret didn't want Vince to erase his place in history of WWF, now renamed WWE after a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Foundation.    Bret also agreed to participate in a Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006.  In 2010, the unthinkable happened.  Bret returned to WWE on Raw and particiapted in a Vince vs. Bret Hart match at Wrestlemania 26.   When asked about why Bret wanted to return, Bret said 'I was bored at home and missed it'....  Bret ultimately forgave Vince and wants to end that bitterness toward WWE.  Bret married a 27 yr old black woman, his third marriage.  He divorced this second wife because they couldn't decide where they wanted to live.




Bret saw his ups and downs of the wrestling world, but whether you like him or not....you have to agree on one thing...

That he is the best there was, the best there is, and the best there ever will be !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Popular Posts

Labels

Abdullah The Butcher (1) AJ Lee (1) Andre the Giant (4) Ariel Move (1) Bad Asses (1) Blooper (1) Blue Bloods (1) Booker T (1) breaking kayfabe (1) Bret Hart (6) British Bulldog (1) Brock Lesner (5) Celebrity Wife Swap (2) Cena (1) Chris Benoit (2) Christian (1) Chyna (1) CM Punk (2) Curt Hennig (1) Daniel Bryan (1) Davey Boy Smith (1) deaths (1) Diamond Dallas Page (2) Documentary (9) Droz (1) Dusty Rhodes (1) Eddie Guerrero (2) Edge (2) Eric Bischoff (1) fans (1) Farewell (1) Finishes (2) funny (13) Genius (1) Goldberg (2) Goldust (2) Hall of Fame (2) Harley Race (1) History (1) Honky Tonk Man (3) Hulk Hogan (11) Iron Sheik (3) Jake The Snake Roberts (4) Jay Lethal (1) Jim Cornette (1) John Cena (4) Kane (3) Kevin Nash (2) Kurt Angle (7) Lanny Poffo. Shoot Interview (1) Legend of Wrestling (1) Legion of Doom (1) Lita (2) Macho Man Randy Savage (7) Mick Foley (3) Miss Elizabeth (1) Miz (1) MMA (1) Montreal Screwjob (1) Mr Perfect (1) New Jack (1) NWO (1) Off the Record (16) Owen Hart (2) Paul Heyman (1) Posthumous Tribute (5) promos (7) Ric Flair (9) Rick Martel (1) Rick Rude (2) Ricky Steamboat (1) Road Warriors (2) Rob Van Damme (2) Rock (6) Rowdy Roddy Piper (2) RVD (1) Ryback (1) Sable (1) Schwarzenegger (1) Scott Hall (3) Scott Hall. (1) Sean Michaels (1) Sean Waltman (1) Sex Scandal (1) Shawn Michaels (3) Shoot Interview (14) Sid (1) Sting (1) Stone Cold (6) Terry Funk (1) Terry Taylor (1) Test (1) The Big Show (2) The Undertaker (1) training (3) Triple H (5) Uganda (1) Ultimate Warrior (16) Val Venis (2) Vince McMahon (3) vs boxers (1) Wrestlemania (1) WWE (1)