10 Awesome Wrestling Matches That Saved Careers
3. Bret Hart Vs. Chris Benoit (WCW Monday Nitro - 4 October 1999)
At the Over the Edge 1999 PPV, Owen Hart, one of the most acclaimed technical wrestlers of all time, fell 78 feet from the ceiling onto the wrestling ring. After only a few hours had passed, he was pronounced dead. He was 34 years old.
Wrestling didn’t change as much as it should have, there wasn’t an overhauling of every aspect of safety or a change in approach to disasters during PPV events and because of the controversy surrounding his death, Owen rarely gets to be honoured as much as he should be. This match remains the finest testament to him.
Chris Benoit did his job well here but this was Bret Hart’s show. This was his beautiful 30 minute tribute to the brother he loved through the medium that was theirs. You can feel the heartbreak and the grief and the love pouring through every second of the match.
It might not have led to a resurgence of Hart’s career - he would be gone from the business less than a year later - but this final masterpiece showed that he still could create perfect matches that show what wrestling is capable of doing, even when he had lost so much because of it.