If a man is to be referred to as The Excellence of Execution and to refer to himself as the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be, then he flat out HAS to be something special. Well, not only was The Hitman special, he was very special indeed. One of the standout talents of Stu Harts Calgary-based Stampede wrestling promotion, Bret Hart was the obvious heir to his fathers in-ring prowess. Young, athletic, good looking and precociously talented, Bret emerged early on as a large blip on the radar of Vince McMahon Jr, who was, at the time, in full-on expansion mode. After failing to make much of an impact in his early years, a frustrated Hart asked to be teamed with bearded heavyweight badass Jim The Anvil Neidhart and to have the pair managed by Jimmy Mouth of the South Hart (no relation). The truth is that the team, aptly named The Hart Foundation was simply thrown together by management, who had no specific plans for Hart or Neidhart, and so decided to simply use them as a tag team for a while. However, the decision worked out really well for McMahon, who soon found that he had a bona fide contender for the greatest tag team of all time on his hands. Of course, Bret was poised as the teams breakout star, eventually engaging in a terrific feud with Curt Hennig, which resulted in him winning the Intercontinental Championship (traditionally a stepping stone of sorts to the WWF belt). As Brets popularity grew, he was hand picked to end Ric Flairs WWF Championship reign - and a new chapter in his career had begun. Probably the biggest drawing card on this list, Hart became the de facto star of the WWF show following the departure of Hulk Hogan and was actually able to reinvigorate the entire WWF product in the process, bringing the focus once more on athleticism and wresting skill. Harts sincerity as an athlete got him over with fans of serious wrestling, but he was far from the Bob Backlund of the 1990s. With his wraparound shades, leather jackets and badass tude, Bret Hart was the classic babyface given a tough new overhaul and re-packaged for a new era of wrestling. The Hitman is a strong contender for the greatest technical wrestler (and certainly the most successful) in all of WWE history, but one man just pipped him to the post, and that man is...
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
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Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
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Latcho Drom,
- CQ
