10 Reasons Bret Hart Was Better Than Shawn Michaels
6. Hart Led The WWF Through Its Darkest Hour...
This was briefly touched upon earlier, but it deserves further mention. The Post-Hogan era of The WWF is a fascinating period in wrestling history. It is a period during which one man, more than any other, steered the good ship WWE and kept her afloat. That man was Bret Hart. The WWF inherited by The Hitman was nothing short of a complete and total shambles. In July of 1991, Dr. George Zahorian, who worked for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission, had been convicted of illegally selling steroids to wrestlers and was sentenced to three years in jail. Vince McMahon very nearly joined him in the clink, only escaping by the skin of his teeth... Hulk Hogan, who had denied using steroids during a much-publicized interview on The Arsenio Hall Show, later admitted under oath that he had, in fact, used steroids. This tarnished the reputation of wrestlings squeaky-clean babyface star. Far less people were smart to the business back then, which made for an enormous feeling of disillusionment amongst Hogans younger fans and the family audience that had been courted by the WWFs 80s product. Imagine John Cena joining Al Quaeda and youre getting there... Hogan was disgraced, McMahon was shamed and the WWF was publicly scorned and/or ridiculed by all and sundry. To make matters (even) worse, Barry Orton (Randys uncle) accused senior WWF staffers Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin of sexual misconduct and, following this, a large number of WWF sex scandals emerged in the press. Despite its family friendly product, the WWF roster of the early 1990s was as debauched as any rock band on tour (and then some), so sex, scandal and salacious stories were ten a penny. Profits were down, payoffs were lousy and the beautiful people had tuned out. It was as if mainstream America had decided that The WWF (and, by association all of professional wrestling and everyone that made a living from it) was either too real with their nasty sex, steroids and class A drugs, or else totally fake with predetermined storylines and phoney baloney characters. Bret Hart weathered this particular storm, arguably the choppiest point in WWE history and whats more, he did so with pride, professionalism and dogged perseverance. Hart slipped out of Hogans imposing red and yellow shadow and quietly ushered in the era of the pink and black attack. Sure, The Hitman didnt draw anything like the money that Hogan did, but, with the WWFs reputation in tatters, he should be commended for every single penny he did draw. That money, drawn by Hart as the central star of the WWF show, was what kept the company going during those lean winter years between the departure of Hulkamania and the arrival of Attitude.
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