10 Reasons Bret Hart Was Better Than Shawn Michaels

4. Hart Respected The Business A Lot More...

Whilst many of the points on this list can be argued (and, if you can do so without resorting to petty insults, then please feel free), there can be no debate on this particular one. Bret Hart respected the wrestling business and acted in its best interests way more than Shawn Michaels ever did. For Hart, the honour and dignity of professional wrestling was instilled in him at an early age, first by his legendary father and then by the Japanese wrestlers that helped to train him, Mr. Hito & Kazuo Sakurada. Being a promoter€™s son and sometime booker in Canada, Hart understood wrestling as a business in a way that Michaels arguably never did. In particular, Bret Hart implicitly understood the fact that wrestlers need to earn a living and feed their families and, as a result, he took an almost holistic view of the business and the people that worked in it. Even when he was on top and earning more than anyone since Hulk Hogan, he still changed with the rest of the roster and maintained a solid, relatively down-to-earth presence backstage. Shawn Michaels, on the other hand, was dedicated purely to himself and the advancement of other members of his backstage €˜kliq€™. At best, he knew that he was a great talent and pushed himself based on that fact, at worst, he schemed, skived and sabotaged others relentlessly. At times, Shawn Michaels selfishly treated The WWF like it was a gigantic multi-million Dollar free-for-all piss-up. Michaels was supremely unprofessional during his first big WWF run and, although he protests otherwise, many have criticized his conduct during his 2000€™s run as well. When you re-watch HBK winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XII, you can visibly see him shouting €œget him the f*ck out of here! This is my moment!€ (Or some such) undergoing a diva-like temper tantrum in front of 18,853 paying fans, even as he had just been handed the greatest prize in all of Pro Wrestling. Maybe he feared Hart would sabotage him the way some feel Hulk Hogan did to The Ultimate Warrior six years earlier, but either way, that was a d*ck move on HBK€™s part. Hart put Michaels over cleanly (something that a Champion rarely did in those days) and Michaels repaid him how? Frankly, I could list more times that Michaels was a douchebag prima donna backstage, but if I did, I€™d be here all day...