10 Reasons Bret Hart Was Better Than Shawn Michaels

3. Hart Was A Much Better Role Model...

The Hitman stands, now and forever, as an example of how to do a positive babyface character the right way. Whilst the Attitude era may have specialized in conflicted anti heroes like €˜Stone Cold€™ Steve Austin, The Rock and Mankind, positive, clean cut heroes will always sell tickets to pro wrestling shows. Barrel chested good guys like Bruno Sammartino, Lou Thesz, Jim Londos, Ricky Steamboat and others will always be in demand in wrestling, because ultimately, that€™s what wrestling is and always should be, a contest between good and evil. However, as the veritable ocean of bile that gets hurled at John Cena every time he enters the ring reveals, today€™s fans demand a little bit more than simply a clean-cut, uncomplicated good guy. Of course, the PG era wouldn€™t allow a Budweiser-guzzling Texan badass to top their cards, but many older fans still reject a cereal-peddling do-gooder grinning inanely through the insults that are being so violently hurled at him. Hart€™s character, with the wraparound shades (height of cool in 1994, I assure you), black leather jacket and unkempt, stringy wetlook hair, had enough 90€™s €˜tude to be respected by older fans, yet still was a consistent good guy that stuck up for his principles, his friends and his fans. Yes, Hart faced a Cena style fan backlash of his own in the late 1990€™s, but even the heel Bret Hart saw himself as a hero. To this day, as a Brit, it amazes me to go back and watch Hart speaking out in favour of healthcare, gun control and racial tolerance to a chorus of boos and jeers. America is a funny old place. Michaels, on the other hand, began his WWF career as a pretty boy pop-star type and transitioned from there into an adolescent bully, who hid behind his DX stable and battled his enemies with childish pranks, scatological humour and playground insults. Was it funny? Yes, a lot of the time it was. It was entertaining, too, but Michaels€™ character belongs to a specific era and it has dated considerably in the harsh light of the 21st century. Shawn€™s matches may be timeless, but the angles he participated in are often embarrassing if you re-watch them with nostalgia removed from the equation. Because Hart was cut from a more traditional cloth, his character will stand the test of time in a far more convincing way. The good guy hero, wearing a white hat and saving the day before riding off into the sunset with the prettiest girl by his side, is an angle that will never get old; it just needs a kick up the arse from time to time.