10 Terrible WWE Main Events One Tweak Away From Excellence
6. Bret Hart Vs The Undertaker (Royal Rumble 1996)
Why it's terrible: Because it shouldn't be.
The Undertaker wasn't exactly in career form at the time, but he was mere months away from finding it. Matches against Diesel (at WrestleMania XII) and Mankind (King Of The Ring, SummerSlam, Buried Alive, Survivor Series) made 'The Deadman' one of the more consistent performers on pay-per-view all year. Meanwhile, Bret Hart was Bret f*cking Hart thanks very much, and was virtually incapable of a bad match. And yet...
One Tweak: They just didn't commit to the bit.
As babyfaces admirably trying to protect the integrity of their characters, the two company icons completely forgot how to craft the best possible match in the process.
Particularly criminal because they both knew a proper finish wasn't coming and this was set to close the show, this disappointingly dreary encounter needed one of the two to go full heel for the good of the cause. Bret picked away at the lower half of the Challenger but did so with far more politeness than he'd ever offered the likes of Diesel or Sid. Undertaker was humanised by the arc when perhaps a little more of the supernatural skill might have provided some sizzle.
They'd get it right a year later, thanks mostly to Bret being a cast-iron heel by then. He was talented enough to play one here, it's just a big shame he didn't.