10 WWE Champions Who Hated Their World Title Reigns
6. Bret Hart
Arguably one of the best in-ring performers of all-time, Bret Hart reigned as WWE Champion until he left the company under the most controversial circumstances in pro wrestling history.
Hart "lost" his WWE Title to Shawn Michaels during 1997's infamous "Montreal Screwjob", and since then The Hitman's title reign has been shrouded in the cloud of the most memorable wrestling shoot of all-time.
Since the screwjob took place, numerous pro wrestling personalities and analysts have offered their opinions as to who was "right and wrong" during the time leading up to the actual 1997 Survivor Series PPV, but in the end, most people agree that both Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were in terrible mental, physical and emotional places leading up to the anticipated match.
Some wrestling personalities blame Bret Hart for the screwjob, citing Hart's refusal to cooperate with various pitched angles for Survivor Series, all of which ended with Bret Hart dropping the title to Shawn Michaels.
In past shoot interviews, Vince Russo recalls spending hours with Vince McMahon as McMahon pitched idea after idea to Bret Hart for the Survivor Series match, all of which Hart shot down.
Following the Montreal Screwjob, Bret Hart dramatically left WWE for WCW, and has been very outspoken since then about his disdain for his final title run in WWE. While Hart held the Championship during his feud with Shawn Michaels, HBK was always the principal player in WWE, with Hart playing second fiddle to the Degeneration-X faction, a group Hart notoriously hated. Bret Hart has claimed numerous times that he was very unhappy with his title reign being mostly an afterthought, with talents like Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker headlining events despite Hart being the WWE Champion.
In addition to HBK, Bret Hart feuded with The Patriot during his time as WWE Champion, a feud which contributed to much of Hart's title reign unhappiness.
As for the abrupt ending to the Hart vs Patriot feud, Del Wilkes revealed in a 2015 interview with The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling that injuries forced an abrupt ending to the feud.
"My health issues brought the feud with Bret to an end," revealed Wilkes. "I had just major serious injuries. I had totally blown out my right knee, which has since been replaced twice. I literally couldn't work without the help of a big knee brace that I had to wear and that brace limited what I could do in the ring and my movement."