10 WWE Plans Doomed From The Start

6. Bret Hart's Final WWE Championship Run

Seth Rollins Stephanie McMahon
WWE.com

'The Excellence Of Execution' knew the game he was in and knew it really, really well.

Inch-perfect matches were just part of the acute understanding Bret Hart had of a business he was born into. The exploits of real and kayfabe rival Shawn Michaels were predictable to him, even if he only foretold them to try and rationalise the pained reality of his untenable situation.

The seminal Wrestling With Shadows documentary captured Bret's concern during a pow-wow with trusted confidant Pat Patterson. He said, "I'm not gonna lose all my heat to him, am I?...It's almost like he's gonna scoop my heat". He was, as usual, bang on.

Hart's SummerSlam 1997 WWE Championship victory was a pyrrhic one. It made all the sense in the world for the summer's most over heel to carry the company yet again, but it would it prove to be his last actual night in the headline role he craved. Guest referee Michaels' inadvertent swing of a steel chair cost The Undertaker the prize, and 'HBK' was so incredibly detestable in the aftermath as that Bret's pro-Canadian bile seemed cartoonish by comparison.

He didn't close a pay-per-view again until the night of the Montreal Screwjob. In that time, Shawn referred to the title as a "piece of tin" and himself as 'The Main Event'. 'The Hitman' took the bullet, and he was sharp enough to see the shooter all along.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett