100 Greatest WWE Matches Of All Time (Ranked)
39. Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect (King Of The Ring 1993)
Jim Ross surely thought he'd hit the jackpot at King Of The Ring 1993 when Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect entered the ring for their titular tournament semi final. Both had already worked matches that night - Hart vs. Razor Ramon in the opener, and Perfect vs. Mr. Hughes. Those were mere appetisers for the glory to come.
Spoiler alert: Hart and Curt Hennig didn't beat what they'd done a few years prior at SummerSlam 1991, but the fact they even ran it close says everything about their talent. Perfect's back, which had been screaming in '91, was even more shot to bits by '93. Learning to work around physical limitations had been his primary goal in the years since, but still...this could easily have been a (literally) painful reminder that he wasn't the performer he'd been before.
A jocular promo exchange before the match backstage hinted that these good pals knew what was up for grabs. Win King Of The Ring and they'd be deemed the best wrestler in the company. That believably meant something to workhorses like Bret and Perfect. They had to be number one, and they had to get there through toil and by showing grit.
Hart's injured fingers would become a theme for the entire show. That injury prevented him from locking on the Sharpshooter to win any of his matches, thus demanding he come up with creative ways to get the job done. Perfect understood the assignment too, and increasingly wore a ticked off scowl when he couldn't put Bret away and advance to the final.
Stunning. Simply stunning.