11 Wrestlers Who Waited The Longest To Win A World Title

In many ways, Shawn Michaels’ rise to prominence is a carbon copy of that of Bret Hart—except Bret’s took about 100 days longer to achieve.

Debuting on the 15 September 1984 showing of WWF Maple Leaf Wrestling, Hart’s early years were also spent in the tag division, alongside the conveniently-named Jim Neidhart as part of the Hart Foundation. Unlike Michaels, though, Hart had his fair share of tag title glory, twice winning the WWF Tag Team Championship and putting together reigns of 200+ days.

Bret himself would later branch out, gaining further traction with a couple of Intercontinental title runs, punctuated by some excellent SummerSlam matches against Mr. Perfect and the British Bulldog in ’91 and ’92 respectively.

Having worked his way through the ranks, by now Bret was deemed to be ready to make the step up to the main event picture. In October 1992, he defeated the champion, Ric Flair at a house show, 2949 days after his arrival on the scene.

Much like Shawn Michaels had paved the way for Edge, you could easily argue that it was Bret who in turn had paved the way for Shawn.