9 Things WWE Experimented With On House Shows But Never Went With

4. 'Cowboy' Bret Hart

Brock Lesnar Jesse Ventura
CBS

Bret Hart is one of the very best in-ring performers in the history of professional wrestling. Love him or hate him, it’s hard to argue that Bret didn’t consistently live up to his Best There Is, Best There Was, Best There Ever Will Be shtick.

Whether in the tag team ranks as one half of The Hart Foundation, or branching out to become a legendary singles act, The Hitman was always cooler than the other side of the pillow. But things could have been oh so different for Bret.

Upon landing in Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation in 1984, Hart was staggered to hear how McMahon envisioned the Calgary native as ‘Cowboy’ Bret Hart. If Vince was to get his way, the future Hall of Famer was to enter the ring on horseback, dress in full cowboy garb, and yuck the cheese factor up to 11.

Luckily for Hart, he would manage to convince VKM to drop the idea before it made it to TV. Instead, Bret offered up the idea of pairing him with the recently arrived Jim Neidhart and Jimmy Hart to form what would become The Hart Foundation. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.