Face Vs Heel: Bret 'The Hitman' Hart

The benefit of doing a piece like this on a career that's already concluded is how definitive it all feels.

Attempting to cover, say, Roman Reigns right now would be just about impossible. A product of the schizophrenic contemporary WWE system, 'The Big Dog' is so difficult to assess by the old pillars of good guys and bad guys that the company still struggled to make it clear which way the wind was blowing when he returned in 2020.

Only after siding with Paul Heyman, and turning up late for his own title match, and winning in a cowardly fashion did Reigns remotely resonate as a wrong'un. And only in WWE would a guy just over 12 months on from an announcement about his cancer being in remission even be one.

How does this relate to Bret Hart? Because he was the best, of course.

'The Hitman' was the best to such a degree that he'd perfected what it meant to be a pro wrestler in an industry that had narrative rules and structures. It's one of several heartbreaking reasons why things didn't work out in WCW. Hart's character, working ability and real life integrity wasn't built for the chaos of then nor WWE's now.

That's the long way of setting out a caveat that this will focus on his WWE singles run, but the distinction felt important. Your writer isn't one to doubt El Dandy, but trying to factor in his Atlanta actions would have been as painful as spearing a steel plate.

Face:

As the hero he always relished the opportunity to be, 'The Hitman' turned '80s baiting into '90s cool. Wearing pink was seen as a villainous trait when The Hart Foundation donned the colours, but the vibrant shades bursting forth from the black helped Hart find his own take on the neon of the early-1990s and New Generation.

Never once was the scheme greeted with a sneer, or even the idea that he was choosing the traditional base coat of a baby girl's wardrobe. It never came up because it couldn't - anybody daring to bring it up were wrapped in knots for opening their stupid mouth.

Heel:

With an eye on every detail, Bret switched almost exclusively to his all-black ensemble when he turned heel in 1997. Always believing himself to be a favourite of the cowboys from knowing his Calgary audience well, he'd treat his tights like a ten-gallon hat.

Notes of pink were evident, but if you ever liked those glorious splashes of colours, it was Hart's job to take that exact emotion away. Skulls became more prominent too. What once just added to the iconography became more pronounced in line with his own festering rage.

Winner: Face