From Tag Team To Top Guy: Bret Hart's Ascension To The WrestleMania Main Event

3. The Workhorse World Champion

The Hart Foundation Bret Hart
WWE.com

As the then-WWF looked to move away from the juiced-up larger-than-life presence of the Hulk Hogans and Ultimate Warriors amidst steroid scandals, Bret Hart helped to usher in an age of main event talents who were 'smaller' than the traditional norm of Vince McMahon's promotion. Likewise, the Hitman helped usher in an age of main event talents who were far, far superior in-ring workers than the likes of the Hulkster and the Ultimate One.

In addition to this, Hart proclaimed himself as a fighting champion who would defend the WWF Title on a more regular basis than the World Champions of yesteryear. As such, the Calgary native's big win over Ric Flair was soon followed by televised title defences against the Mountie, Virgil, Papa Shango (on two occasions), Fatu of the Headshrinkers, and a rematch with the Nature Boy. To put that into context Hulk Hogan's 1991 third reign as WWF Champion lasted for 248 days and only saw Hulk defend that title on regular WWF TV twice.

Away from standard WWF programming, Bret also had the chance to be the defending WWF Champion on PPV, with Hart putting the gold on the line against Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series '92 and then against Razor Ramon at the 1993 Royal Rumble; two matches that were as great as you'd expect from the names involved.

Once that Royal Rumble was done and dusted, though, the Excellence of Execution was on track to headline his first WrestleMania, with Mr. Fuji's Yokozuna awaiting Hart at WrestleMania IX.

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.