The Worst Wrestler In WWE History
There's a working theory amongst fans of a certain age - and said "certain age" makes up a large portion of AEW's fanbase, highlighting that enough of them were kicking around for Vince McMahon to not to have to blow his monopoly - that if you were lured to pro wrestling through the bright lights and bombast of Hulkamania, The Ultimate Warrior or other insanely over-muscled behemoths promoted by the World Wrestling Federation, you were hooked into the real magic of it by Bret Hart.
For starters, if you were sticking around for 'The Hitman', you were regrettably in the minority. WWE's business hit the skids in the early-to-mid 1990s, and while Hart's exceptional, best-in-class ring work had precisely zero to do with that, it also wasn't moving the needle either. This wasn't just a Bret Hart problem. The list of "industry icons that could go" from that period is as long as a Kazuchika Okada/Kenny Omega classic; Shawn Michaels, The 1-2-3 Kid, Razor Ramon, Jeff Jarrett, Bam Bam Bigelow, Chris Candido, Hakushi and others elevated the product beyond anything it's ever been bell-to-bell, and Yokozuna, Diesel and The Undertaker were three of the best giants for many of the above to build classic matches around.
The very understanding of a classic match came from the brilliance of a Bret - his attentive, detailed and believable execution of every single thing he did teach generations of viewers the language of pro wrestling.
Tl; dr - Hogan made you a follower, Hart made you a fan.
On October 7th 1986, he did exactly that for the one man that had already seen it all. Unfortunately for the doe-eyed Chairman, he was staring at the wrong side of his squared circle.
CONT'D...