3. Bret Hart vs. Patriot
In Your House: Ground Zero- September 7, 1997
OK, cards on the table, if it wasn't for the extremely popular US versus Canada storyline that the then-WWF was riding during the summer and into the fall of 1997, there is very little chance that The Patriot would ever see a World Title PPV match. Yet, despite his lumbering, clobbering style and at-best tepid crowd popularity, WWE pumped the nationalistic symbolism up and rekindled a patriotic attitude that while didn't quite restart the long-dead Lex Express did grant what would become Kurt Angle's Olympian U.S. entrance theme to the hooded Patriot a couple years early. But even with the WWE machine and a catchy tune behind The Patriot, it would be up to The Hitman to rise to the occasion to bring out the best in his opponent and give the semi-main event at times a captivating and epic feel, and showcases Hart in the mindset of artist as defending champion, defending his title as well as his homeland on foreign turf against an invader wearing the colors of his mortal enemy. The focused and methodical prowess Hart delivers each crunching blow shows his intent as a World Champion taking on the posterboy of his hated land. With the odd placement of being a World Title match going on before a non-title main event specialty match (Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels first ever match), it was almost as if Hart was unhappy with this placement on the card, and brought that much more to his title retainment over The Patriot at Ground Zero.