"Is Bret Hart The Greatest Versatile Wrestler Of All Time"

[jericho3150]

I guess you didn't see his match with Owen at SS94, a match that was rated a rare 5 star match from Wrestling Observer(1 of only four WWE matches ever to get one) and was arguably the greatest cage match of all time.

That was a great match but the big draw and story leading up to that summerslam was Undertaker returning to face the Undertaker so maybe thats why at the time it was a bit overshadowed.

Again I hate to bring up Meltzer and the Wrestling observer again but he is the most popular rating scale and according to his scale Austin, Bulldog, Owen, Hennig, Nash, Yokozuna, Lawler, Bigelow and Piper's best match all came against Bret Hart. Those guys have been in a ton of matches and are some of the bigger names in wrestling and all are different sizes and most wrestle different styles yet according to one of the most respected rating scales they all had their best match of their life with Bret. If he wasn't versatile how could that be?

That is an impressive list but to be honest I would have to scale that back again.. First off Diesel according to WO had his best match with HBK for IYH8. Yokozuna had his best with Bret but it still wasn;t good... And Lawler wrestlered 6 people since entering WWF..Piper got the same rating for his hair vs hair match... BUt still Austin..Owen..Bulldog..Perfect..Piper..Bam Bam Is a great resume.. and on the flip side though Shawn has a great list too.. Kevin Nash..Scott Hall..Mick Foley.. The Undertaker.. Chris Jericho..John Cena..Jeff Jarrett.. Marty Jannetty..Vader..Triple H...Sid..Chris Benoit..Kurt Angle..Shelton Benjiman.

 

[Billie Jean]

I wouldn't say he is the"greatest" versatile wrestler of all time ,but the man is certainly up threre. He could make a match work with anybody, from Shawn Michaels to Yocozuna(spelling)he was great in that way. He could draw heat and be loved, he was "WOW"! But as for the greatest versatile wrestler ever, i would have to go with Kurt Angle,with Hart as a close second and despite his actions, Chris benoit as the third.

 

[Shocky]

Yeah, this one probably is a no brainer. Bret Hart may not have been the most charismatic or the biggest name wrestler there was, but one thing you can't deny from him, the guy was solid all around. Very rarely can a guy taht has the five moves of doom like Bret, have such drastic and different matches, not only with different guys, but with the same guy.

When I think about the intentions of this thread, the original poster is spot on. I think back to Harts matches with Austin, (Survivor Series, Revenge of Taker, WM13) all three very different matches. Likewise with the Undertaker from the 96 Rumble and 97 Summerslam. Shawn Michaels the same with their three pay per view matches. Hell, look at King of the Ring 93 when he had three very different, yet good matches, with three very different wrestlers.

Bret Hart is about as solid as they come in the business. The guy was very safe, was very formulaic, but very very damn amazing.

 

[schaeffershawn]

Just a point of clereification, because my wrestling fandome was chaalanged. Along with watching a lot of WCW when Hart was the WWF champion in 94, growing up in north philly there ws this little company making some rather big noise, and honestly with teh free tickest my uncle got almost every weekend I hade to choose between watching ECW live or watching Bret Hart bore the crap out of me. I stand by my choice. 1994 at the Arena was an incredible time especially for an 11 year old. So again while I respect Hart I believe he is nto the geratest versitiel wrestler ever. In ECW alone I would have taken RVD, Jerry Lynn and though ill catch flack for this one of my all time favorities Shane Douglas.

 

[reddevil69]

Just a point of clereification, because my wrestling fandome was chaalanged. Along with watching a lot of WCW when Hart was the WWF champion in 94, growing up in north philly there ws this little company making some rather big noise, and honestly with teh free tickest my uncle got almost every weekend I hade to choose between watching ECW live or watching Bret Hart bore the crap out of me. I stand by my choice. 1994 at the Arena was an incredible time especially for an 11 year old. So again while I respect Hart I believe he is nto the geratest versitiel wrestler ever. In ECW alone I would have taken RVD, Jerry Lynn and though ill catch flack for this one of my all time favorities Shane Douglas.

good for you...that's your opinion. Bret Hart may have bored the crap out of you but he entertained millions of fans all over the world for over a decade as a member of the Hart Foundation and as a singles performer.

Shane who? oh yeah, the dude that couldn't cut it in the WWF.

 

[schaeffershawn]

good for you...that's your opinion. Bret Hart may have bored the crap out of you but he entertained millions of fans all over the world for over a decade as a member of the Hart Foundation and as a singles performer.

Shane who? oh yeah, the dude that couldn't cut it in the WWF.

lol haha thats funny as opposed to the whinney Canadian who got fired. Screwed humself, then his dead brothers wife, face it thjose two spent a way inappropriate ammount of time together. And say what you wnat Shane's throwing down the Nwa title was the real begining of the biggest boom period. If it was not for that then there would have been no ECW, no WWE stealing there ideals and turning them into Attitude. As Jim Ross said on his blog you can do many things to becomne a legend in the business. And I would take 100 Ecw fans chantting Thank you Shane over all the WWE fans in the world.

 

[reddevil69]

lol haha thats funny as opposed to the whinney Canadian who got fired. Screwed humself, then his dead brothers wife, face it thjose two spent a way inappropriate ammount of time together. And say what you wnat Shane's throwing down the Nwa title was the real begining of the biggest boom period. If it was not for that then there would have been no ECW, no WWE stealing there ideals and turning them into Attitude. As Jim Ross said on his blog you can do many things to becomne a legend in the business. And I would take 100 Ecw fans chantting Thank you Shane over all the WWE fans in the world.

I have know idea what point you are trying to convey...Bret and someone's wife? 100 ECW fans over millions of WWE fans? No wonder no one has ever heard of you as a wrestler...sounds like you have real good business sense and it all goes back to your original post where you claim the business is all about drawing money...and then you go and make an asinine comment about taking 100 fans over one million? That's like a musician saying he's going to do nothing but wank off on a 30 minute guitar solo every night and drive everyone out of the club except the 3 guitar fan-boys and using the logic that he'd rather play to 3 people "in the know" instead of a packed house....he would not last long, club owners don't make money off of empty venues and that is precisely what happened to ECW...they went tits up because they were not making money and it's people like you who are to blame for that kind of business logic.

and Bret walked away from WWF with a nine million dollar guaranteed contract and half the number of days on the road from WCW....hardly getting screwed in my view...how much money did Douglas ever make?

 

[titans]

Thanks to one of the previous posters for using the Observer info I found.....Some fans really need to know the facts before rambling....Ive been fortunate enough to watch many great wrestlers and I do believe Bret to be the most versatile....I can't think of any amatuer style wrestler who had the broad impact worldwide than Bret did....Bret mixed great scientific skills with great selling and logic....He could work different styles very effectively which is why he rarely had a bad match....He was truly an artist in the ring.

 

[andy zones]

When i said that bret won the title way before shawn in 90s, my idea was to not to compare the ages at which they both became champions but instead i was simply saying that bret was given the championship far before shawn because he was considered the leader of new generation after hogan. That was the idea vince tried to convey when he sent almost every wrestler ipresent in the locker room to the ring to hoist bret and to gave a clear and sound message to every wrestling viewer.
Unlike now a days during 90s wwe title was considered the ultimate goal every wrestler wanted to acheive in his carrier and it had an meaning attached to it. Another important thing that should be kept in mind that the champ was the highest paid guy during those times so when bret became 5 time champ , hbk was merely a 2 time champ which is enough to prove that who got most money during 90s. Morever HBk s first title was won in 96 and he retired in 98 which is another evidence about the short time that hbk spent on top(though half the time in 97 he was not wrestling due to his fake injury and bret-austin rivalry was at its peak). These evidence are enough to show that bret s peak lasted from 1992-1997 while hbks lasted from 96-98.
We have got another joke of a man on this forum who previously called bret as one of the top ten on his list but in his latest thread called shane douglous as the man who turned him on to watch ecw over wwe. I have my own top 10 list and each wrestler on that list occupies an important place in my heart and i wont dare say a single bad word about them but here is a joke who called bret as a wrestler in his top 10 but later started bashing him for some stupid reasons. Clearly double standards for you
Its a saying that if you close your eyes the world dont exist for you and the same thing is happening with hbk fans who have closed their eyes when bret was performing in 90s and opened it when hbk was wrestling.

 

[Sasori]

Ofcourse dude why do you think hes labled 'The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be'?