Will Hart / McMahon surpass Austin / McMahon

[Doomsday Device]

Just seeing Hart and McMahon in the ring at the same time is awesome. And this rivalry was pretty damn real. And despite heavily scripted dialogues, they do have plenty to say to eachother.

The only problem I see with this is their age, theres nothing wrong with getting older, but the thing is the fans would LOVE to see Hart-McMahon get in the ring and beat the hell out of eachother. Vince is 64, and Bret is 52, plus Bret had a stroke in 2002.

Im sure that if Bret would be in better physical shape, like in the old days, Vince would have mopped the floor with Bret, chairshots and all. Instead, because of Bret's perhaps frail condition, all Vince did was a kick in the gut and walked away.

Im sure that Vince still has one or two matches left in him, especially for a Wrestlemania.

The question is, does Bret have a match left in him?

 

[Chill]

No, Hart/McMahon will not surpass what Austin and McMahon did ten years ago. Don't get me wrong, Hart/McMahon has a lot of appeal as it's a real to life rivalry and as interesting as I'm sure it will turn out to be, I think it will be a case of too little too late.

Hart and McMahon feuding a decade ago would have been the best time for them to go at it, imagine had Hart returned to WWE before he had his stroke and their real life feud would have played out then? That would have been something else.

As things currently stand, both men are far older, Hart will be limited in a physical capacity due to his health which means any match they might have wont be as effective as it could have been years ago. Nonetheless, I think a street fight or something along those lines could be good as Hart wouldn't have to actually wrestle, he could just go out there and beat on Vince and voila you have a potentially decent bout.

In saying that however, I'm just not sure I can see Hart doing anything too physical anymore and so I wonder if they will actually fight or are they going to perhaps get people to represent them, much like the Battle of the Billionares at Wrestlemania 23?

Austin v McMahon occurred at a time when Austin was in his prime as a bona fide superstar, he was red hot and McMahon was far more mobile than he is now. Their rivalry was very instrumental to WWE's success at that time and it spawned some of the best moments of the Attitude Era, it was revolutionary with Austin rebelling against his boss.

Hart v McMahon has the potential to be a great rivalry no doubt and I absolutely want to see it, if anything for it's nostalgic purposes but to suggest it will surpass Austin and McMahon I'm not too sure...

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

McMahon/Hart will be used as a cheap draw for WM26 and probably nothing more. It's going to be along the lines of 'Hart Dynasty with Bret in the corner vs random tag team w/ Vince, or a street fight of some kind, which i wouldn't want to see @ WM anyway. Vince v HBK wasn't a good match imo, because it consisted of HBK beating on Vince for 20 minutes. Vince himself, didn't execute a single piece of offense in that match and left it up to the amazing skills of HBK to carry it. Bret, in the condition he's in, probably couldn't do the same.

Instead of 1 amazing wrestler vs his boss who's really old but in half decent shape, it'll be just 2 old guys in half decent shape wrestling. No thanks. I'd rather watch the Diva Battle Royal again.

As said before, Austin v McMahon was the birth of something new, Bret v McMahon will be more like McMahon v Hogan at WM19. What did we gain from that legendary 20 year fued exactly? Mr America (Hulk Hogan dressed as the Statue of Liberty's pimp) and Zach Gowen (a one legged kid, who just as you're starting to take him seriously, gets fired for smacking Vince just a litte bit too hard.), and both of those ideas were dead and buried within 3 months.

This whole Bret v Vince thing will be done to keep WWE fans from changing over to TNA on Mondays, between now and Mania. By then Vince probably assumes that Hogan and Bischoff will have raped TNA dry, and he won't have to worry about it anymore, not that he really pays them a great deal of attention now. You gotta agree with Vince Russo's comments about this week's TNA v WWE debut, when he said 'apart from the beginning and end segments, what did they have?' (paraphrased). From what i read, it was exactly the same as any other Raw in the last 4 months, so Bret is being used as a means to keep viewers and maybe attract some old ones, but it won't attract any new ones imo, while Bret himself just wants to be more involved in pro-wrestling again i guess. Hopefully, he'll be able to do that without Vince spitting on his legacy all over again.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

If this happened during Hart's wrestling days, it could stand a chance to surpass it. But now? Not a chance. Hart doesn't have his 'heart' into it. He's simply doing that to have a decent payday and to help Hart Dynasty get recognized on a grand scale. There's no real 'rivalry' there. Vince and Bret have done business in the past and there's no real animosity. Of course there wasn't any 'real' animosity with Austin and McMahon either, but the fans wouldn't have known that. That rivalry had passion, intensity, and the ability to have some great matches come out of it.

Hart can't wrestle, hence why the feud would never be as strong as Austin/McMahon.

 

[gully side adidja]

austin vs mcmahon,was the feud that the late 90''s was all about,attitude in your face take n o shit from nobody,bret vs vince,was over one thing,the screwjob,although bret did show frustration at vince prior to the screwjob,(shoving vince down in the ring after losing to sid in a cage match) bret does not have the physical ability or charisma to do the stuff austin did to mcmahon,plus austin/mcmahon feud lasted basically two years,bret won't be in the wwe as soon as april,they definatley need more people(hbk,hhh,hart dynasty,orton,taker)involved to make this feud work,and evn that,won't make it as awesome as austin vs mcmahon.holla!

 

[wwefan4life]

No way this feud can surpass the Austin one. That spanned years and was the greatest rivalry in WWE/F history. This Hart feud will be great but will only last until Wrestlemania.

 

[Tastycles]

The Hart feud is more interesting in the kind of worked shoot Russo school of booking because it has its basis in reality, and it has been a hell of a long time in the making, but it pales into insignifcance here. You have to remember that Austin was so popular because he was so accessible, Bret Hart is being booked liked a wrestling star. Austin captivated the audience not only because it was compelling, but also because the audience wished it was them and their boss. Hart can only hope to make compelling viewing.

The additional factor is the peripheral figures and matches involved. If Hart and Vince feud to WrestleMania, the likelihood is that they will face off in a street fight. That is never going to have the excitement that was afforded to Austin vs The Rock because one is a match up between the two hottest stars for ten years in their primes and the other is two men over 50 hitting each other with dustbins. I don't doubt that the emotion Hart will inject into this storyline will be effective in creating a good programme, but it won't have a patch on Austin vs McMahon.

 

[ChristianRivers]

It's not a fair comparison so I went with Hart/McMahon because its the "End of an Era" it's the last remnant of the Attitude Era we have left. Life has not been so great to Bret Hart or his family. The death of Owen was especially tragic and I pray I never have to lose my brother. I think Bret is back for closure. Yes he'll be limited by his stroke so its likely we won't get the angle we could have gotten had Bret come back earlier. But he is still the Hitman, and older fans will tune in to see Bret Hart. If for no other reason than to close the chapter on what many refer to as the greatest Era of the WWF. History, and closing a chapter in the history books especially with the history these two have is something to see.

In Bret's book he didn't realize the damage Goldberg did to him. He admits it wasn't all of his fault. It was a great book and gives you an insight into the business at that time that you're not going to get any where else. I think what drives Bret to go along with this coming back for closure is the memory of Owen. If we could see Stu, & Owen in the Hall of Fame I'm sure that would be small measure of justice. For the actual real life issues, and to be interested in seeing how much of the real life issues stays in among the kayfabe aspects will drive home how interesting this feud could be.

Austin/McMahon sparked the rise of the attitude era. We all saw that. Now we get to see the chapter closed on the last remnant of it. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. I think Bret would disagree that he is in "just another storyline" I would like to think maybe it's Bret coming to peace, and setting aside his differences. Something he wasn't able to do earlier.