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Bret Hart in WCW - How would you book him?

17K views 72 replies 56 participants last post by  Greatsthegreats 
#1 ·
We all know Bret Hart was dramatically underutilized in WCW. He came from WWE after the montreal screwjob and at the time he could still go in the ring and was one of the biggest names in wrestling.

Since the booking team of WCW failed big time with Hart, how would you book bret in WCW?
 
#11 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

I'm kind of iffy of putting him in the World Title picture, as Goldberg likely would not have existed had that happened.
I can make that work.

-Have Bret appear for the first time at Starrcade 97. The nWo is beating down Sting when Bret Hart makes the save. Hogan is able to escape and a tense staredown between Hart and Hogan is shown.
-The next night Hart comes out and says that it's time to restore wrestling's credibility, and it's time to hold those accountable who are ruining the business. (Which leads to him running down Hall and Nash, then running down Hogan)
-Continue the build toward the February PPV SuperBrawl 98. SuperBrawl 98 is headlined by a Hart vs Hogan World title match. Make sure Hart doesn't wrestle before the PPV. Hart wins the World title with a massive celebration afterward.
-Hart drops the title to Hogan in a rematch at the Great American Bash 4 months later.
-Goldberg (US champion) wins the World title from Hogan the following month at the Bash at the Beach PPV.
-Everything else with the World title from here stays the same. (From Goldberg to Nash back to Hogan)
...
.....
........
-After losing the World title, Hart reforms the Hart Foundation with Jim Neidhart. Together they win the WCW World Tag Titles from Scott Hall and The Giant. They hold the titles for several months. They lose to (whoever) right before the fingerpoke of doom.
-Right after the Fingerpoke of Doom, Bret Hart cuts a promo on Hogan, Hall and Nash for attempting to ruin the business again. (They can show the exact promo Hart cut on those three when he first came to WCW to tie everything together) He vows to stop this once and fore-all to restore the credibility and integrity of professional wrestling.
-Hart/Hogan World title is set up for SuperBrawl 99. Hart wins the title again, thus finishing off the nWo forever in the process. Hart stays as a face for the rest of his tenure in WCW.
 
#18 · (Edited by Moderator)
First off, I would have saved his debut for the night after Starrcade. Let Sting get a clean victory over Hogan that supposedly ends the NWO's reign. The next night while Sting is delivering his victory speech, Bret Harts entrance theme hits and he comes to the ring. Bret ends up saying he is the best there is, best there was, etc, and says he wants the strap. Sting (acting as WCW's best interest and savior) says Bret hasn't proved his dues in WCW and won't become a number 1 contender until he does.

Bret vows to prove once and for all that he is the best, and for the next few months he takes on everything WCW has to throw at him. He has matches with Flair, Savage, Hall and Nash, Henning, Benoit, Eddie, Dean, Jericho, etc but during the middle of this me vs WCW angle, Bret Hart turns heel and reforms the Hart Foundation with Jericho and Benoit. For the rest of this angle, they assist Bret in cleaning up the competition until Bret is on a winning streak similar to Goldbergs. The new Hart Foundation could use Canada vs USA heat while also using real workers vs bodybuilder heat. With 6 man tag battles and factions like the Horseman and NWO to take on, this should put Jericho and Benoit over.

Starcade 98. Undefeated in WCW Bret Hart with the Hart Foundation by his side vs undefeated Goldberg.

And while this might sound petty, I think they should have really put a lot more effort into Bret Hart's theme entrance. Everytime I watched Bret come out to some generic theme, it made him feel second rate. And then the street clothes. The booking was a problem, but I think his second rate presentation was just as much of a problem. He never felt like a superstar to me while in WCW.

Instead of trying to recreate his WWF theme, I would have gone for something totally new and epic. Maybe have Bret himself on the track, repeating that he is the best there is.

I think this, plus my above mentioned post would have made Bret's first year a ton more interesting, with classic matches and a huge feud with Goldberg to close out the year. Classic heel vs classic face.
 
#2 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

God, anything at all. What a blown opportunity for...ANYTHING with Hart in WCW.

Since he'd just come off feuding with Shawn and always talking about his values and what not, it seems like a natural fit for Bret to spearhead the "traditional wrestling" aspect of WCW against the nWo. Plus, he'd be going after Shawn's buddies, the Outsiders, and a Hogan who has turned his back on the business that made him.

Alternately, I would have settled for...ANYTHING.
 
#6 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Anything differently from what they did would have been better... Coming off of the most controversial moment in wrestling history, being legitimately screwed on his way out of the WWF, why didn't WCW cash in majorly on this? They had enough fuel to absolutely rip Vince McMahon to shreds. (Well, Rick Rude threw great jabs, but that's about it)

Anyway, coming off of the Screwjob, Bret Hart debuts and referees a match at Starrcade... Really? I'm not saying throw him in a match, but if that's all they have for him, just save him for a more appropriate and larger debut.

Bret Hart was one of the biggest stars of the 90s in professional wrestling and was limited to midcard level when the company was still savable. It's just completely idiotic. I can only imagine that Hulk Hogan had something to do with this, based off of what we know or what was speculated from the supposed match between the two at Summerslam 1993. Just seems fitting that Hogan would do his part in trying to keep anyone from stealing his spotlight.

This was pretty evident from the finish at Starrcade... Way to kill over a year's worth of incredible booking, all for your own ego. But that's another story.

But to sum this up: Main event, easily. Fuck, 1998 shouldn't have been overloaded with Black and White vs. Wolfpac. That was absolutely stupid. Kill the NWO off early 1998, and allow Sting vs. Hart / Savage vs. Hart / DDP vs. Hart to take place. They would have all been much better feuds than what we got.
 
#46 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

The Hart Foundation was huge when Bret left the WWF. Davey Boy and Anvil both joined WCW with Bret, so I have no idea why WCW didn't just continue with the Hart Foundation angle with those 3 guys. Bring in Benoit or even Jericho. They could have continued their feud with DX via the n.W.o., which featured 3 former kilq members. Seemed pretty obvious, but they decided to bury Bulldog and Anvil instead.

I remember wanting to see 2 matches with Bret in WCW: vs. Sting and vs. Hogan. I got to see him wrestle Sting, but the Hogan match never happened, and I blame the ego of Hulk for that. I did get to see the Hitman vs. Benoit though, and it was the culmination of huge tournament for the world title, and it was in Toronto. So that was pretty cool. Probably the one shining moment in Bret's WCW run (I also loved it when Goldberg speared him, but he was wearing some kind of armor under his shirt that fucked up Goldberg. Awesome).
 
#48 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Nash wanted to work with Bret. When Nash was booker in mid 99, he booked himself to defend the title against Bret in hist first program after winning the title. Also, he considered his matches with Bret as some of the best in his career. He never had a problem with Bret as he pushed Bischoff to bring Bret in since 96.
 
#53 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

He should have stayed in the World title scene.

I remember WCW gave him the US title, which was WCW's equivalent to the IC title. Bret should have been way above that belt.
That was ridiculous putting the US belt on him. Here's a perfect example of the stupidity of WCW's booking, Halloween Havoc 98:


Hart vs Sting....for the US TITLE......both guys were still in great shape and could put on great matches-this should have been the main event, AND for the WCW title. This matchup is Wrestlemania main event material.


What were the matches after that?

An aging Warrior/Hogan that was boring as all hell, and Goldberg's boring/predictable "who's next" defeating DDP.
 
#4 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

I marked pretty strongly when they finally put the title on Bret during the Russo era, and I still consider his title match with Benoit at Mayhem 99 to be one of my favorites, but the ship had kinda sailed by then. From then on out it was full of nWo Silver, that weird reverse-Montreal Piper did for Bret, etc. etc.
 
#5 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Firstly: Shouldn't have appeared on TV until Starrcade 1997.
Secondly: There was still lots mileage in the 'babyface everywhere but in the USA' thing. I'd have kept that alive.
Thirdly: Heel against Babyface Ric Flair at Souled Out 1998.

Hart Foundation
Bret Hart
Chris Jericho
The British Bulldog
Jim Neidhart
Jushin Liger (brought in from NJPW due to him being partly trained by the Harts)

The feud with Flair would have been instigated by them attacking Chris Benoit after he refuses to join the Foundation.
 
#9 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Well, Consistency would be the first thing. Bret had a lot of sympathy coming off the screwjob but had a phenomenal heel right before then so it's really a toss up as to his alignment. I think at that point, heel Bret would have been better. I would have had him play a similar character than the end of the WWF run where he was criticizing the fans for cheering on degenerates. Further, I would have him say he's still the world champion and he was never defeated just out politicked for the belt. There were enough faces at the time that he could have had some quality matches leading to a showdown with Sting.
 
#10 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

I would have debuted him the night after Starrcade. Have him stare toe to toe with Sting as Nitro went off the air. And slowly built to a Sting/Hart Starrcade 1998 match. You could have done a story line where he tries to jump ahead of the pack and challenge Sting directly but several other guys demand he "pay his dues" in WCW first, sort of start it out as a potential face vs face match and slowly turn Bret heel as he claims WCW is just like WWF, they are trying to hold him down, screw him over and show favoritism to other guys.



I certainly would have had him finish off the nWo in matches against Hall and then Nash and finally the big match with Hogan which leads into his Sting match.
 
#13 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Yeah they did fuck it up when Bret arrived, they didnt take advantage of him fully. But at least they gave us

Bret vs Savage
Bret vs DDP
Bret vs Dean Malenko
Bret vs Curt Hennig
Bret vs Flair
Bret vs Goldberg
Bret vs The man who technically does not exist anymore
Bret vs Sting

So at least we got some dream matches
 
#14 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Hart was a guy who could have put over and made countless stars. Even Vince said you could book your entire main event around Bret. But instead, he won a handful of midcard titles and by the time he became a World Champion, it really was too late. Probably the single worst blown opportunity in wrestling history.
 
#16 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

The nWo domination should have ended after sting beat Hogan. Then enter Hart after montreal crewjob and have him face sting for the world title. somthing like that would have worked way better than how they used him.

indeed even vince said he was lucky they didn't fully utilize bret because he could have been way more succesful in wcw.

obviously hogan and nash had something to do with this.
 
#26 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Hart vs Sting wouldn't of worked to Hart's favor. It would of been face vs face, and Sting would of been cheered over Hart simply because Hart was a WWF guy.

I'm calling BS.... Hogan vs. Warrior worked out fine. If Sting and Hart were both faces and both showed respect for another it would have worked fine. But Sting should have gotten the Win because it is WCW and you always put over your talent.
 
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#19 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

And while this might sound petty, I think they should have really put a lot more effort into Bret Hart's theme entrance. Everytime I watched Bret come out to some generic theme, it made him feel second rate. And then the street clothes. The booking was a problem, but I think his second rate presentation was just as much of a problem. He never felt like a superstar to me while in WCW.

Instead of trying to recreate his WWF theme, I would have gone for something totally new and epic. Maybe have Bret himself on the track, repeating that he is the best there is.

I think this, plus my above mentioned post would have made Bret's first year a ton more interesting, with classic matches and a huge feud with Goldberg to close out the year. Classic heel vs classic face.
Yeah his WCW themes were all terrible and we were so accustomed to Bret having an epic theme song. :/
 
#20 ·
Simple. build to Hogan vs Hart dream match. Have him constantly challenging and Hogan dodging. You can have Hart be the guy who along with Sting winning the title help drive a wedge into the NWO causing them to crack. You have Hogan become obsessed with keeping Hart at bay causing Nash and Hall to feel he lost sight of the bigger picture.

Eventually Hogan looses all his posse and has to face Hart at Starrcade 1998


Sent from Verticalsports.com Free App
 
#21 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

If if was in 1998 and 1999, I'd have him job clean to Warrior, Goldbeg, Hogan, Nash, Ernest miller, Brian Knobs, Disco Inferno and about every other superstar on the roster.
Hart was just an overrated bitter guy who is the biggest member of his own fanclub. Sure he had great matches, but his whining and bitching is just too much
 
#28 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

If if was in 1998 and 1999, I'd have him job clean to Warrior, Goldbeg, Hogan, Nash, Ernest miller, Brian Knobs, Disco Inferno and about every other superstar on the roster.
Hart was just an overrated bitter guy who is the biggest member of his own fanclub. Sure he had great matches, but his whining and bitching is just too much
The guy with the Andre avatar is calling Bret Hart overrated. Excuse me while I laugh to death. :lmao
 
#22 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Number one, he would have stayed a babyface. I can't believe they were handed the most sympathetic babyface on a silver platter and then they insisted on turning him heel within his first year.

That loosy goosy "Is he in the nWo or not" crap that they kept pulling with him was ridiculous. He was aligned with Hogan yet somehow NOT in the nWo. I am not sure how that works.

Anyways, what I would have done is bring him in and build up a year long feud with him & Hogan. Hogan Vs. Bret would have been a huge match to do. That would have been one of my major matches to build up to one of the major PPVs of 98, like Great American Bash or something. Then after that, put him on the path of the WCW Championship. Not sure how he would have fit in to the equation with guys like Goldberg & DDP on the rise, but I could figure something out. I would have Goldberg win the title at Starrcade 98, which is probably where the nWo would have been ended for good.
 
#23 ·
Re: Bret Hart WCW - How would you book him?

Here's how I would work things.

Starcade 1997 - Sting goes over Hogan clean.

Then I'd have Eric Bischoff announce at Souled Out that Hart was taking on Sting for the Title. And I'd alluded that Hart was joining the nWo.
Hart declines the NWO Offer and they attack him before or during the match while they also attack Sting. Sting gets the Win.

Hart then forms a partnership with Sting, Warrior, DDP, Goldberg, Flair, Lex and over the next few months they take out the nWo. Ending with a Big Hart vs. Hogan match. After the NWO is taken out Hart wins the title and starts wrestling against Flair and DDP.

Dumbest thing was when Sting joined the Wolfpack.
 
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