Bret Hart

I am the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be!

—Bret Hart

Bret Hart was one of the biggest stars of Professional Wrestling in the '90s and is simultaneously one of the most technically gifted performers to ever step into a wrestling ring and one of the most troubled and tortured personalities in the history of the industry.

Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Bret was a member of the Hart Wrestling Family and was trained by his father Stu in the famous "Hart Dungeon". Easily the most successful member of the family he would hold the WWF World Championship several times, alongside Tag Team and Intercontinental title reigns.

Bret had a very troubled career. The most notable instance of this is the infamous Montreal Screwjob, where he was screwed out of the World Title in Canada as he was leaving for WCW and Vince McMahon feared him leaving with the belt. Bret was poorly used in WCW, never again attaining the levels of success of his WWF run and his stint would be marred by the death of his younger brother Owen Hart. His career would eventually end due to a concussion suffered in a match with Goldberg and a stroke several years later would ensure he would never wrestle again.

Bret would return to what is now the WWE in 2010, making sporadic appearances in a non-wrestling role at pay-per-views and Monday Night Raw.

As per usual, That Other Wiki has an extensive article on his career and life.

Bret Hart provides examples of the following tropes:

• Arch Enemy: Shawn Michaels (in the ring and in Real Life).
  • At least until 1/4/10, when they buried the hatchet on RAW in a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming of epic proportions.
    • Then Shawn retired a few months later.
  • Also, Stone Cold Steve Austin- until they made peace a few weeks after Michaels, in a much less explicit display.
    • Both Michaels and Austin were also cases of Worthy Opponent. While none of them liked each other(Austin and Michaels have had an antagonistic history as well), all three had (and expressed) tremendous respect for each other.
  • Allen Coage (Bad News Brown in the WWF) was possibly Bret Hart's worst enemy. Bad News has commented in many interviews that Bret was the most difficult wrestler he ever worked with. And Bret Hart has called Bad News his nemesis (the only person he refers to as this in his book.) Unlike Shawn Michaels, they never buried the hatchet, although this is possibly because Bad News died in 2007.
  • After the Montreal Screwjob? It's really become Vince McMahon.
    • Not anymore. In Real Life at least.
  • He seems to hold a serious grudge against Hogan from his WCW tenure. He's certainly not afraid to shoot some scathing comments at him over Twitter, at least.
  • Averted with Goldberg; despite all the flack Goldberg gets for being the man that ended Bret's career, Bret blames the WCW Power Plant (the professional wrestling school that taught Goldberg), instead of the man himself.
• Ascended Meme: On Bret's Twitter, he referenced the Five Moves of Doom and linked to the El Dandy interview on YouTube, labeling it his favorite moment from his time in WCW.
• Breakup Breakout: After he split from the Hart Foundation, Bret was catapulted to the main event.
  • Ironically, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart was initially considered to be the stronger performer. Bret's singles push came during the WWF's infamous steroid scandal, where McMahon wanted to push someone smaller.
• Canada, Eh?: Not normally the focus of his gimmick, but his 1997 heel turn played up his Canadianness as Hart would use it as a source of pride against Americans, who he believed, didn't deserve a hero of his caliber.
• Catch Phrase: The page-topping quote.
• Cool Shades
• Curb Stomp Battle: His Wrestlemania 26 match against Vince McMahon. It wasn't so much a match as it was an extended beatdown.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Wore black, hot pink and skull motifs.
• Dead Younger Brother: Owen Hart.
• Demoted to Extra: Especially during his time in WCW.
• Determinator: Bret once wrestled a match against Dino Bravo, which saw Bret get bumped a little too hard to the outside, where he broke his sternum on the steel guard rail. Despite Bret's nonverbal cues that something was wrong (i.e. he couldn't even breathe) the match kept going. Bret was supposed to win, but ended up losing by countout.
• Despair Event Horizon: See The Woobie
  • In-character version: his 1997 heel turn and reformation of the Hart Foundation, complete with What the Hell, Hero? speech against America's failing family values.
• Double Standard: According to his autobiography, Bret was constantly sleeping around while on tour, yet he's openly contemptuous of ring rats and prostitutes for their promiscuity.
  • He also physically threatened Shane McMahon for (unknowingly) goosing his wife. The same wife he cheated on as a matter of habit.
  • He also got into a fistfight with Shawn Michaels backstage after Shawn stated that Bret slept with Tammy "Sunny" Sytch.
• Enemy Mine: Michael Cole was such a huge Jerkass that Bret was more than happy to come to the aid of Jerry Lawler in putting him in his place.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Hart Foundation feuding with D Generation X in 1997.
• Face Heel Turn: After Wrestlemania 13.
  • And following his move to WCW, Bret would switch back and forth between Face and Heel until Goldberg's heel connected with his face.
• Finishing Move: The Sharpshooter.
  • Five Moves of Doom: A fan commentary on Bret's matches from the newsgroup rec.sport.pro-wrestling included this phrase, making Bret sort-of the Trope Namer.
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: At least in the United States after his Face Heel Turn in 1997. Overseas, he is more popular.
• Friend to All Children: Bret would always give his glasses to a lucky child sitting in the front row during his entrance.
• Handsome Lech: Subverted, in that he wanted to have a stable marriage with his wife, but he was always on the road.
  • According to his book, he's slept with many women during his first marriage and doesn't fault himself for his actions.
• Memetic Mutation:

Vince McMahon: I didn't screw Bret Hart. Bret screwed Bret..
Michael Buffer: Bret "Hitman" Clark.
Bret Hart: Who are you t-to... to doubt El Dandy?

• Montreal Screwjob: The target.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: See Wounded Gazelle Gambit below.
• Pet the Dog: Would frequently give out his Cool Shades to young fans at ringside.

Bobby Heenan: There he goes, buying fans again!

• • This is lampshaded by R-Truth, who borrows the shades to give to a kid, with the reasoning that it'd make him more popular and thus more likely to get a championship match.
• Playing Possum: One of Bret's trademark tropes.
• Popularity Power: Bret is really, really popular in Canada. So much to the point that during an infamous promo by Shawn Michaels at Montreal in 2005, when Bret's music played and it seemed like he was going to come out and confront Shawn, the crowd ERUPTED.
• Power Stable: The New Hart Foundation
• Precision F-Strike: Bret Hart's promo on the Raw before WrestleMania 13, after losing a steel cage match to Sid Vicious.

Bret Hart: If you don't like it, TOUGH SHIT!

• Real Life Writes the Plot / Shocking Swerve: The Montreal Screwjob.
• Real Men Wear Pink
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As Raw General Manager, to the point where he won't even give preferential treatment to The Hart Dynasty.
• Signature Move: You can be damn sure that if someone uses the Sharpshooter it is in some way related to Bret Hart, whether to taunt or show respect to the man.
  • Unless that someone is Sting, who's been using the move as a finisher for roughly the same length of time as Bret. When Sting does it it's called the "Scorpion Deathlock", but it's the same move.
• Ten-Minute Retirement: Averted. Following a concussion caused by an errant kick from Bill Goldberg, Bret was eventually forced to retire; the aftereffects of the concussion, combined with a stroke he suffered a few years later, has ensured that it will be practically impossible for Bret to ever wrestle again.
  • There's also the fact that he is legally incapable of stepping in a wrestling ring, due to him cashing in a insurance policy by Lloyds of London.
    • No one told him that. In early 2010, Bret got in the ring and took bumps from Batista and Vince McMahon. One presumes the capper to the McMahon/Hart feud will take place at Wrestlemania with a Street Fight (which doesn't require much wrestling).
    • Then in June 2010, Lloyds *did* complain about the physical work in his appearances, forcing him to leave WWE again.
  • Tonight, July 20, 2010. the last man announced by John Cena to be on the team to take on the Nexus.
• Unrelated Brothers: Subverted; pretty much anyone who was said to be a member of the Hart family actually was, be it by marriage or blood.
• What Could Have Been: WWE's critically-acclaimed Bret Hart DVD - Bret Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be - was originally going to be a Take That smearjob documentary called Screwed: The Bret Hart Story. Then Bret got personally involved in its production and made amends with Vince McMahon in 2006.
  • This is a rare example of what was being better than What Could Have Been, as what would have been a typical WWE character assassination of one of their persona non gratas (like what happened with The Ultimate Warrior) became a much more refreshing showcase of Bret's best matches. It all became about a great marriage rather than the nasty divorce.
    • One rumor says that Vince initially planned for the DVD to be as one-sided as possible so that Bret would get word of it and come back to WWE to ensure that it wasn't a smearjob.
  • Back when Michaels and Bret were friends. Bret was offered by Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the Kliq. What would have happened if he accepted is anyone's guess.
  • The WCW had planned on having Bret feud with Hulk Hogan. Even Vince McMahon would admit that would have been a kiss of death for the WWF had they followed through with it.
• Who's Laughing Now?: His win against Mr. McMahon at Wrestlemania XXVI.
• Worked Shoot: Despite all the abundant evidence to the contrary, some people are still insisting that the Montreal Screwjob was a work. It wasn't.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit / Batman Gambit: Bret puts a Gambit twist on his Playing Possum routine to screw with Vince McMahon.
• Wrestling Family: The Hart family.
• Wrestling Psychology: One of the masters.