[1992-11-23-WWF-Primetime Wrestling] Bret Hart and Vince McMahon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

HAHAHAHAHA. Bret and Vince are sitting on the grass in a park, Vince wearing a teal windsuit with a giant purple collar and red shoulderpads, talking to Bret Hart, who is wearing blue and red cowboy boots, a leather jacket, stonewash jeans and a Babe Ruth t-shirt. That aside, they reminisce on some of the bigger moment in Bret's recent career. This was all about defining Bret as a champ. Vince gets in what may have been a subtle knock at Hogan and possibly Flair, saying Bret brings a new humility to the title.

[Tim Evans]

Plus Vince chuckles when Bret says he doesn't have "24 inch arms". Good long promo for the new champ and Vince's crazy outfit.

[shoe]

Good promo to get the Hitman character over. I would have not listed some of the people he beat though. He comes across as a fighting champion who fights stiffs.

[PeteF3]

Vince's outfit is something, but it doesn't hold a candle to what he had on in 1991. I probably would have found this segment intolerable watching at the time, but Bret is very good in this setting.

[WingedEagle]

Best friends sitting in the grass talking Survivor Series. Loss really covered it all -- these outfits and the setting are just fantastic to watch 20 years later. They talk about losing at Summerslam and then wining the title in Saskatoon. Hart says he's the best technical wrestler when asked to compare himself to prior champs. At least a solid effort to push him heading into the PPV.

[garretta]

This interview spells out for those who don't already know that the Hulkamania era is (at least for the moment) over, and not just a new champion, but a new type of champion, is the order of the day in the WWF. Bret makes sure to say several times that he's the best wrestler in the WWF, and it sure seems at this time like Vince is truly ready to change the foundation of the WWF entirely. Of course, that plan goes up in flames a few months later, but that sad story is for another day.

 

Bret's able to ptoject heartfelt humility here without being all "gee, golly, gosh" in the way that Backlund, the last WWF champ in this mold, was. He's more like Bruno without Bruno's strength and size, a blue-collar champion who will fight hard at all times and take on all comers because that's what he believes a champion should do. He pays respect to those who have gone before, but wants to forge his own legacy. This really is a refreshing change from the elevated volume and schtick of the previous champions the younger McMahon has given the public all the way back to the Iron Sheik. (Remember, he inherited Backlund from Senior.)

 

I like the tease of anther match against Davey Boy, and it's a shame that we'll have to wait over three years for it, by which time Davey's physically shot in more ways than one.

 

Hearing Bret compliment Shawn in the wake of what would happen between them five years later is a bit strange, but let's remember that neither one of them is where they would be at that time. Bret's closer than Shawn, since the HBK character isn't even close to firing on all cyllinders yet, although what we've seen so far is promising.

 

Interesting that Vince mentions Hogan by name when he's still a few months from returning. I wonder what plans he had for Hogan at the time. I guess he was still clinging to the idea of Hogan as the Andre-like attraction who would draw fans in to see Bret defend the title.

 

Vince really pushes the idea that Bret could make a mistake and lose at Survivor Series, which is another welcome change from the recent past. In the new WWF, even the purest of heroes, such as Bret, are still human and subject to mistakes like everyone else. Put another way, I don't think we'll hear Vince call Bret immortal any time soon.