[1993-12-18-WWF-Superstars] Interview: Bret Hart

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is outstanding, and is really an essential promo to watch when recapping Bret's career. It's low key, it's not clever and the words don't always come to him easily, but it's so believable that it connects. Here, Vince asks Bret about Owen's challenge and Bret says under no circumstances would he ever step in the ring against his own brother.

[Kevin Ridge]

Bret thinks Owen is mixed up right now and that things are going to tear the family apart. He does not think he was favored in the family growing up. Vince runs off Bret's accomplishments and how they effect Owen with living in the shadow. Bret refuses to wrestle Owen in a one on one match. There is no circumstance that he will ever face Owen in a match.

[PeteF3]

Another excellent segment--the best kind of "shades of grey," at this point, as both guys make sense while being on opposite sides.

 

This adds some perspective to the "Superstar of the Year" thing which had us a little puzzled. It seems now like it was something else to add to the Bret/Owen split as much as it was a so-called final decision to go with Bret as the company ace. (Yokozuna still deserved it, objectively).

[garretta]

Anyone who says that Bret isn't a good promo should watch this. If there's anyone who doesn't feel bad for Bret after watching this, their hearts are made of stone.

 

I especially liked the way he emphatically turned down Owen's challenge in spite of the fact that it meant that he was in a way going back on his promise to take on anyoime at any time. He didn't equivocate or waffle; he simply said that there are certain things he won't do, and fighting his own brother is one of them. He has to know that Owen's going to interpret that as cowardice, that maybe Vince (as the interviewer here) already does, but he won't change his mind for only that reason. He also refuses to get into an accomplishment-checking contest; he wants to end what he sees as nothing more than a pissing contest before it does irreparable damage to their family.

 

Vince asks the tough questions, but until the last one about whether Bret will wrestle Owen, he really doesn't hold Bret's feet to the fire. This is another thing that Owen can hold against Bret; Vince grilled Owen all over the place and demeaned him by saying that he was Bret's brother and living in Bret's shadow, while he allowed Bret to say whatever he wanted. Bret's interview even got two more minutes of airtime than Owen's did. I don't think that stuff like that was ever brought up in the feud, but it certainly could have been, which is a nice touch of seemingly insignificant detail on Vince's part. The setup for this has been so subtle and layered that it's hard to believe it's coming from the WWF.

 

There's only one small thing wrong: Vince's jacket. It looks like he raided the bag of clothes that Linda was going to give to Goodwill just to rescue it for this interview. Couldn't he have just worn his announcer's blazer, since this was meant to be on camera?

 

One other thing I just thought of: Eliminated wrestlers never celebrated with their victorious teammates at Survivor Series before that I know of. I understand why they made it an issue here, though.

[soup23]

Awesome promo of Vince catching up with Bret after a workout. Bret explains his side of the story and what all is going on and it is all very believable. I firmly believe that the Owen vs Bret feud was tremendous in the early going of late 93 thru WrestleMania and then petered out from there when more individuals got involved.