Road Dogg says Bret wasn't a great wrestler

Lol

What blows my mind is how smarks don't really make internal sense - none of that is directed at you. NO ONE was talking about Bret Hart as anything near the world's top worker in 1984, when he had years of experience, when he wrestled Tiger Mask. His work didn't even approach Cobra's. He was kind of a nobody lost in a sea of giants. He had 7 years of experience, working regularly with the Dynamite Kid, whom Hart describes as the best wrestler to have ever lived (that's insane but just my view), so he had plenty of time to shine against Tiger Mask unless he was sick

Bret, to me, was not a great game-changer to WWF except in having his style as a main event guy that had marginal success. I never hated Hart but I stopped watching when he headlined for years, relegating WWF to '80s nostalgia, unless I heard that the Undertaker was involved in something different (Giant Gonzalez, Yokozuna, or his twin). Hart was only interesting insofar as McMahon made up a family myth that's so influential that even some wrestling historians think Stampede was a big territory when it was really a backwater. Though his background is anthropologically interesting on its face, I don't think McMahon would have concocted this myth without Hart's limitations. His family feuds gave him steam. His peaks and valleys came as his family did, with exception to Austin, and I think Austin got Bret Hart over, not the other way around.

None of that is to rag on what you like. I'm just thinking of this topic as a historian who can apply what I know to wrestling. Hart had his fans. I have always loved the Disney aspect of WWF of wrestlers dressed like Roman gladiators. As such, I find someone like the Ultimate Warrior much more entertaining. It's all subjective. There's no right or wrong to taste.

Road Dogg is kind of a loser, to be honest with you. He's a mediocre Memphis talent with a good voice and height who got over in a period when people wanted to see Howard Stern over anything substantive. The late '90s was a pretty dark period. I think more of the casuals wanted to watch Gillberg, the Oddities, Chyna, Sable, and Road Dogg than Ken Shamrock, Jeff Jarrett, and Big Boss Man. For no other reason were matches 4 minutes long. It made the show a coherent train wreck. When Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, and the Radicals all came within a 4 month period, people started to tune out, not because they were bad but because their style depended a greater attention span. Casuals didn't want to see that. That's a more radical view, but I think the Attitude Era's success depended on a pop culture moment when people wanted to see big stars on top in freak show matches juxtaposed with a popcorn undercard of skits and weird finishes. As such, I think the Attitude Era had three phases: 1995-97, 1998-2000, 2000-2001.

Road Dogg was a beneficiary of the short attention span looking for something edgy. I honestly can't remember a single good match the Outlaws ever had outside of the dumpster match (and that smoke and mirrors too). He went singles at some point. No one cared

In fairness, I don't think people should attack the messenger. Road Dogg is right or wrong on his own merits. I don't think he'd have a career without Memphis being subsidized by McMahon and the connections like Jarrett and Lawler who got him in. That's my suspicion. I can't prove that though