Road Dogg says Bret wasn't a great wrestler

Bret Hart was a really mediocre babyface ace. Having fire is arguably the very top trait of a face. I thought Bret Hart was flat, with mediocre fire, and didn't do great character work. Without Hart's family by sheer happenstance being on the roster, no one would have thought of him as a top act since the only thing that's interesting about Hart is his family drama. Vince McMahon's genius was to build an entire mythology around that dynamic, insert family members, then create heat from there. 

Does that mean Bret was great? No. When you look back at his run, he tended to peter out fast, the company unable to figure out what to do with him. Even when he had his very best character run in 1997, he still petered out in a few months. That's almost unprecedented for any ace the company ever had. 

A lot of smarks give Bret Hart credit for getting Austin over, but the construct on which it is based is functionally illiterate. Austin was already over before their match at the Survivor Series. His gun storyline with Brian Pillman was the talk of the school that otherwise wasn't talking about wrestling. Black kids were largely WCW fans and they were huge on Austin. That was in 1996. Austin had gangster creds 

It should strike people as significant that WWF heavily marketed Bret Hart from 1996 into 1997 as a living legend. Fans roundly rejected that because no one believed it. This is a guy who was less over than Shawn Michaels, Diesel, and the Undertaker at the start of 1996 when business was picking up suddenly, and he was the champion. Even Hart concedes that on that same month, his match with the Undertaker sucked; and it did. Thousands walked out of Anaheim during his Iron Man match.

So what gives? Hart failed up into his position. The Bulldogs did not want to drop the belts to anyone but the Hart Foundation. Check. He was pushed twice as a face and both failed. Then he started to get over as a "fighting champion" in 1991. Even then, was he even a top 8 act in the company? Business declined when he was on top after being given the title in a crisis period of a roster vacuum.  WWF pulled the belt from his almost immediately at Wrestlemania IX, though there were reasons for that.  Then he's suck in a silly feud with Lawler. He did get more over than Lex Luger in 1994, but that's not really a feat. Luger might be the most apathetic meathead face I've ever seen pushed seriously over and over again. Owen revived his career for a few months, then they went with Diesel, which was unprecedented given his lack of experience. He thrived in a position where many would have and did crack. Hart was stuck in the midcard since they couldn't book him without his family. No one accepted him as a top guy in 1996, then rejected him later that year.  The Hart Foundation did revive him, but, like always, only for a few months, until be was heatless in the Fall, where he blamed Shawn Michaels.

Eric Bischoff, for whom I have no respect, got chastised for saying that Bret Hart was boring. Here's the thing. Take from Bret his family drama and WWF's genius marketing, and with what are you left? You're left with a boring guy. He was aged by then but not significantly so. He was only about 40 - close to retirement age but plenty of punch left. 

The big mystery is why McMahon pushed him to begin with. I think McMahon liked Hart for three reasons. First, his background is exotic, especially in that period. Second, McMahon saw him as a very masculine, rugged guy of the Canadian mountains of Alberta, who chose women over drugs. Third - this is the biggest - Bret Hart was easily manipulated since he has abandonment issues with his dad. Vince McMahon was his substitute father. Bret accepted that since his worldview is so driven by this. How else do you get one who was warned in advance that he might get screwed at the Survivor Series to trust, in spite of his paranoia, that Daddy McMahon would never backstab him?

On that note, smarks screwed up the Survivor Series too. Bret wedged a negotiation deal to extort massive amounts of money, risking main event talent inflation, then calling himself "loyal." The loyal ones were the front office people who stayed with a massive payout. Bret acted like a mercenary. That's cool. It's the free market. But let's not call that an act of loyalty because it's not. Then he made an absurd demand to sandbag an A-show PPV, heavily promoted, to drop the title on a B-show PPV that, year to year, is the poorest selling of the calendar year. His demand not to job was absurd on its face. 

I got a lot of views about the Screwjob that are complex and multi-faceted. The gist is that McMahon was never going to honor his absurd contract but that McMahon kept the title on him so that Bret could get a sweet retirement package from WCW anyway, which is what ended up happening. That said, I think McMahon walked in that day thinking he could do a viable negotiation. It failed. Then went to Plan B to get the title off of him. Bret was too short-sighted to see that. 

To be noted, I don't hate Bret Hart. I just don't see him as an all time great. He worked a lot with people like Bulldog, Owen, and had a great back story. As a babyface ace, he was bottom tier of those viable to carry the company. He wasn't really a draw except for a very brief time. Prior to his run in the World Wrestling Federation, no one thought of him as a budding great worker. That was all WWF marketing. I could easily name 20 people of that period who were better. I think his matches with outsiders were less than impressive. I think Austin got over on his character work alone and that the storyline foil GOT BRET HART OVER, not the other way around since the dynamic challenged Hart's character in a way that was organic to him and organic to an audience that didn't see him as a top guy.


1996-1997 WWF had a lot of new fans, despite what the ratings say. Attendance increased substantially. A lot of the new paying audience didn't see Bret as a top guy because he wasn't. You see a similar dynamic when the Road Warriors battled the Steiners in 1996 at Winston Salem on Nitro. The Steiners got booed. Weird since Winston Salem was a historic WCW base. That just tells me that WCW had a lot of new fans who weren't watching in 1991 and that the Road Warriors, to them, were WWF guys. 

Bret is the greatest of all time.

Road Dogg was a bad wrestler who was good on the mic, he was completely carried by Billy. I love the Outlaws but any RD match without Billy is completely not worth my time. I'll be watching and rewatching Bret's body of work until I'm in the grave. People who say that Bret wasn't good on the mic need to rewatch his stuff from 97-through wcw.

Road Dogg was horrible in the ring, had a less marketable look for a wrestler than Scott Armstrong and his only success as a solo act was being a singing cowboy.

I am glad someone else thinks like me. Always thought of him as a 3rd string wrestler at best. And for him to comment on Bret's talent, is a joke

The insults aimed at Road Dogg are unnecessary. He has every right to voice his opinion on a fellow wrestler, just like every fan around the world has the right to voice their own opinions.

Road Dogg was a poor wrestler but at least he has competed in a ring. For years fans sitting at home who have never wrestled a match in their lives have claimed that Cena, Roman etc can't wrestle. 

There's SOOO much missing context that I hope people read the article (specifically the above) and not actually just the title. Hart was a better wrestler/work. RDJJ even admits that, multiple times...RDJJ says he was a better sports entertainer...which is entirely true. This is no different the Hulk Hogan sayin "Ric Flair was a better wrestler, but Im a better sports entertainer"....Bret didnt have crowds singing/humming his theme song. He didnt have people saying/singing along with him his quote any time he was on the mic. There's nothing wrong with what Bret was...There's nothing wrong with what RoadDog was. They're different but its Apples to Oranges too.

I don't think people are having too much of a problem with Road Dogg saying he was a better sports entertainer than Bret or better on the mic than Bret, it's mainly him saying that Bret Hart was not a great wrestler. And that he does not clarify what he means by "Wrestler". Most people equate "Wrestler" with in-ring work, not the character or the mic work. Also, the part about Bret not having the crowds singing/humming along with his theme song, or parroting what he said on the mic, is misleading. Back in the 80s and most of the 90s, no one else had that either. The chanting along with wrestlers on the mic and loudly singing/humming their entrance song really came about at the end of the attitude era into the ruthless aggression era. I mean, the fans of today do that with everyone, they used to loudly hum along to Fandango's and Emma's music, that doesn't make a great wrestler. 

Reading Bret's book again earlier this year made me re-think his career and legacy. He never really went many places or experienced much of the wrestling world. He worked for his Dad, then he worked for Vince. With a couple of short trips along the way, usually on the back of Dynamite. He wasn't the constant traveler of an NWA champion. He didn't carry multiple territories. He didn't have to win the respect of multiple bosses. Almost sheltered. 

He's still one of my childhood heroes and I think his work holds up. Miles better than Road Dogg. Part of Sports Entertainment is drama. Road Dogg couldn't do that. Bret could.