Throughout the history of wrestling, few wrestlers have been as consistent and decorated as Bret Hart, so when he defeated Chris Benoit on November 21, 1999 to win the vacant WCW World Heavyweight Championship on this day in wrestling history.
As far as in ring skill, few could match Bret Hart, but when it came to drawing power it’s been reported Bret wasn’t one of the best for a company to choose.
Overseas he drew great, but in the United States fans were still fixated on the image of larger wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and his drawing power was said to be diminished.
It took a few years, but Eric Bischoff admitted that was why he didn’t make Bret a top player in WCW in a twitter post on October 28, 2020.
Different view
Vince Russo had different ideas ass he set to work to build everything around Bret. Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the following excerpts.
“I had built the last three months around Bret. He was going to be the WCW Champion and everything was going to resolve around him. I felt secure with Bret as the champion. I knew that I could trust him and that he would never screw me behind my back regardless of what happened in Montreal a few years earlier. Bret was just a stand-up guy.” – Vince Russo, Rope Opera book, 11/21/1999.
While Bret was built up, he had stated that at his point he refused to be accused of taking the business too seriously again, but Russo and the fans believed in him so that when he made Benoit submit to the sharpshooter in Toronto, Canada it was like the world was set right again.
“Julie, my kids and my nephew Marek, Tom’s son with Michelle, all flew in for the big night in Toronto, where I was slated to win the WCW World title. I won my match with Sting after all kinds of hokey interference, then took on Chris Benoit in the final. Chris and I worked a good solid match, with me finally fighting off his crippler and slapping on the sharpshooter. Chris tapped out, I rolled off and Mickey Jay handed me the World title. Twenty thousand Toronto fans stood in one long, rousing cheer, wanting to believe that this moment really did mean something.
I held open the ropes as Julie, my kids, Marek and Wayne Gretzky’s kids all climbed into the ring to celebrate my sixth World title win. When I came back to the dressing room, Curt Hennig was there to greet me with a handshake.
“You’re the iron man, Hitman! I don’t know how you keep doing it!” – Bret Hart, Hitman book.
We wish things had worked out differently for Bret, but his first WCW world title and sixth overall was a great moment and showed that he could succeed outside of the WWE.
In the end, this day in wrestling history is one for the Hitman’s fans that never gave up and it was another feather in his cap from one of the best wrestlers in history.
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