• Tag Archives: Bret Hart

    This Or That (11/4/2014)

    Everybody loves binary decisions, especially wrestling fans! In This Or That, we’ve forced ourselves to choose between two options that relate to wrestling.

    Over four questions, @TimWelcomed, @JoeySplashwater and @TomBlargh will have to choose one of two options and give their reasoning on each of their choices. You can then vote on which one you’d choose, giving you the false impression that you’re somehow involved and we care about your opinion chance to join the conversation!

    Before we start, here’s last week‘s results:

    Better Frog Splash?

    Rob Van Dam – 74%, Eddie Guerrero – 26%

    Better Powerbomb?

    Sid – 76%, Kevin Nash – 24%

    Better Shooting Star Press?

    Paul London – 81%, Billy Kidman – 19%

    Better Superkick?

    Shawn Michaels – 57%, Young Bucks – 43%

    Which wrestling item would you rather have received at a show: The Rock’s elbow pad or Bret Hart’s sunglasses?

    Would you rather have had caught Rock’s elbow pad before he hit the People’s Elbow or have Bret Hart hand you his sunglasses when you were a kid?

    rock-bret

    Tim:

    Yeah, I want a smelly and sweaty elbow pad randomly thrown into the audience from a douchebag who is performing an overly dramatic and dumb elbow maneuver. Just kidding. I’m not a creepy lunatic after all. I want the cool wrestler who ends up being a bitter mess later on in his career to strap some cheap but really fucking shiny and pink sunglasses on my bulbous alien head.

    Bret Hart’s sunglasses

    Joey:

    As a kid, I despised Bret Hart and even I wanted those damn sunglasses. They were probably the coolest merch item in WWE history. Catching The Rock’s elbow pad would have been fun (and worth more on Ebay) but it would just be the luck of it falling to you. Bret actually picking you and putting it on your face would have been a memory for life. Give me the Hitman sunglasses. (Seriously. Someone send me a pair.)

    Bret Hart’s sunglasses

    Tom:

    Here’s the difference between Rock’s elbow pad and Bret’s sunglasses – when you catch the elbow pad, it’s a combination of reach, dumb luck and positioning. With Bret? He CHOOSES you. He picks you out as the number one kid in the crowd (or at least in the front row). Plus, you can wear them all around town afterwards whereas it’s difficult to tie an elbow pad into a snazzy outfit. Gimme dem sunglasses, boy.

    Bret Hart’s sunglasses

    [yop_poll id=”101″]

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    This Or That (3/25/2014)

    Everybody loves binary decisions, especially wrestling fans! In This Or That, we’ve forced ourselves to choose between two options that relate to wrestling.

    Over four questions, @TimWelcomed, @typicalROHfan and @TomBlackett will have to choose one of two options and give their reasoning on each of their choices. You can then vote on which one you’d choose, giving you the false impression that you’re somehow involved and we care about your opinion chance to join the conversation!

    Before we start, here’s last week‘s results:

    More exciting concept in wrestling?

    Tournaments – 79%, Battle royals – 21%

    Better defunct WWE title?

    Hardcore – 76%, European – 24%

    More likely to keep their TNA push for the rest of 2014?

    The Wolves – 79%, Tigre Uno – 21%

    Better dessert?

    Pudding – 64%, Jello – 36%

    Better historical Wrestlemania match: Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13 or Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock at Wrestlemania 18?

    Two of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time, which was better?

    rock-hogan-bret-austin

    Tim:

    I prefer the Steve Austin vs Bret Hart match and story the most out of these two choices. There are multiple things about Austin vs Hart at Wrestlemania 13 that make it stand out to me as historical for Wrestlemania. It sent Austin over the edge as a big star. It as a huge stepping stone in his career. It even created one of the most popular iconographic pictures in Wrestlemania history when Austin was bleeding and screaming trying to not tap to The Sharpshooter. We all remember that image and have seen the picture countless times. On top of that it was a great match.

    I think if it was the end of the Austin/Hart feud and had the crowd reaction of Rock vs Hogan it would be the perfect Wrestlemania match in a historical sense. However, it didn’t… and while The Rock vs Hogan wasn’t the greatest in-ring battle it had what I think makes a match on the biggest stage more historical. Two of the biggest names one-on-one, a crowd reaction like hardly any other, and it was the blow-off to the program between the two. It’s not my favorite but it’s definitely more historical.

    Hogan vs The Rock

    typicalROHfan:

    On some level, I feel like I should say Bret vs. Austin due to how impressive it was of a story. Not only great wrestling and brawling but it helped tilt Steve Austin into a more likeable character on the road to being arguably the most successful wrestling star ever and made Bret Hart a great villain. That being said, I’m going with Rock vs. Hogan.

    That match represented what Wrestlemania is in my eyes. The biggest stars. The hottest crowd. A complete spectacle of magical wrestling moments coming to life. Very few matches in the history of wrestling are as easy to watch at any moment as it stands the test of time. From the opening bell where the fans turn on Rock to the post match where Hogan turns face and both men celebrate beating up Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, it’s such a wonderful match.

    Hogan vs. Rock

    Tom:

    This is really a question of what matters most with a match – what comes before or what comes after. Rock / Hogan was really the ultimate example of a ‘final chapter’ match, acting as a cap on both of their careers. Sure, Rock had a couple of big matches afterwards with Brock and Austin, but nothing that was ever quite on the level of this match. For Hogan, it really was his last hurrah before plummeting into total self-parody.

    With Bret / Austin though, it’s all about what came after. The match itself is incredible but I always come out of it wanting to just bing-watch all the Raws that came after to follow how Bret and Stone Cold grew into their new roles. As satisfying as Rock and Hogan’s match was, I think wrestling’s most fun when it’s building towards something new, rather than just settling things.

    Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart

    [poll id=”70″]

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    The Merch Table: Halloween Special (Part 2)

    Wrestling companies make merchandise. It’s usually pretty bad, but sometimes, it’s terrible. Welcome to The Merch Table.

    Every week, @TomBlargh will look at some of the awful merch that someone expects you to buy. Up this week: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (PART 2).

    If you haven’t read last week’s Halloween Special, then you should probably get yourself up to date. Done that? Cool. Now bring on the terrible wrestling masks and costumes! LET’S GET STARTED.

    Bret Hart mask

    bret

    Here we have Bret Hart in mask form, looking more like a “40-year-old mother of three who had a really rough night” than Adam Cole ever could (and if you’re not familiar with that reference, here’s the appropriate scene from Kevin Steen’s Weekend Escapades to help fill you in):

    Anyway, yet another example of how the wrestling business screwed Bret. I’m surprised we didn’t see three chapters in his book dedicated to the ‘Halloween Mask Screwjob’.

    Kurt Angle TNA costume

    kurt-angle

    That’s a disturbingly accurate depiction of Kurt Angle’s face (i.e. INTENSELY CRAZY), but what’s up with that pose? Is that meant to be… like… an amateur wrestling stance? Is amateur wrestling all about standing with your legs really wide apart? Please reply ASAP, amateur wrestling fans (har har, just kidding, there’s no such thing as an amateur wrestling fan). Continue reading →