The fact they didn’t know what to do with Bret Hart is insane.

There was no better story teller. Ever. When Bret recognized the potential in Austin, when he was still in Wcw as Stunning Steve, and told McMahon to bring him in, and the story Bret went on to tell with Austin, coupled with Austin’s innate talent, made 3:16’s career. When he saw the massive potential in Rock, he gave the Rock a chance, and protected him from all the backstage bullying, to the point that even till now while doing media for a movie, the Rock spots the interviewer wearing a Bret Hart shirt, and immediately stops and speaks about his love and respect for Bret. When he gave the Kid a chance by giving him a match that people started seeing the potential in Waltman! He still talks about it today. When he told Vince that he’d drop the IC title to Bulldog at Wembley, knowing that it would be a match that cemented his path to the main title. I remember he asked Vince if he wants to know the finish since Bret and Bulldog were closing the show, and Vince said, “surprise me”, and they gave them the best show of the night despite the fact that Bulldog had been on a crack binge, and told Bret he can’t remember anything of the match prior to their match. Bret told him to calm down and that he’d call the spots in the ring, and what a dam match he tailored! They put on a clinic. Bret could make careers, he was such an amazing storyteller. I loved that he wasn’t over the top, that he knew how to take his time, work the crowd bit by bit. Loved that he gave a shit about other talent. Michaels was magic in the ring, but it always about him. He couldn’t coach shit back then, or recognise potential. Bret made wrestlers by working with them and allowing their talent to shine through while holding his own. Dam the 90s was a great time in Wrestling.

WCW didn't care about having Bret Hart, they just wanted WWF to not have him.

The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be. The more time that goes by the more accurate that statement becomes.

JR should transition into a role as the James Lipton of wrestling, from Inside the Actors Studio. He has the same soothing tone and he is very respectful.

I love these old stories. Gonna be sad when itheyre all gone. ☹️

Bret Hart is a worker. Just give him a belt and 20 minutes of TV time to defend it and he gets over. Simple as that. There were too many quality wrestlers in WCW that could have been put in the ring against Bret and they would have had phenomenal matches.

Two honorable, great men on this clip. One on each side of the mic in Bret and JR

Owen is the first wrestler that passed away that legit broke my heart! It was like I knew him or something. Bret is my all time favorite but Owen was right there with him. I use to joke that Bret was responsible for Stone Cold's legs and Owen his neck. Those Hart boys put work on that dude! 😁

I cant believe i jus heard jim ross do a Stu hart impression lol

Wrestling had something back then that can't ever happen again. Bret's the best wrestler I ever saw, the match with Austin, the cage match with Owen and the match with Davey boy at summerslam. He brought something out of his opponents that they couldn't do with other opponents. Another thing is back then all those guys came from territories, they all had different styles and movesets, today's they all wrestle the same because they all come from the same place. Also Ross is right about the eraser, Bruno was not recognized for his part in the company Vince inherited because Vince brought in the roided out freaks and sexual deviants.

I love JR’s story of any talent wanting to talk to Vince & he gave them this advice “ converse don’t confront, only confront if your ready to leave because he can live without you” man that’s oldschool honesty, people today need this

No point in regretting that. I think it was Nash who said "we didn't go down there because we were going to do great work. It was the paycheck". As long as the checks cleared. He got what he wanted. Far as being used correctly goes. I thought he was doing his best work when he left the WWF. To me that storyline being aborted was a bigger loss than the numerous "what ifs" that surrounds the wcw run. I would have liked to have seen Bret go full on heel. Take the anti American gimmick so far even Owen considers it too much. Restarting their feud with Owen as the babyface.

Well if we listen to 83 weeks we know that the landscape of WCW post '97 was suppose to be a little difference than what we got. The original plan was for Thunder to be the WCW show and Bret would headline that. Since that plan changed, it basically put Bret in purgatory and yes, at that point there wasn't much direction.

I get really sad when I think of how many great storylines and matches Owen had ahead of him. Death can be incredibly unfair.

JR's Stu Hart impression was spot on!

JR and Owen locking up in silence as their way of greeting each other is hilarious and beautiful

It’s always interesting whenever they bring up the “WCW would never know what to do with Bret,” and then you look at how the WWF booked him as champion, both World and IC, and you look at what the plans were for Bret in 1998 WWF, where he’d be losing to Shawn and Austin, and McMahon had no definitive plans beyond that, so honestly staying wouldn’t have been much better.

Could you imagine the heat WCW would've had had they booked Bret to either win or attack the WCW champ the night of his debut and call out Shawn, etc. Eyes were on them because of Montreal and they failed to capitalize. Maybe he could have borrowed Flair's old line calling himself the real world champion when he entered the WWF. Obviously didn't have the belt but to use the title.

just think for tag team Mr Perfect and Owen Hart that would been bad ass

My respect for Bret grows as each yr that passes. Shawn will always be my personal favorite but Bret was amazing. P.s Sammy Zane is a dork (back in the day wrestlers were cool dudes. Sammy is the opposite of "cool")

Bret is in my top 3. The first character I always try to unlock

Damn you Goldberg, damn you 🔥

Bret was back when wrestling was wrestling, finishers finished and wrestling wasn’t just a dueling high spot contest between two gymnasts.

Man I love this segment!!! Bret is my childhood hero and the best of the best!! The best part was Owen, and Kurt! I love the Perfect vs Hitman matches! Owen was amazing, just like Tom (Dynamite Kid) Billington, Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit. Man the technical wrestlers will always be the best in my opinion. Not only as a wrestler, but a fan as well

I would've love to have seen Owen and JR. lockup. That is funny as hell.

I still think the way Martha and her children honored Owen is a quality way to honour him. I can understand their stance here whether it is what I want as a fan or not

Bret should have gone to NJPW but WCW wasted his talent and so many others. Exactly bret hart was a pro wrestler not a showman. His matches were classic.

I still enjoyed his matches in WCW he was more aggressive , I think that style for him started towards the end of his WWE career.

It’s crazy. WCW could of literally claimed to have the 2 best wrestlers under their banner. Their current champion... and the WWF champion that was cheated. They could of put Bret on a winning streak, constantly telling the viewer that he was still the champion as he wasn’t beaten in WWF. Whilst finishing off all storylines with their own title (Hogan v Sting). They didn’t have to then pit Bret vs Sting against each other. They could still of worked towards Goldberg. But keep Bret winning. Eventually leading to Champion vs Champion. They literally could of claimed to have the undisputed Heavyweight champion. Bret had to be a baby face arriving at WCW. He’d just been screwed. I do accept Bret was in a dark place due to the screw job and should of been more “up for it” in WCW. But surely it was Bischoff’s job to help Bret get out of that slump. Bret could of lead the next generation of WCW wrestlers. Jericho. Benoit. Eddie. Boy did WCW drop the ball.

I saw Bret vs Perfect in Hershey.They went at least 30 minutes and it was phenomenal.

I'm gonna be totally honest and I mean this. Bret was always my favorite. I'm not gonna lie I did like Hogan and Savage and Piper too but Bret was just in another league even when those said guys were around. It really pisses me off to this day how Vince and WCW did him. In Vince's case he just used Bret as the champ when it was convenient. After Hogan left Bret should have been The Man hands down no question. That horsehit at Wrestlmania 9 still burns my ass! In WCW's case they were just mismanaged and had no fucking clue what to do with anybody that wasnt Hogan and NWO. Just really shitty all around!

The way he worked you over the whole time was art

Ultimately Bret Hart heart and loyalty was still intact with the WWF/WWE if that make sense it's the only thing you can rationalize that situation with WCW...

Bret Hart was the best.

Love when they imitate Stu!

After watching interviews from Martha, Oje and Christie in the Dark Side of the Ring about Owen's final days, I don't blame them for wanting nothing to do with WWF/WWE.

1. Because of Hogan 2. Because Bret never changed from his WWE persona and refused to wear NWO colors when he was in the NWO.

Owen versus Bret matches for two men going against one another with a variation of the exact same kind of mastery, you will never see anything like it again.

Love Brett's respect for Curt Hennig. Him and Curt are my 2 all-time favs

One of the biggest problems in wrestling today is that every wrestler wants to be Hbk , but no one wants to be Bret Hart .

I side with Owen's family, WWE did a lot of bullshit trying to protect their mistake in killing Owen. I wish Bret would take a step back and realize that and just have no comment over it opposed to disagreeing with his sister-in-law.

WCW killed Bret hart. Had he stayed he would've been wrestling till 2007

You would have the shuffle things up, but you could have Hart go up against Hogan and form a Canadian stable that goes against NWO. Then once that played itself out you can break the Canadian Stable up and have Hart go against the former members. Instead they had Hart wrestle for the WCW United Aging Stars Title.

Jesus Christ Conrad, how many goddamn ads are you gunna do?

It all came down to Vince wanting Shawn, his boy toy, over Bret 🤷‍♂️

That’s true about wcw not knowing how to use him, but wwf didn’t know what to do with him neither. He was just a great wrestler in the wrong era, he didn’t t fit in with the attitude era

i allways had the dream that wcw and wwf do a big event together. champions of both companies vs each other etc.stuff like that.to bad tehy never did that

why is jrs voice sped up

He could of had a 3-5 star match everytime if they put him with decent people. He did have some good WCW matches they was just so short. Him and Benoit wrestled once on thunder for 10 minutes

Honestly....if they couldve afforded to pay him....I honestly think he would've fit better in ECW than he did in WCW. Would've been nice seeing him feud with Shane Douglas,or Taz or sabu,or RVD....bam bam was there....Jerry Lynn.....I think he really would've had some great matches there. Could've even took ECW to new heights....they'd still be in business today

There was so many matches and so many stories that were lost because of Hogan, Hall, Nash and Bischoff holding everyone back and keeping themselves on top. Bret Hart just blames Bischoff when he should look at those guys too. I have zero respect for Hogan and Nash.

Stu Hart used an eraser on his cats !

I wish Brett could stayed wwe I remember WWF watching him I was upset when he left and was like come on. And I really never got see him again after that screw job

Brett has integrity.

Imagine JR and Owen hart seeing each other and BOOM 💥…. It’s on sight 🤼‍♂️ 😂😂lmao

Hogan top heel, Sting top face. It was a bit tricky to insert another starting QB in the mix. That said, great opportunity for 3 way cage matches, Hulk or Sting could have taken a hiatus... there were a lot of creative opportunities if people tried.

If I have to hear the 'Eraser' story one more time, I'm gonna bash my head in.

Hart vs Austin wm 14 with Tyson would have been the better match

The Eraser, the Bald Spot from The Hulkster

Yeah but the problem was that Bret had all of the problems that he brought with him having had worked with Vince McMahon and having been screwed by Vince McMahon and having lost a brother live will television and having the company not really do the right thing about it either He came WCW and they didn't have anything for him to at that time and because of that he didn't really put any effort into it every one that has said and there on record he would show up to the arenas that they were doing a pay per view or doing nightro he would show up 45 minutes before show time and literally come in and say what do you want me to do and then he would do the match that he would leave he really didn't put any effort into it because he had issues and he didn't really believe in the company at ultimately when he got the concussions from wrestling Goldberg that was his way out because he really wasn't getting paid as much as when he was in WWE but it was enough to put of the bank and save some for retirement because he wasn't going to be wrestling for too many more years and ultimately when he left the company he walked away from wrestling in general

Conrad the mortgage guy.. He wears a magic hat... And when he sees, a lost alumni.. He says hes aving that. (Read that like a british footie chant and it works)

Funny how they boosted Hall and Nash’s prominence 100% but shit the bed on Bret.

WCW should have kept Bret Hart babyface and had him work with Hogan.

Good He's Fuckin' Right About The Expendability Of A Wrestler's Contract And All Of That Stuff Compared To Back Then!!!!😮🙁

8:23 “...never saw him have a bad match?” Ask Austin about that.

The quality matches we could've got with Bret vs Booker, Jericho, Eddie in WCW... It pissed me off how much WCW fucked it all up.

He was forced to go there for millions

Everyone involved in WCW says they weren't used right. Bret got 3 mil a year and he still wouldn't shut the hell up about how he was screwed by Bishoff and McMahon.

He's the GOAT 🐐

WCW should of had more shows in Canada 🇨🇦 once Bret came over

WCW misused a lot of great guys. I loved the cruiserweight matches that kicked off Nitro. But those guys never, ever got to mingle with the big guys. The sole exception that I can think of is Kidman doing a program with Hogan. Jericho, Guerrero, Mysterio... all went on to become legends in the WWE.

what vince said was true they didn't know what to do with him

Brett literally made no impact by going to WCW. The only impact he had was the Montreal screwjob

Imagine if Bret went to ECW instead of WCW. THE HITMAN TAKES IT TO THE EXTREME!

Owen never had a bad match? I think Steve Austin may disagree.

Bret hart was never the problem even in the Wwe or Wwf during his title runs .. it was the booking and wwe terrible gimmicks before the attitude era ! He made so many people look better than they were

I love The Hitman.

Everyone knew WCW was very poorly managed which is why all their best wrestlers went to wwf

Since day 1 you the wrestler had to bring your reccomendation for angles to management. If Bret had one single good idea WcW would have jumped at it. He was still wrestlin like it was 1991. He did not evolve and died because of it.

I thought from day 1 Brett should have worked a heal to feud with Sting in the battle of the Sharpshooter vs the Scorpion Death Lock in which Brett would insist he licks his hold on better, and then Brett could have picked on Sting’s appearance with many references to Halloween but that both wrestlers might have worked very well together and could have complimented each other very well in the ring. I never understood how WCW could missed it, but then again they screwed up the entire NWO thing after it reached an epic they should have continued with but they showed that they did not know what to do and they screwed it up. Also, why did Bill Goldberg’s streak have to break? And why was every show so badly organized? How in the world can a wrestling organization with so much talent fail so miserably? How did those morons not schedule angles and matches and skirmishes better?

The comments saying that Bret Hart was to boring to get over in WCW, is just BS. Bret Hart was hot and if you have a guy who was just screwed over by the company he loved, you have a big story line with anyone. Sting, Fair, Nash, any one would of done big ratings and have great matches. Hogan was main culprit in holding back Bret Hart because Hogan only saw Bret Hart as a Intercontinental title or USA title guy. Hogan didn't see Bret Hart as main eventer and Eric Bischoff was so influence by Hogan, that instead of creating something for Bret to do, he put him in the nwo and then put Bret in the dog house. Eric Bischoff said that Bret Hart was done when his Brother Owen died but I think Bret would of wanted to put Vince and the WWE out of business because of this. Eric Bischoff paid big money for Bret to sit around and do nothing, but Bret is worker , loves to wrestle and you don't use him to build story lines. Eric Bischoff can say that Bret Hart was half himself in WCW, but it was the lack of company direction that killed WCW and Bret Hart. Hogan and Eric were the dumbest people in wrestling. Bret did wrestle some good matches but they were put together so poorly, and the only match that was great was Owen Hart tribute match versus Chris Benoit.

Bret would've been a top star back in late 80's early 90's wcw.

Amazing how WCW wasted the tenures of some of the best technical wrestlers to ever grace the business. Bret, stone cold, all the cruiserweights. I have my qualms with WWE, but at least they gave us those matches back in the day

Erryone appreciate that you got to grow up watch 90s wrestling and not the dogshit crap today

Wcw's biggest problem was Hogan having creative control. If not, a lot of great matches and title reigns would have happened and WWE might not be around today. But nore would wcw regardless. So Hogan is to thank for WWE winning the Monday night wars and still being around today.

Unfortunately, the culture at WCW was not a place where an accomplished pro wrestler like Bret Hart could succeed. During the Monday Night Wars, WCW only had higher ratings that WWE for a short period of time. WWE adapted to peaks and valleys much better than WCW ever could because it was run by "more competent executives" than WCW had. Jerry Brisco and Pat Patterson complemented Vince McMahon perfectly, and all three of them worked like a fine tuned machine. In addition, Vince McMahon was more involved in his wrestling promotion than Ted Turner was in WCW. Not surprisingly, in 1999, following Kevin Nash's "Finger Poke of Doom", WCW's ratings began to decline, and by March of 2001, WCW was sold to Vince McMahon.

Bret Hart is the goat. Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Eric Bischoff and WCW were the shits.

WWF wasn’t perfect in this regard either. WWF didn’t know what to do with The Giant.

I always hate Bret's defense of "I was forced to go there." No one pointed a gun to his head and said that he had to go to WCW. I know that Vince couldn't honor the deal they had but you mean to tell me that Vince wouldn't try to negotiate SOMETHING to keep him on if Bret wanted to stay so bad? It's why I can't stand Hall and Nash saying the same thing. There's nothing wrong with admitting that you wanted the money. Just say you wanted the money, instead of making it sound like you went to WCW kicking and screaming.

Vince McMahon was right about one thing WCW and Eric bischoff wouldn't know what to do with Bret Hart

Was it because they just focused on wwf and wanting to score points and shots and take any talent they could off wwe without a plan first???

Brett has defined his legacy not as the best in ring technician but as the whiniest crybaby that ever laced up boots. It's not that management didn't know how to utilize him, it's that his ego and presumed creative control stood in the way of bringing his talents to both the audience and his fellow wrestlers.

Bret thinks too much of himself but he was a bad fit for what WCW was doing with the constant run-ins, its dozens of stables, and a reliance on the stale nWo faction. Bret is instead the kind of guy who builds a story. He'll set it up in the promo. Let's say he''s fighting Billy Kidman. He would have begun it by talking up Kidman's speed. Then they'll do maybe a face to face where Bret seemingly can't keep up with the younger star. Then when they get in the ring they begin with Kidman running circles around him before Bret is finally able to counter that speed and close out the match. Best part is that Kidman looks like he could have had Hart on a better day. (And I just realize that I unintentionally almost described his match with 123 Kid.) But instead we get interference finishes with the Flock or some other weak, last-minute booking.

bret left wwe for wcw for money. end of story. its his own fault for not seeing how packed wcw was and how they treated their roster and figuring out how he could fit in there before joining them. he chose not to, all he saw was dollar signs, he says himself he didnt want to leave wwe and knew from the start wcw werent going to use him as he wanted to be used. i actually just started a new game of EWR (wrestling sim) and started a 1998 mod and honestly i have no plans for bret either.

I believe Bischoff on this one. If bret so bitter about the screwjob now even after making "peace" with it, i cant even imagine being around him in 98

When they signed Brett, that should end the nwo , they should have focus more on the wrestling by letting him go over Hogan,flair and then letting him have the big show down with Goldberg.

Brett Hart was a technical wrestler. His promos were emotionless and monotone. Some of this is on Brett!

The Hitman is the ome TRUE GOAT!

kenny omega is canadian too still the best in the world in aew for so long !!!