[CaptainCrunch]

I thought I would try something new that a billion people have done before. But I'm a fan of Wrestling. Sort of. I'll be the first to admit that I really am not a fan of the modern WWE or AEW for example. The style has moved away from story telling, and psychology and technical skills and moved more over to a era of trampoline gymnastics, and getting all of your Sh%t in to use a Jim Cornette term.

So I have to ask the question at this time. Who's on my Mount Rushmore? Its a tough question as there have been thousands of wrestlers, and even the list of the true giants of the game is long and distinguished. How do I separate them out.

There are a lot of factors that wrestlers talk about when they talk about their top guys. Did they draw money. Could they tell a great story, Did they work well with their partners, or did they carry a shovel around to protect their position?

I mean its easy to build a Mount Rushmore for me with Flair and Hogan on it, but that just wouldn't be me, and I'll cover it later.

So, without further ado, and these aren't ranked in any way. I'll leave my virtual stone mason's and dynamiters to put the heads where they belong.


Today is part one, I'll go through all four in the week or so, and also throw up a side discussion on those that I didn't select as there should be some controversy.


1) Bret Hart




Now yeah, I have a bias. But out of all the wrestlers on the last lets say 50 or 60 years Bret was unique. He was extremely well rounded. He could work anykind of match. He was incredibly safe while working snug. He did draw during his championship reigns and helped expand the WWE's precence outside of the North American Market. Most importantly he was that guy who was good as a face and really good as a heel. He's under rated in a lot of key areas as well.

So, what makes Bret great? When he arrived in the WWE in the 80’s from a stint in his Dad’s territory Bret was seen as a capable but very bland, territory Babyface. He was more enhancement talent then he was even a mid rank talent. In fact at one point Vince wanted him to be Cowboy Bret Hart and ride a horse to the ring. I was excited when he got to the WWE, until I saw him basically fighting mid card players and losing.






That all changed when Vince decided that he had nothing for Bret teamed him with Jim “Anvil” Neidhart and gave them Jimmy Hart as a manager. Even then Vince was convinced that Jim was going to be the eventual break out star due to Anvil’s personality and size.



But a funny thing happened. Bret used his technical skills to stand out, and he actually worked as a natural heel. Of course he was still stilted and awkward on the mic.


So why is this guy on my mountain? Because unlike a lot of wrestlers, Bret’s improvement was through the roof, and he also became great at the small details. Go back and watch any match and watch Bret’s face. He’s amazing at selling a match with more then just moves. Then watch him work. His stuff had a realistic look to it. It looked like his moves hurt, and frankly other wrestlers said that Bret liked to work very snug (hard hitting) but he never took liberties, and didn’t hurt wrestlers. I love that style, I want a realistic edge to my wrestling, and I’m not talking about blood fests like ECW. I like the escapism of wrestling and being able to pretend that the wrestlers hate each other and want to beat people up. Bret makes you feel that.
Here’s another thing that puts Bret on the mountain. Everyone that Bret works with he elevates or makes them look like a million dollars. Look at the Tom Magee match.








Now anyone that watched Tom MaGee when he was in Stampede wrestling knew one thing. He was awful, stilted clumsy and barely mobile. Bret made him look like a million bucks.





Stone Cold has said many times that he owes his career to Bret and you watch the matches and feuds and Stone Cold while awesome looked like a Killer and the double heel turn shot Stone Cold to the top of the Wrestling game.






The 1-2-3 kid, he made a skinny lower mid carder look like a million bucks.






(go to 7 minutes to see that attention to detail)


Well, what about Drawing power. Did Bret Hart draw. There are arguments on both sides of the equation. However, it’s a unique discussion because Bret moved into the top spot in the company during what could be a rebuild period. Hogan was gone, Flair was gone from WWE, The WWE was focused on rebuilding its upper card. But Bret drew decent money. For example if you look at the Rumble in 1993, one of the first PPV’s not built around Hogan, but around Bret it drew 50,000 more buys then the previous WWE PPV. You can’t argue with Bret’s drawing ability outside of the US. Now I won’t sit here and say he was a great draw. But he was an ok draw. You could argue that Bret later in his career when he went to WCW should have been an amazing draw but WCW promptly threw that money in a hobo barrel and burned it.





What about his mic skills his ability to Promo and sell a match? He’s certainly not on a tier with Stone Cold, the Rock, Shawn Michaels or Flair for example. But I think he does get under rated. I will also argue that when he had the baby face constraints off of him, when he turned Heel that he was awesome on the mic. I think he stood up well in feuds with Austin and Michaels.












(go to 9 minutes for that attention to detail that I talked about)


Bret deserves a place on Mt Rushmore, he was actually very good for business, he was believable and he made crappy workers look amazing.
To be continued with number 2 in the next couple of days.