Goody Bag 45: Bret vs Shawn - The Rivalry

The Hart Foundation v The Rockers: From a house show in Hamilton Ontario Canada on December 14 1989. The Foundation are heeling it up here before the bell even sounds, despite the crowd clearly favoring them. Bret Hart and Marty Jannetty start us off, and they feel each other out, as the commentators discuss Stu Hart's 'sadistic' training methods. Shawn Michaels tags in to try a double team, but Jim Neidhart charges in to hit both Rockers with a double clothesline before they can get too far. The dust settles on Neidhart and Michaels, and they go through their own feeling out process. Anvil tries a bodyslam, but Shawn hangs on into a cradle for two, so Jim headlocks him. Shawn tries his own slam, but Neidhart reverses, so Shawn slips into a schoolboy for two instead. Tag to Marty for a 2^nd rope flying axehandle, and he works a wristlock. Back to Shawn his own flying axehandle, and the Rockers hit stereo superkicks for two. Neidhart challenges Jannetty to a test-of-strength, and Marty's dumb enough to accept, ending up on his knees instantly. Marty manages to whip him into the ropes to escape, but that backfires when Neidhart barrels into him with a shoulderblock, knocking Jannetty out of the ring. Marty slides back in and uses his speed to take the Anvil down for a front-facelock, but Jim powers out of it, so Jannetty again uses speed to armdrag him. Tag to Shawn, but Neidhart quickly shrugs him off with a bodyslam, and passes to Bret for an inverted atomic drop into a clothesline. Pointed elbowdrop connects, and the Hitman stomps the groin before tagging Neidhart in to criss cross, with Bret taking a cheap shot at Michaels from the apron! The Foundation cut the ring in half on Michaels, and even at this stage of his career, Shawn is already quite great at timing his hope spots. The Hart's totally steal Demolition's finisher as they work Michaels over, but Bret misses a 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop, and Marty gets the hot tag! He hits Bret with a powerslam to set up a 2^nd rope flying fistdrop for two, and a bodypress is worth two. Sunset flip gets two, but Bret blocks a rollup, and ducks when Marty tries another bodypress - Jannetty taking a bump to the outside off of it. The Foundation zero in, but Marty manages to evade Neidhart long enough to tag Shawn - only for Michaels to literally spiral through the air when he runs into a shoulderblock from the big Anvil! Shawn tries a 2^nd rope flying bodypress, but ends up getting dumped to the outside, so he hits Bret with a slingshot sunset flip for two! Vertical suplex, but Hart reverses for two - and a beauty! They trade rollups, and Bret tries an abdominal stretch, but Shawn reverses. That draws Neidhart in, so Jannetty follows suit, and Roseanne Barr the door! All four go at it, but the bell sounds, and apparently it's a time limit draw at 21:18. That's a very random time limit. This started off pretty slow, but it was great once they got going, especially towards the end. ** ¼

Bret Hart v Shawn Michaels: From Wrestling Challenge on February 11 1990 (taped January 23) in Fort Myers Florida. Neidhart passes out Bret's shades for him tonight, and demonstrates exactly why he wasn't the one who got that gimmick. He just kind of marches up to the nearest kid and shoves it in his hand like a hot potato. Earl Hebner is refereeing this one, so let's hope things don't go wonky. Feeling out process to start, and Hart gets the first sequence with an inverted atomic drop into a clothesline, but Shawn manages to dodge an elbowdrop. He cranks on a headlock, so Hart tries to suplex him, but Michaels lands on his feet, and throws a dropkick. He goes up, but Bret slams him off the top rope, and drills the Rocker with European uppercuts. Shawn counters a third uppercut with a backslide for two, but Bret pops him with a pointed elbowdrop before he can continue. Backbreaker, but Shawn back flips out of it, and bodyslams Bret to set up a legdrop. Criss cross sees them knock heads, and they fight over a vertical suplex once they get to their feet, but it ends up in the ropes. That leads to them shoving each other, which draws their partners into the scuffle, and it's a double DQ at 4:03. Too short to really develop, but there was goodness baked into that mini cupcake. * ¾

WWF Tag Team Title Two-out-of-Three Falls Match: The Hart Foundation v The Rockers: Dark match from a TV taping on October 30 1990 in Fort Wayne Indiana - though originally this was meant to air on Saturday Night's Main Event (the banners are even hanging over the ring). More on that later. Bret Hart and Marty Jannetty start us off, and they feel each other out. There's no commentary for this, but the closed captioning is picking up all sorts of neat bits, like the referee giving instructions (in kayfabe) throughout. The Rockers try a double team, but Jim Neidhart comes in to cut it off, and all four end up staring each other down for a standoff in the middle. The dust settles on Neidhart and Shawn Michaels, and Anvil powers him around, so Shawn uses a headscissors takedown, but runs into a punch. Anvil tries to add an axehandle drop, but Shawn dodges, and Marty comes in to work the arm. Neidhart powers out, and uses a shoulderblock and a clothesline to send Marty over the top, and Jim knocks Shawn off the apron for good measure! Neidhart tries a suplex in from the apron, but Jannetty counters with an atomic drop, and the Rockers hit stereo dropkicks for two. Marty uses a sunset flip for two, and the Rockers whip Neidhart into Hart on the apron, allowing them to hit Jim with a double bodyslam. They go up for stereo flying fistdrops, but Bret shoves Shawn off the top rope, and breaks Marty's cover at two. The referee restores order, and Neidhart reverses Shawn into the corner, and delivers a front-powerslam for two. Tag to Bret, and Shawn takes a corner whip with a flip, and Bret delivers a backbreaker for two. Russian legsweep gets two, and a bodyslam sets up a legdrop for two. Piledriver gets two, but Bret wastes times arguing the count, and Marty is able to tag in. Bret tries keeping control with a sunset flip, but Marty reverses the cradle for the first fall at 9:08. They criss cross from there, and the Hitman manages an inverted atomic drop before passing to Anvil for a shoulderblock, as the champs settle into cutting the ring in half on Marty. Bret fights over a suplex with him, but misses Shawn getting a blind tag in the process, and Michaels comes in for a tandem clothesline. That draws Neidhart in, and that's when things go to shit, as the top rope snaps off while they brawl, and one side of the ring is now unusable, as are the turnbuckles. Bret stays on track with a rollup for two on Shawn, followed by a vertical suplex for two, and he grounds Michaels in a front-facelock so that he can talk to the referee. Unfortunately, the captions aren't picking it up, but Hart was apparently telling him to stop the match and get the ropes fixed so they can do what they had planned. Which the official really should have done, especially considering this was being taped for TV. But he doesn't, so instead Hart chinlocks Michaels for a while. Hart tries a cross corner whip, but Shawn reverses, and Bret takes an awkward version of his chest-first bump into the middle. That's enough for the tag to Marty, and he pops Hart with a superkick for two, but eats a swinging neckbreaker before he can follow up. Tag to Neidhart, and Bret slams Anvil onto Jannetty for two. Back to Bret for a backbreaker/2^nd rope flying elbowdrop combo for two, and they try a rocket launcher, but Shawn gets sick of the double teaming, and runs in to dropkick Bret off the top rope to the floor! That allows Marty to make the tag, and Shawn hustles in to suplex Bret in from the apron, but Hart counters the attempt with a side suplex. Tag to Neidhart, and the Hart Attack wins the second fall at 18:29. Despite winning the fall, Hart looks like his dog just died, storming around the ring, and refusing to have his hand raised by the official. The captions still aren't picking his tirade up, but even a novice lip reader can make out him telling the referee that this is "fucking bullshit." Thankfully, the official finally grows a brain, and stops the match so they can fix the ropes. With that out of the way, a fiery and visibly frustrated Bret tears into Shawn, as the Foundation cut the ring in half. Bret tries a bodypress, but Shawn hits the deck, and the Hitman wipes out in the ropes. That allows the tag to Marty, and he pops Bret with a jumping backelbow, followed by a powerslam for two. 2^nd rope flying two-handed bulldog gets two when Neidhart breaks the cover, so Michaels runs in to make sure there's no double teaming. That leaves Bret and Marty to criss cross, and Hart's off his game now that the whole rope mess got in his head, and he trips over Jannetty before they can finish the sequence. Bret manages a vertical suplex ahead of tagging out to Anvil, and he whips Jim into Marty in the corner for two. Neidhart tries to slam Bret onto Jannetty in an inverted position, but Marty lifts his knees to block. That buys them some time, but the champs regroup for the Hart Attack - only for Shawn to dropkick Neidhart's back, allowing Jannetty to topple him for the pin at 23:04! The title change didn't stick though, as NBC ended up shuffling their schedule around, and decided they wanted a sixty minute Main Event special from the WWF instead of a ninety minute SNME, leading them to trim this match off, and repurpose the taped episode into a Main Event. And then they had a change of heart about letting Jim Neidhart stay in the promotion, so they just pretended this match didn't happen, never acknowledging the Rockers winning the title anywhere, and continuing to recognize the Foundation as the champions. They used the top rope snapping as an excuse for years, but honestly, they could have easily edited the match around that if they wanted to. Easily. I think they just changed their minds on the Rockers, and I wouldn't be surprised if the crowd reactions here had something to do with it. The broken rope definitely messed with things, and they probably could have had an even better match if that didn't happen, but it's honestly damn good even with that issue, and well worth checking out both for the actual wrestling and as a historical curiosity. Bret makes it out to be a total train wreck when he talks about it, which makes me believe they must have had some really wild shit planned if THIS is what he'd consider terrible by comparison. Because say what you will about Bret's persona outside of kayfabe, but he's always been a good judge of his own performances, so we probably missed out on a classic. ****  

Cage Match: Bret Hart v Shawn Michaels: TV taping dark match from Utica New York on December 1 1993. I'm honestly surprised they bothered with a cage for a dark match (even one taped for Coliseum Video) during this era, when they actually had to set it up and take it down piece by piece. Shawn attacks while Bret is climbing into the cage, and goes to work. The WWF had so many banners during this era. Visible in this match alone are two with the company logo, a Coliseum Video one, a Superstars one, and an ICOPRO one. I miss the banners over the ring, and honestly don't understand why they did away with them. Shawn works him over, but misses a dropkick, allowing Bret a catapult into the corner. Hart with a backbreaker before he makes the first climb attempt of the match, but Shawn pulls him back over, and bashes him into the cage. Slugfest starts going Bret's way, so Shawn dumps him into the cage again, and crawls for the door, but Bret manages to hook the ankle to block. Hart goes for the door next, but Shawn saves, and they take turns making dives for the door until Shawn snaps Bret's throat under the bottom rope with a catapult. Michaels tosses him into the steel and climbs, making it over the top before Bret is able to grab two handfuls of hair to force him back over. They fight it out on the top rope, with Hart getting the better of it, but Shawn able to stop him from climbing over by dropping him crotch-first across the top rope in violent fashion. The crowd is surprisingly unperturbed by such a dramatic bump. Shawn crawls for the door, but Bret cuts him off, so Michaels throws a Superkick at him. He climbs, but Bret meets him at the top rope, and knocks him down with big kick. Hart climbs, but Shawn impressively leaps up to the top of the cage to pull him back over by the hair from the mat. Quite the vertical leap there. HBK tries a sleeper to put the Hitman out, but Bret manages to drop him into the cage before he loses consciousness. Hart climbs, but Shawn is hot on his tail, and they have a slugfest at the top of the cage. Michaels makes it over first, but Bret bashes his face into the steel, leaving Shawn hanging upside-down on the outside! That allows Hart to jump down, and we have a winner at 11:37. This one isn't really worth much on its own, but it is interesting as it's basically a template for the more famous Hart/Hart cage match from SummerSlam the following year, right down to the exact same finish. *