"To deny our own impulses, is to deny that which makes us human."
-- Lana and Andy Wachowski
On August 27, 1991, my brother and I watched the World Wrestling Federation's SummerSlam 1991 pay-per-view.
The event actually aired the previous night, but a friend of a friend had taped it for us, so we watched it late. Of course, this was before the World Wide Web and rampant spoilers, so we still didn't know any of the outcomes. We only knew we were looking forward to an amazing card, toplined by the big main event of Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior against Sgt. Slaughter and his Triangle of Terror.
What we didn't expect was Mr. Perfect's Intercontinental title defense against Bret "Hitman" Hart stealing the show. And neither of us could have expected how well it would hold up even now. It's routinely cited as one of the best matches ever. It's one of my favorites of all time, if not the one favorite. The match catapulted Bret toward superstardom and forced us to accept and embrace a faster, more physical style of wrestling, one that centered less on lumbering big men and more on smaller technical workers. If you were watching then, it was probably the same for you.
In a way, that match was a passing of the torch. "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig was widely regarded as a technical wizard, a former AWA World Heavyweight Champion and Tag Team Champion (with Scott Hall) who was a future lock for the WWF Championship. Injuries, however, derailed his momentum and forced him into early retirement in the summer of '91. He came back for one last match to drop the Intercontinental Championship to another guy known for his technical skill and solid storytelling, Bret Hart.
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Hart--like Hennig, the son of AWA favorite Larry "the Ax" Hennig--was a second-generation wrestler, the son of Canadian great Stu Hart. He was a product of Stu's basement "Dungeon" and cut his teeth in the business wrestling alongside his brothers in Stu's Stampede Wrestling promotion. The WWF came calling, and Bret joined his brother-in-law Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart to form the Hart Foundation tag team under manager Jimmy Hart (no relation). The two of them had considerable success, twice winning the WWF's Tag Team Championships. At the end of the '80s, however, the Federation quietly split them up into singles careers, with Bret quickly chasing the Intercontinental Title.
Which leads us to this moment, to this match, and this day sitting on the floor in my grandmother's living room, watching a tape-delayed SummerSlam with my six-year-old brother.
Curiously enough, I don't remember the build to this match very much. I could probably give you details about the lead-up to the handicap tag main event more easily, about how Sid Vicious came from WCW under the name Sid Justice, how he was made special guest referee of the tag match, and how everyone wondered just whose side he was on. I could tell you about the psychological war waged between the Ultimate Warrior and Jake "the Snake" Roberts.
I could even tell you about the run-up to the wedding of "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth--I could even quote his stuttering, quavering rasp as he bent down on one knee in the middle of the ring, and popped the question with Mean Gene holding the microphone. Hell, I could even describe the dress Elizabeth was wearing when he proposed.
But I couldn't really cite any details about Bret and Mr. Perfect. Bret was the number one contender for Perfect's title, the two of them traded promos back and forth, and that was that. Certainly, Bret wasn't the type of guy who could get anyone too excited on his own. He was kind of a terrible promo, as opposed to Hennig, who was just as proficient on the microphone as he was in the ring. What the two men shared, however, was a peerless grasp of ring psychology coupled with impeccable mat wrestling skills.
I'm not going to describe the match to you, not when you could just watch it yourself. I'm also not going to pretend to be an expert on ring psychology. I'm just a big mark who can appreciate a good match.
But it has to be noted that the match was excitingly paced, and the two competitors showed such great conditioning. Both men traded offense back and forth, and the lion's share of the match stayed in the ring, which I liked. I enjoyed how Perfect worked the match with utter cockiness and even disdain for his opponent, and of course I loved how Bret finished the match with an amazing counter. And of course, the commentary team of Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan and Roddy Piper kept things lively, bickering back and forth over just who wanted the win more, Bret or Perfect. Bret's family being in attendance at Madison Square Garden was also a great touch, adding pressure on Bret to win it.
I would love for this to be my lasting, most prevalent memory of Bret Hart. But it isn't.
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