Ask 411 Wrestling: How Many Men Did Bret Hart Defend Titles Against?

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Prior to asking this question, Lee in Liverpool handed his sunglasses to a small child. The child and his parents are both very confused:

How many different wrestlers did Bret Hart defend his singles titles against in the WWF?

I was actually intrigued when I saw this one slide into my inbox, because I recall the Hitman being promoted as a “fighting champion” when he was a white meat babyface, and I was curious to see how that reputation held up against he statistics.

It appears that the answer is 54, broken down as follows (wrestlers are only listed under the title reign during which they first challenged Hart for a singles championship):

First Intercontinental Title Reign (8/26/91 to 1/17/92)
1. The Warlord
2. Ted DiBiase
3. The Brooklyn Brawler
4. Paul Perez
5. The Berzerker
6. Vito Cruz (later known as Big Vito in WCW)
7. Big Bully Busick
8. Skinner
9. The Mountie
10. Jerry Sags
11. Barry Horowitz
12. Chris Duffy
13. Kato
14. Bob Bradley
15. Ric Flair
16. The Barbarian
17. Louie Spicolli

Second Intercontinental Title Reign (4/5/92 to 8/29/92)
18. Tom Bennett
19. Shawn Michaels
20. Dino Bravo
21. Rick Martel
22. Mike Fury
23. Brian Costello
24. Tom Stone
25. The Dublin Destroyer
26. Iron Mike Sharpe
27. Ronnie Rich
28. Kamala
29. Davey Boy Smith

First WWF Title Reign (10/12/92 to 4/4/93)
30. Nailz
31. Papa Shango
32. Virgil
33. Razor Ramon
34. Bam Bam Bigelow
35. Yokozuna
36. Lex Luger
37. Fatu

Second WWF Title Reign (3/20/94 to 11/23/94)
38. Owen Hart
39. Randy Savage
40. Diesel
41. 1-2-3 Kid
42. Bob Backlund
43. Jim Neidhart
44. King Kong Bundy

Third WWF Title Reign (11/19/95 to 3/31/96)
45. The Undertaker
46. Triple H
47. Buddy Landel
48. Goldust
49. Tatanka
50. Jerry Lawler

Fourth WWF Title Reign (2/16/97 to 2/17/97)
51. Sid Vicious

Fifth WWF Title Reign (8/3/97 to 11/9/97)
52. Ken Shamrock
53. Vader
54. The Patriot

Jon maybe comparing apples and oranges:

Currently, what do WWE’s main roster shows and PPVs consistently do better than AEW and NXT?

I don’t know. I don’t really watch them.

Tyler from Winnipeg is ready to rumble and also hopefully ready to defend me from the trademark infringement lawsuit that I will be hit with for using that phrase:

Is Micheal Buffer in any wrestling HOF? If so, what was the night like concerning a super ring announcer?

Nope. In fact, Buffer’s association with wrestling is fairly limited. He ring announced WCW pay per view main events (and a few more significant Nitros) for a few years and had three WWE appearances under his belt.

He was, however, inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012 and the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.

Thomas has made a real nice declaration:

One thing I was always curious about is whether a wrestling gets hit with a big move or there is a big spot they will often times mute the audio for a bit as if someone was cursing. So I was always wondering why that is? Are they doing it for dramatic effect to really sell that the wrestler is in pain or is the wrestler actually cursing and they need to mute the audio because of that? Furthermore has there every been any notable instances of a wrestler going off script and cursing so bad that they got in trouble for it?

Yes, that’s generally because somebody has been caught cursing. In many instances, if the camera angle is right, you can read their lips. For those not aware, live television tends to air on a seven second delay so that any issues of that nature can be addressed on the fly by somebody with a mute button or who can, in more extreme circumstances, even dump the video feed.

On the subject of wrestlers getting in trouble for swearing, I can’t think of too many incidents, particularly when it comes to casual in-ring swearing. However, in July 2019, Corey Graves tweeted about being fined for dropping a “holy shit” while doing commentary on an episode of Monday Night Raw.

CHIKARA was also noted for having a fairly strict no swearing policy that was usually enforced by the fans, who would chant “you can’t say that” or similar to grapplers who accidentally used language not in line with the company’s family friendly policy. During the 2015 King of Trios tournament, Fenix, who was not a CHIKARA regular, dropped an f-bomb during a match and, as a punishment, was allegedly barred from selling his merchandise on the next night’s show by promoter Mike Quckenbush. He also apologized on the next evening’s CHIKARA show.

A similar incident occurred when Scott Steiner was brought in for the 2019 King of Trios, as he swore on one night of the tournament and apologized on the next, turning it into a comedy bit where he put his entire wallet into a swear jar.

Fortunately, Mike Quackenbush has never done anything wrong himself. Ever.

Uzoma is going back to the Owen Hart well:

Where would Owen Hart be ranked among being the greatest wrestlers to never become World Champion?

Fifth. Definitely fifth.

Seriously, though, as far as in-ring performers who never held the championship, he has to be near the top of the list. As far as an overall package is concerned, I think that Owen was not a top-level promo (though he wasn’t bad) so I wouldn’t call him one of the best overall performers to never snag the belt. He’s probably just outside the top tier on that metric.

Arthur thinks this is the greatest night in the history of our sport:

Which arena has played host to the most historic angles/biggest moments in pro wrestling? You can narrow it to just major promotions or even WWWF/WWF/WWE if you’d like. I’ll let you determine “historic moments/biggest angles” by your criteria, thinking Austin’s heel turn, birth of the NWO, Hogan winning the title for the first time, etc.

If you want to consider this question on a worldwide basis, the answer almost certainly has to be Arena Mexico because of longevity if nothing else. For those who may not know, Arena Mexico was actually built by the CMLL lucha libre promotion and has been owned by them since 1956, meaning that most of the promotion’s major shows and therefore major moments have occurred there for the last 65 years.

Of course, the wrestling business in most of the rest of the world is structured differently, in that promotions don’t tend to own their own buildings and do some degree of touring, unless you’re purely a television studio based product as TNA was for some years of its existence.

If you’re looking at major touring promotions in the United States, then you almost certainly have to go with Madison Square Garden. It might sound like a cop out, but it’s the legitimate answer. You’ve got Bruno Sammartino winning the WWWF Title from Buddy Rogers, losing it to Ivan Koloff, and winning it back from Stan Stasiak as well as the start of Bob Backlund’s title runs to say nothing of Hulk Hogan pinning the Iron Sheik to kick off the Hulkamania era. You’ve also got the first, tenth, and twentieth Wrestlemanias in the rooms as well as countless other pay per views.

There are certainly other, larger moments in professional wrestling history, but they are spread out among a variety of different venues. MSG has the highest concentration.

Ed is playing what if:

After having watched the episode of Untold on the WWE Network about Bischoff’s failed attempt at buying the company in 2001, I began to wonder something. Let’s say the deal ended up working out, Bischoff buys the company, Jamie Kellner doesn’t cancel the timeslot and WCW is able to resurrect itself with the Big Bang event. Something else that happened in 2001 that also got a lot of buzz, but in a negative way, was Stone Cold Steve Austin’s heel turn at Wrestlemania. This is something that I’ve always heard turned away fans. My question to you, is could Austin’s heel turn have had a positive effect on WCW? Would fans have given a new look at WCW since WWE was giving them something they just didn’t want, could WCW have then caught fire again and storm back into the race?

Anything is possible, but I have a hard time believing that, if the WWF were back in a competitive race with WCW, the Steve Austin heel turn would have lasted nearly as long as it did after it started to bomb – if it were done in the first place at all. There was always risk associated with that turn, and promotions are going to be far more risk averse when the stakes are higher.

Barry is questioning people’s motivations:

Why did the Undertaker turn heel in 1999?

The Attitude Era and its shades of gray are such a muddled mess that, quite frankly, I’m not sure that the Undertaker did turn heel in 1999. He was feuding with Steve Austin over the WWF Championship beginning with Summerslam 1998, and, with Austin being the company’s top babyface at the time, ‘Taker was unquestionably a heel. He served as a foil for Austin for the next several months, aligning himself with Kane

In fact, the Ministry of Darkness began to form in late ’98, and that was unquestionably a heel stable, unless you consider things like kidnapping Dennis Knight and carving into him with a knife as being babyface moves.

So, I would say that he turned in 1998 and was essentially a heel throughout 1999. If that makes the question, “Why did the Undertaker turn heel in 1998?” then I suspect that the answer is to give Austin a reliable, credible opponent to feud with.

Brad is crunching the numbers:

I have a TV ratings question that probably hasn’t come up before. What is the longest streak of weeks where the WCW Nitro rating either increased or stayed the same? And on the flip side, the longest streak of Nitro either decreasing or staying the same?

Similarly, I’m curious about the longest streaks in WWE RAW history, since it is traditionally considered the flagship show.

My gut tells me that the falling streaks are the longest. It seems easier to make your audience disinterested in your product versus continuously growing interest.

First off, I’ve limited my Raw analysis to the period during the Monday Night War, in part so that we’re comparing apples to apples between the two shows and in part because going through almost thirty years’ worth of data for Raw is more than I can handle right now.

Second, I’ll say that my main observation in compiling the data that Brad asked for is that there actually aren’t a lot of substantial streaks of this nature. If you look week-to-week when a product is heating up, there will still be blips when the ratings drop back down slightly. Similarly, if you look week-to-week when a product is cooling down, there will still be aberrations where things pop up for a week or two.

That’s one of the reasons that I have never really agreed with how wrestling news sites (yes, including this one) report television ratings. There are lessons that can be learned from a one-off weekly rating, but it’s not nearly as much as can be gleaned from trends over the course of several weeks or even months. So often, reporting just captures one week without giving further context.

That said, let’s get to actually answering Brad’s question.

WCW Monday Nitro’s longest streak of steady or increasing ratings was the five weeks between June 1, 1998 and July 6, 1998, with those ratings being a 4.0, a 4.0, a 4.1, a 4.1, and a 4.8.

The June 1 show was headlined by Kevin Nash & Lex Luger defeating Hulk Hogan & The Giant. The June 8 show really did not have a headlining match but included an angle with Diamond Dallas Page and the nWo, including an appearance by Dennis Rodman. June 15 saw a steel cage match between Page and Randy Savage, in addition to Nash & Sting defending the WCW Tag Team Titles against Harlem Heat. June 22 saw the Giant go up against NFL star Kevin Greene. June 29 was also more angle-driven than match-driven, featuring some build toward that year’s Hogan & Rodman vs. DDP & Karl Malone match, with both Rodman & Malone appearing. And, of course, if you know your wrestling history, you know that July 6, 1998 saw Bill Goldberg defeat Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Title in the Georgia Dome.

Interestingly, WCW’s longest run of ratings decreasing week-to-week was not at the end of the show’s run but actually in 1996, running for seven weeks between March 8, 1996 and May 6, 1996, though Nitro was preempted during one of those Mondays, so it may be more appropriate to call it a six week slide. Those numbers were 3.6, 3.1, 2.8, N/A, 2.8, 2.7, 2.1, and 1.9.

The main event on March 18 was a Texas tornado tag team match pitting Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage against Kevin Sullivan & Ric Flair. March 25 was Flair defending the WCW Title against the Giant, while April 1 was a Flair title defense against Lex Luger in addition to Hogan & The Booty Man against Sullivan & Arn Anderson. On April 8, the show was preempted due to the NBA playoffs. When they returned on April 15, Luger & Sting retained the WCW Tag Team Titles over Flair & The Giant. April 22 was headlined by a match that one would think could bump the ratings, with the WCW Tag Titles, the WCW TV Title, and the WCW World Title all on the line at the same time in a rematch between Luger & Sting on one side and Flair & The Giant on the other. April 29 was an actual title change, with The Giant pinning Ric Flair to become the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Finally, May 6’s main event was a WCW Title defense by the Giant against “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, which frankly given Duggan’s position in the company at the time should have been predicted as a low-drawing match.

Switching over to the WWF, their longest streak of week-to-week ratings increases ran for six weeks from June 9, 1997 through July 21, 1997 with a 2.2, 2.4, 2.4, 2.5, 2.5, 2.6, and 4.1. If you’re wondering how Raw jumped from a 2.6 to a 4.1 in the course of a week, it’s because Monday Nitro was preempted on July 21.

Those shows had main events of Mankind vs. Brian Pillman (June 9), Faarooq & Kama vs. Ahmed & Johson & The Undertaker as well as Steve Austin vs. Brian Pillman (June 16), D-Lo Brown & Faarooq vs. The Undertaker & Vader (June 23), Steve Austin vs. Jim Neidhart (June 30), Bret Hart vs. Goldust (July 7), Dude Love & Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith (July 14), and a six man flag match with Bret Hart, Owen Hart, & Davey Boy Smith vs. Steve Austin, Dude Love, & The Undertaker (July 21).

As far as downward swings are concerned, there were two separate instances in which the ratings either decreased or remained at the same level, and, very interestingly, they came in two different phases of the show’s existence. The first of those streaks occurred between November 10, 1997 and December 15, 1997 with ratings of 3.4, 3.1, 3, 3, 3, and 2.7. The second ran from September 11, 2000 to October 16, 2000 with ratings of 5.8, 5.7, 5.4, 5.4, 5.4, and 5.8.

In the 1997 range, the main events were Triple H vs. Ken Shamrock (November 10), Dude Love vs. The Rock in addition to Vince McMahon being interviewed about the Montreal Screwjob (November 17), Shawn Michaels vs. Vader (November 24), Triple H vs. Jim Neidhart (December 1), Owen Hart confronting Vince McMahon (December 8), and the Road Warriors vs. Shawn Michaels & Triple H (December 15).

The 2000 range saw the show headlined by Chris Benoit & Kane vs. The Rock & The Undertaker (September 11), The Undertaker vs. The Rock (September 18), The Rock vs. Chris Benoit for the WWE Title (September 25), Kurt Angle vs. Triple H (October 2), Rikishi & The Rock vs. Kane & Kurt Angle (October 9), and Team ECK vs. The Hardy Boys & The Rock (October 16).

That will do it for this week’s installment of the column. We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.