The Three Bouts That Earned Bret Hart His Match Of The Year Honors
Bret "The Hitman" Hart has been recognized by many fans as one of the premier, most skilled, and prominent technical wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling. Coming from a prestigious wrestling family, he has possibly become the most successful and known among wrestling fans. Bret's brother, Owen, father Stu, and niece, Natalya, made their mark in the wrestling business in a major way.
Modern wrestlers like FTR and CM Punk have expressed their immense love for Hart and how much he has poured into the wrestling business. Along with an iconic career and seven world titles between WWE and WCW, "The Excellence of Execution" had numerous memorable matches.
Many wrestlers over the years have found themselves wrestling high-profile matches, however, not many have won three PWI Match of the Year awards. PWI awards have been around for decades, promoting awards such as Wrestler of the Year, Most Popular Wrestler of the Year, and Feud of the Year.
Bruno Sammartino, Harley Race, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, John Cena, and Kenny Omega are the only other men in history to win three or more PWI Match of the Year Awards.
All of Hart's PWI Matches of the Year came in the 1990s
In 1992, Bret Hart earned his first Match of the Year honors from PWI for his match against Davey Boy Smith "The British Bulldog" at SummerSlam. The match, with Hart's Intercontinental Championship on the line, took place in The Bulldog's home country of England. Bulldog walked away with the win after just over 25 minutes of action.
In 1996, Hart received his second Match of the Year honor by PWI when the WWE Championship was on the line at WrestleMania 12 against Shawn Michaels; like his SummerSlam match in 1992, Bret found himself on the losing end. Michaels defeated Hart in an Iron Man match that went the full 60 minutes with the score tied 0-0. The match went to sudden death overtime, with Michaels winning after nailing Hart with a Sweet Chin Music.
Hart's final PWI Match of the Year came when he faced Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 in a No Disqualification Submission match. Hart won after just over 22 minutes when special guest referee Ken Shamrock ruled Austin unconscious and unable to compete after "The Hitman" put "The Texas Rattlesnake" in a Sharpshooter. As of writing, this match is currently listed as the highest-rated WWE match of all time on cagematch.net.