Bret Hart vs Undertaker (WWF - 9/20/1997)

Undertaker in 1997 is so great it makes you wonder why he sucked every year until 2007. Great psychology here...just not enough to make this list.

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart vs Undertaker - WWF One Night Only 1997



Just by Bret Hart kicking Undertaker's knee, there is a massive reaction. That embodies pro wrestling to me. It is not about the crazy flips or modified suplexes. It is about caring about your favorite wrestler and telling a story where you are building to an outcome.



In the pre-match promo, Bret Hart is getting a decidedly mixed reaction. Bret is talking about his fans worldwide and Vince is just a total douche on commentary pointing out that Bret is being booed heavily by the live audience. Bret is kinda taken aback. Vince really ramps up the dickishness "Does it matter to you how the fans feel? Does it make if they like you?". Bret who is clearly uncomfortable and feels backed into corner just says "It does." Forget the Screwjob, I wanted Bret to haul off and punch Vince right there. That promo happens before the Vader/Owen match. In a really cool moment, Owen stops by the commentary table to tell Vince to stop fucking with his brother. I really loved that. Takes a lot of guts to stand up to your boss like that, but Vince was being an unprofessional prick and Owen called him out on it.



Unlike Vince's interpretation, Bret was very over with live crowd once he made his entrance. I would say it was like 60/40 Bret for the most part. I thought both segments of fans were really loud and that added a lot to this match. In America, Bret would clearly be the heel, but you could argue this face vs face in the UK, but regardless Bret Hart plays the heel to perfection in this match. Undertaker gives the best selling performance of his career, which something we would not see again for about ten years.



Bret tries to fire away with heavy bombs early on, which goes about as well as you would expect. So he gets desperate and takes off the turnbuckle pad while the Undertaker intimidates the ref, which plays off the Ground Zero match with Shawn where he just waylaid ref after ref in that match. This also play off how early in the show Triple H did the Flair spot with the ref where HHH cowered from the ref. Now the ref is cowering from the Undertaker makes that spot mean more.



There are some nice spots early like Undertaker misses an elbow, does his Zombie situp and Bret does a sliding clothesline to knock him down. Undertaker has a hard time catching Bret and drives him into the concrete only to get him back up and put him into the ring post. Bret is actually really good at arena brawling. Him and Undertaker brawl up the rampway and Taker is in total control. Taker sets too early on a back drop and Bret nails a DDT. Bret ramps up the heelishness here rubbing his face on ropes then choking him with his boot. Taker whips his hard forcing Bret to take the Bret Bump into the exposed turnbuckle!



Undertaker is actually pretty good working over Bret's chest with the Heart Punch then surfboard. Here is where we get the first inkling of Bret's strategy. He gets backed into a corner and starts kicking the knee. The crowd comes alive for this simple move. Undertaker cuts Bret off twice. However, when Taker goes running into the turnbuckle, his knee hits (should have done the exposed steel, minor point). Bret is a shark that smells blood in the water. he absolutely decimates Taker's leg, who sells so well throughout the match. Stumbling and bumbling. He is fighting so hard throughout, which is forcing Bret to use eye rakes to keep him down. I love that struggle. The high five to the fan before the figure-4 around the ringpost is great. Bret applies the figure-4 in the middle of the ring and it is a beauty. JR & Lawler do a great job describing the figure-4. Taker reverses the pressure and both men sell their legs really well. Bret kicks Undertaker's legs out form under him. The reaction for that is deafening. Boos and cheers! That is pro wrestling!



Here we go Five Moves of Doom time. Taker gets his boot up on the second rope elbow and they clothesline each other. The leveling the playing field spot going into the finish run. Taker gets up first to cheers and boos. He goes to legdrop Bret in between his legs, but gets caught! Bret is typing up the legs for the Sharpshooter! Not his best ever, which could explain why Taker was able to break it by powering out. Bret does the only reasonable thing and tries again. He gets GOZZLED! He avoids the chokeslam, but eats the big boot and leg drop, BRUTHA! Bret sensing he might be losing his grasp on the championship, grabs the ring bell, Taker knocks it out of his hand. Now Taker wants to use it and the ref grabs it, Bret chop blocks the knee! Huge reaction again! Love this crowd!



Weird spot as Bret is going to do a seat drop on the knee that we have all seen a million times, but this time somehow a cameraman gets in the way and Bret ends up outside the ring. Bret takes that nasty bump where he slides underneath the bottom turnbuckle and hits his back against the steel post. Bret Hart is pretty good at this pro wrestling thing. They do a Tombstone reversal spot where Bret ends up getting his head caught in the ropes ala Mick Foley. Undertaker wont let up and gets disqualified.



I had seen the match before could not remember the finish and figured it was something cheap. It is a very precarious situation, but yeah it just does not feel like a greta finish. I don't know what I would have done as I agree it should been cheap. After the failed attempt with the turnbuckle, Bret stayed focused on the knee. There were multiple times when he could have departed from the knee, but he stayed on it. It was the touchstone of the match. Undertaker was there with him every step of the way selling it. It is pretty incredible both men worked this fantastic of a match without using many of their signature moves. Part of that is that Bret has one of the deepest arsenals in the game. I would say like the Summerslam match, this match is a little long. They could have tightened up the beginning and probably tacked on a better finish run. Once Bret goes after the knee, this is pure gold until the anti-climatic finish, but sometimes the journey is the destination. ****1/2