Bret Hart vs Diesel (WWF - 11/19/1995)

This match continues to hold up every time I re-watch it. Bret Hart carried Diesel to one of Kevin Nash's best matches ever. It was one of the best WWF matches of 1995. Bret's selling and overall work was tremendous and Diesel did a pretty good job himself. The table spot is one of the most memorable table spots ever.

Hell yeah I'll third this. Just rewatched it tonight after reading Steven's Bret Hart list. This has such great waves of momentum for each guy, really definitive control for long periods of time. And when the comebacks and shifts come it isn't no selling, it's desperation or opportunism. The ending is awesome from the table spot on to Bret playing possum. Just an excellent championship match.

I LOVE this match! This is Bret Hart's masterpiece. Bret Hart is the King of the Face vs Face match and this is his best showing. Watch this match!

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Diesel vs Bret Hart - WWF Survivor Series 1995 No DQ



What is missing from pro wrestling today is enthusiastic grandmas in the front row!



I think this most underrated WWF match of all time. I truly think this is incredible and one of the best Bret Hart performances of all time. I say this all the time but he is the king of face vs face matches and this is his best ever. As each wrestler takes turns playing babyface throughout the match in really logical fashion that never undercuts the drama or the characters in the ring. The video package before this is awesome with each man discussing their strategy. I thought Nash was especially excellent saying he was going to use power and size, this is not collegiate wrestling he is going for the early knockout. It really set the table for the actual match where these two just wove in a compelling story over the course of 25 minutes.



Each other taking off a turnbuckle pad right at the outset set the tone of the match and established that each man had come for a dirty, nasty fight. Loved Bret going for the leg early and driving Big Daddy Cool into the corner. Nash does a great job hitting heavy, heavy blows to stymie The Hitman. I love how Nash keeps Hart in that corner. He is suffocating him. Hart can find no quarter. Nash stalking Bret as he escapes to the outside is such a great visual especially how Nash always climbs over the top rope. There is such a looming sense of dread with each blow that Hart has to take from the big man. If I had one complaint, it is not the speed as this had a great horror movie like feel to it, but like in most Bret Hart matches there was not much in the way of struggles, he just took his licks. His matches can be too neat sometimes.



The transition to Bret Hart on offense is awesome. He holds onto Nash's leg for dear life to avoid being splatter on the canvas via the Jacknife. He eventually makes it to the ropes and then starts biting the arm of Diesel. You know how I know this because Diesel just starts hollering. Great verbal selling by Nash. Hart kicks at the knee and we all know what is coming up next. Just textbook dissection of the knee with excellent execution. Figure-4 always a nice touch. I liked how Diesel going for Jacknife was a transition and we see Bret going for the Sharpshooter leads to Bret being kicked off and his head hits the exposed turnbuckle.



Bret, being wary of losing his lead, trips up Diesel and wraps his knee around the post and then in the most famous spot of the match ties him up with the mic cable. Diesel is now helpless. It is funny to see Grandma Hitman fan cheering on Bret even though he is clearly heeling on Diesel now. I love this segment so much. Diesel trying to stand but getting knocked over, but the cord stopping him from falling properly. Diesel knocking the chair out of Bret's hand with his free foot, but only for Bret to step on his hand when he was trying to get the chair. That's some next level heel shit right there. Bret hitting the backbreaker and just mercilessly attacking the knee. Bret goes up top again, but this time Diesel crotches him. A really effective heat segment.



Diesel's selling of the leg is top notch. Like really fucking good. Love him gingerly walking over to drop all his weight on Bret's neck. Or the Snake Eyes and how he does it. Bret slams Diesel's face into the exposed steel on the second attempt this allows him to go for the Five Moves of Doom, bulldog off the middle rope was cool. Bret misses the pescado in epic crash and burn fashion. In a bump I absolutely love, Bret gets slingshotted from the apron through table still makes me say holy shit.



Here is my big grievance is the possum finish. It is just the bump right before it was so badass. I just feel like the finish undercuts that bump. I did like Bret dropping like a dead fish when Diesel first tried to pick him up. Cradle and the Granmda Bret Hart goes crazy and Diesel famously says "Muthafuckin Shit" and then destroys Bret two of the most badass Jacknife powerbombs ever.



Love, love this match. I am genuinely curious why people do not rate this higher. The David vs Goliath beginning with a great transition to the leg work then the awesome tie Diesel's foot to the post segment followed by really friggin awesome Diesel selling during the finish stretch with two huge Bret Hart bumps before the possum finish. Easy Top 10 WWF match of the 90s and really should be discussed more as an interesting case study on how to work face vs face. ****1/2

Not sure this is neccesary because Bret is probably the best ever at establishing story beats throughout his grander affairs. He's one of the only wrestlers ever who thrives under the pressures of an elongated runtime because of his pacing: methodical, but in the actual sense of the word rather than a substitute for boring. It's an amazing Bret Hart performance, he really is that good, but it is not the only performance here.


The emotional core of this runs on Diesel power.


It's not a performance in a vacuum. Context, per usual, absolutely helps. Diesel comes into this (both in reality and kayfabe) not sure where he belongs. He's been champion for almost a year (and not only is he not the draw the company was hoping for) the company and the fans are not really treating him like The Guy, assumingly because he hasn't beaten the previous (and still to most, current) Ace figure, Bret Hart. He's come close, they've even fought to a draw, but he's never gotten it done, this being the unofficial source of conflict and adding so much almost instantly.



Diesel whips ass from the bell, not only demonstrating how big of a threat he is to Bret Hart, but also proving to everyone that he is, in fact, The Guy. A whole year of having the belt without the championship. It feels incredibly good seeing that within the context of the championship scene.



It's elevated with Bret's two-fold selling of the beating. The more obvious of the two ways is him doubling over everytime he gets hit, taking breathers, getting dropped out of the ring, all with that trademark grit and realistic selling you get with Bret. The other part is how Bret sells it emotionally out of the transition: using the no DQ stip to bite at Diesel's arm or poke him in the eye to get the leg attack going when he couldn't do that earlier in the match fairly, selling how desperate he is and how big of a threat Diesel actually is to his Ace-dom.



This is where the Bret performance kicks in. It's one of my favorite ever. Bret gets his leg and starts to tear it apart, but is clearly conflicted. He follows through with it with a real viciousness, but has a really great moment of doubt. After he takes the low road, he puts big Kev in the figure four leading him to push himself to the ropes, and even though bret doesn't have to, he lets him out. He abandons the high road later (pulling out some real tricky shit like using a cord to tie up Diesel's bad leg and beating on him, stepping on his hand when he reaches for a chair, etc.), but a little bit of bret's increasingly rotting conscious peaking through is so great and rounds out his great walking the heel line performance.




Diesel wraps his up a different way, poking bret's eye to get out of the sharpshooter and taking over. He eventually puts Bret through a table. The hesitation he has that follows could have came through a few different avenues, either feeling sympathy for a freak accident table bump or (my personal choice) how he needed to beat Bret Hart in a non-flukey way to be seen as the guy, but this hesitation opens him up to a roll up and a Bret win, leading him to snap on him after the match and take out a few refs.


I think it's one of my favorite losses ever because not only is it accompanied by Kevin Nash yelling motherfucker really obviously and hilariously, it's also a loss that doesn't really happen at the time if the 3. Through this match, Diesel proved he was every bit as good as Bret Hart and that Bret had to take the low road to steal the belt. He proved he was Ace material. It's not until the second he attacks Bret after the bell does he lose. He loses his belt, his horse in the race, and the high road in one shot.




Two complimentary stories that not only work beautifully within the binary of traditional pro wrestling stories, but in a larger sense about morality. It's so much of what I love about pro wrestling. Traditional stories and tropes used to talk about other things. Controversially, my favorite Bret Hart match and something that will definitely be going into my top 5.


*****

Really good match. I'm not crazy about the opening minutes with Diesel on top but it really picks up after Bret blocks the first powerbomb and starts on leg work.