Bret Hart lack of main events in 1994

[jason88cubs]

By 1995 he was playing 2nd fiddle to the Kliq but even in 94 I noticed he wasnt the Main Event. 1994 is meant to be the Bret Hart year but I noticed how even as Champion he was not the Main Event for most of the PPV's

Rumble yes (albiet with Lex) and WM10 yes but for King of the Ring 94 its Piper v Lawler (New Generation 🙄) for Summerslam its Taker v Faker and even for Survivor Series its Taker v Yoko.
So did Vince just not have confidence in Bret or something

[JokerFC]

We spoke about this before in here YEARS back & its a great point. This was when Bret was meant to be spearheading the NG movement BUT He does seem to be playing second fiddle to the search for/return of Taker & slow Diesel turn/build up in 94

The Owen feud was great but you certainly get the feeling it wasn't Vince's entire focus..it was fine to fill a gap but he had his eye elsewhere.

[hbkbigdaddycool]

To be fair, if you want those WWF House shows on the WWE Network, 90% of the time Hogan is in the middle of the card defending the WWF Title. So Bret not being the final match of the night isn't that bad to me.

At King of the Ring, his match had to be earlier on to set up the Anvil saving him only to go heel later on to help Owen.

At SummerSlam I guess the mystique of two Undertaker's wrestling each other had more power than a 40 minute boring cage match between brothers. Yes, that cage match was boring. Half of it was spent at seeing Owen find stupid ways to jump at the cage to get out of it.

Survivor Series I guess Vince rather have something positive end the show and having Undertaker get his revenge on Yokozuna was better than seeing an old relic like Bob Backlund take the WWF Title off Bret.

Ironically, for Vince being all on board with this New Generation thing at that time, he has old Piper and old Lawler main event King of the Ring in a horrible match, and has old Backlund be the one to dethrone Bret Hart.

[k5]

I still don’t get why Bret put over Backlund - like I get that Diesel needed to get the title, and that it furthered the Owen/Bret feud, but how Bret okayed that feud is beyond me.

[hbkjason]

Vince had Bret in front of him the whole time in 92-96, but he kept wanting something bigger and better. Bret Hart had a hell of a run, but I often wonder if Vince had gone all in with Bret as THE guy if it would have made a difference. I am a huge Bret Hart fan and was always entertained by what he did, no matter what they did with him, he made it work. Instead of messing around with Luger, all that attention should have been focussed on Bret Hart. Hell, I would argue that a full heel Lex Luger going against a super strong baby face Bret Hart would have been a hell of an angle.

[The Brain]

Still ridiculous Vince had Taker/Fake Taker go on last over Bret/Owen at SSlam that year.

Jun 29, 2020 11:04:52 GMT -5 hbkjason said:

Vince had Bret in front of him the whole time in 92-96, but he kept wanting something bigger and better. Bret Hart had a hell of a run, but I often wonder if Vince had gone all in with Bret as THE guy if it would have made a difference. I am a huge Bret Hart fan and was always entertained by what he did, no matter what they did with him, he made it work. Instead of messing around with Luger, all that attention should have been focussed on Bret Hart. Hell, I would argue that a full heel Lex Luger going against a super strong baby face Bret Hart would have been a hell of an angle.

They did tease a feud between post Mania IX stemming from the attack at the brunch but nothing ever came of it and it was dropped soon after. Shame

[JokerFC]

Heel Luger vs Bret for the title wold have been excellent. lex was a natural heel because of his sh*thead pouty face & needed a fair bit of help inside the ropes...Bret could have done wonders with Luger.

The USA thing was fine Id keep that...BUT when Vince decided he was done with it? He should have pulled the plug and turned Luger heel. face Lex let it be WCW or WWF always felt strangely muted to me?

[JokerFC]

Jun 29, 2020 10:59:29 GMT -5 k5 said:

I still don’t get why Bret put over Backlund - like I get that Diesel needed to get the title, and that it furthered the Owen/Bret feud, but how Bret okayed that feud is beyond me.

Made Stu Hart (a veteran wrestler/tactician in Kayfabe who put his kids through the wringer in the Dungeon) look like a complete f*ckin carrot on TV too man....

[warriorlynx]

It's because he wasn't the draw some think he was, Taker was the bigger draw handsdown and when he wasn't main eventing anymore (as he did with Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series) business went down. Vince couldn't see Taker past the "he's an attraction guy dammit". 

[warriorlynx]

Jun 29, 2020 10:59:29 GMT -5 k5 said:

I still don’t get why Bret put over Backlund - like I get that Diesel needed to get the title, and that it furthered the Owen/Bret feud, but how Bret okayed that feud is beyond me.

It was a New Gen vs. Old Gen storyline that worked for me, didn't Bret have a great deal of respect for Backlund to have dropped the strap to him unlike Shawn who didn't give rats a## about Backlund and treated him like garbage on RAW in 93.

[jking1979]

You don't have to be the last match to be the main event.