Bret Hart: Submission Specialist

[cero2k]

The same dude from reddit just compiled Bret Hart's list at my request. I also asked for Benoit's and someone else for Danielson's. Either way, here it is

Follow up to the Kurt Angle list. This one is a bit shorter but still very impressive.

Important note, I decided not to include anything from Superstars or Wrestling Challenge. Why, you might ask? Because then this list would be full of 5 thousand jobbers you've never heard of. So it's just PPVs and Raw for this one.

Also changed the terminology from "tapped out" to "submitted" being that most of these matches were before tapping out became a thing in wrestling.

PETE DOUGHERTY: King of the Ring 1991

SKINNER: King of the Ring 1991 (This event was the start of Bret's singles push. He would win the tournament this year, and again in 1993, making him the only wrestler to win KOTR twice.)

FATU: Raw 3/1/93 (That's Rikishi, for all you young whippersnappers)

THE BROOKLYN BRAWLER: Raw 12/13/93

TOM PRICHARD: Raw 2/21/94

KWANG: Raw 4/11/94 (aka Savio Vega)

THE 1-2-3 KID: Raw 7/1/94 (There seems to be a trend of defeating wrestlers who would later become more popular under different gimmicks.)

OWEN HART: Raw 3/13/95 (This was a No Holds Barred match.)

BOB BACKLUND: Wrestlemania XI (In the first-ever "I quit" match, Hart made Backlund submit using his own move, the Crossface Chickenwing.)

JERRY "THE KING" LAWLER: King of the Ring 1995 (The infamous "Kiss my Foot" match.)

HAKUSHI: Raw 7/24/95 (Hakushi was actually kind of a big deal for a minute there.)

JEAN-PIERRE LAFITTE: In Your House 3: Triple Header , Raw 9/25/95 (Interesting story, Lafitte was actually set to be pushed pretty well at the time, as evidenced by Bret being his first feud in the WWF under the gimmick. He was set to feud with WWF champion Diesel afterwards, but apparently a DQ finish in Lafitte's home town of Montreal at a house show was politicked by the Kliq into being a clean Diesel win. Lafitte was upset with this and refused to put him over, and the match ended in a double-countout. The Kliq were less than pleased with this, and he was gone in a few months.)

GOLDUST: Raw 1/22/96

HUNTER HEARST HELMSLEY: Raw 2/19/96

RAZOR RAMON II: Raw 12/16/96 (As in the fake Razor.)

STEVE AUSTIN: Wrestlemania XIII (You may or may not have heard of this match.)

THE PATRIOT: In Your House 17: Ground Zero (Was the Patriot supposed to be a main eventer at one point? Anyway, it's super weird to hear that music without "YOU SUCK" chants.)

RIC FLAIR: Souled Out 1998

CURT HENNIG: Uncensored 1998

BRIAN ADAMS: Malice at the Palace 1998

RANDY SAVAGE: Slamboree 1998 (Bret's WCW music sucked.)

CHRIS BENOIT: Nitro 10/4/99, Mayhem 1999 (Lol @ someone throwing a TP roll right as he taps.)

STING: Mayhem 1999 (Hart was the first man to ever make Sting tap out. Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle would later share that honor.)

GOLDBERG: Starrcade 1999 (This match was a screwjob. This match was also a clusterfuck. There are no less than four referees involved in this match. Yes, Hart and Goldberg took out three seperate referees during the course of this match. At the end, Roddy Piper comes out in a ref shirt. Bret Hart locks in the Sharpshooter and Roddy signals for the bell like he's ordering extra cheese on his Big Mac. Seriously, he steps in the ring, lazily waves his hand, and then nonchalantly leaves as if he just told the crew to have those spreadsheets ready by Friday and didn't just screw over the most dominant wrestler in the world in the main event of the company's biggest show of the year. Fucking WCW, man. Oh yeah, this was the match with the kick that gave Bret the concussion that ended his career. Too bad it sucked.)

VINCE MCMAHON: Wrestlemania XXVI (According to a recent post on here, this match was slated to happen four years earlier. It's a shame it didn't, because this really wasn't nearly as big of a deal as it should have been.)

THE MIZ: Raw 8/9/10 (Ah yes, Bret "I look like I'm at Home Depot" Hart's return and US title win. 2010 was quite the year.)

RICARDO RODRIGUEZ: Raw 9/12/11 (Bret Hart's last match was on Raw with John Cena against Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez. Hmm.)

And there you have it. That's 27 wrestlers who have submitted to Bret the Hitman Hart. Of course, the actual number would be way bigger if I included Superstars and Wrestling Challenge but seriously guys, I looked through all those matches and the only name I recognized was Barry Horowitz. It doesn't add mutch to his repertoire. Anyway, out of the 27 listed here:

7 of them are former WWE champions
2 of them are former AWA champions
and 6 of them are former WCW/World Heavyweight champions

Those combined include 10 former world champions in some respect. Out of the remaining wrestlers:
4 of them are former Intercontinental champions
and 1 of them is a former European champion.

So that's Bret Hart for you. Without him, submission based wrestling might rarely be seen in North American wrestling. Not a bad resume.

[cero2k]

I personally wound't count Stone Cold's loss in this list, Hart did win the match, but Austin didn't submit