Big Vinny V’s Mr. SummerSlam Countdown: Bret Hart hits at No. 3

By Vincent Verhei
Published: 29 Jul 2026, 13:18

Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam 1991 (Image credit: WWE)

Welcome to the Mr. SummerSlam Countdown, our look at the wrestlers who have the most matches named as the best on WWE’s biggest show of the summer. Our name today: Bret Hart, who finishes third in our rankings.

Prior articles in this series:

There is a huge gap between the top three in our rankings and everyone else. Edge finished in fourth place by having the best match at SummerSlam five times, and Randy Orton and Seth Rollins were right behind him at four times apiece. But Hart had the best match at SummerSlam eight times. That’s actually tied with the second-place finisher, but Hart benefitted from a few more ties and split decisions, so he’s a spot lower in our rankings.

We should also point out that Cagematch users gave Hart the best match of the night seven times, more than anyone else, including either of the wrestlers who finished above him on our list. So if you want to crown Hart as Mr. SummerSlam, nobody at Cagematch will stop you.

What’s most amazing is that Hart has only wrestled 11 matches at SummerSlam, and two of those matches were on one show. In other words, Hart wrestled on 10 SummerSlams, and only twice did he fail to have the best match of the night. Those two occasions: 1988, when he teamed with Jim Neidhart in a loss to Demolition, and 1995, when he wrestled Isaac Yankem (Kane before he was Kane), winning by disqualification in 16 minutes.

With that out of the way, here’s every other SummerSlam Hart wrestled on, and what gave him the best match on each of these shows.

1989: The Brain Busters (Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson) vs. the Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)

Dave Meltzer: **
Cagematch Users: 7.16

Cagematch users have rated this the best match on a weak show. Meltzer actually had three matches rated higher:

Rick Martel & The Fabulous Rougeaus vs. The Rockers & Tito Santana (***1/4)
Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude for the WWF Intercontinental Championship (***1/4)
Brutus Beefcake & Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage & Zeus (**1/2)

Regardless, there were better things in store for Hart in the future.

1990: The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) vs Demolition (Crush & Smash) in a two-out-of-three-falls match for the WWF World Tag Team Championship

Meltzer: ***1/2
Cagematch: 7.26

Why, no, the early SummerSlam events were not great from an in-ring perspective. The only other match on this show that got even three stars from Meltzer was Power & Glory defeating the Rockers in the opener. The Hart Foundation and Demolition at least had time to build drama. Demolition pinned Hart with the Demolition Decapitation in about six minutes. Four minutes later, the Harts hit the Hart Attack on Smash. Crush attacked the referee to break up the pin, but was disqualified in the process. In the third fall, Ax illegally swapped places with Smash. The Legion of Doom, who had only debuted on WWF TV the month before, came out to attack Ax and distract Smash. This left Crush isolated in the ring, and Hart pinned him following a Neidhart slingshot shoulder tackle. Despite the disqualification in the second fall, the Harts were declared the new tag team champions.

Coincidentally, the WWE Vault uploaded this match to YouTube earlier this week.

1991: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

Meltzer: ****
Observer Readers: 98% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 8.76

Now we’re cooking. Not just the best match on a weak show, this was a legitimately great contest. It got 164 votes from Observer readers as the best match of the night; no other match got more than two votes. This was Hart’s first singles championship in the WWF, and he made it count.

From Meltzer’s review:

An excellent match that easily stole the show. Believe it or not, even though Perfect worked the match in great pain (he’ll be out of action for an indefinite period of time and as of last word there was a good chance he’s going to need a spinal fusion or another form of major back surgery and there is even some concern that if he needs that serious of an operation that it may be a long time, or even never, when he returns), in some ways the back injury made him an even better worker. Perfect’s deal before getting hurt a few months back was to take one unbelievable bump after another, which can carry a match when he’s working with a guy who can’t do anything. But in this case, while he did a few big bumps, for obvious reasons he had to limit both their number and their wildness and was forced into wrestling a serious style match. … The last five minutes consisted of one great near fall after another. … Perfect did a legdrop to the lower abs/groin area but when he went for a second, Hart caught the leg and turned him into the scorpion and Perfect made an immediate submission. The match was slightly better than four stars, but after all those near falls when it looked as though one was going to have to do something spectacular to win, the actual finish was ridiculous because the guy gave up the second the hold was on without even pretending to struggle which is the only negative thing about the match.

Mr. Perfect took more than a year off after this match. His next match was at Survivor Series 1992, where he teamed with Randy Savage to take on Ric Flair & Razor Ramon.

1992: Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

Meltzer: ****1/2
Observer Readers: 77% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 9.03

An English superstar challenging a Canadian champion, with whom he had been close on both a personal and professional level for many years, main eventing an August show at Wembley Stadium? What are the odds of that ever happening again?

Again, this was by far the best match of the night. Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior for the WWF World Championship was the only other contest that got best match votes from Observer readers.

Meltzer wrote that the match was “a near-classic match, probably the best WWF singles match on a major show since Savage-Steamboat in 1987.”

1993: Bret Hart vs. Jerry Lawler

Meltzer: ****
Observer Readers: 40% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 6.20

We’re now back in “best match on a weak show” territory. In fact, there was much disagreement on the best match this night. Meltzer went with Hart vs. Lawler. Observer readers and Cagematch users both had it second-best behind the Heavenly Bodies vs. the Steiner Brothers (56% of the vote from Observer readers, 6.92 rating on Cagematch).

This was actually two matches in one, as Lawler claimed he could not wrestle due to injury, and that Doink the Clown was taking his place. Meltzer’s review:

Then came the highlight of the show. Lawler came out on crutches to do the old broken leg trick. He brought Doink out as his replacement. … They had a decent match, but that was all, ending in 9:05 when Hart got Doink in the sharpshooter and Lawler broke a crutch over his head for the DQ. … Jack Tunney at this point ordered Lawler to wrestle Hart because of doing the fake broken leg trick or be suspended for life. … Lawler made a comeback with shots with the second crutch and rammed Hart’s crotch into the post and started choking him with a crutch as security held back Owen and Bruce. Hart came back with a low blow and pulled down his strap, which was lost on the entire crowd, then used a piledriver, came off the top rope with a punch and put on the sharpshooter for the submission in 6:32. Hart kept the hold on for several minutes while several refs and road agents and family members stood around. It was finally announced the decision was reversed and that by virtue of the win, Lawler becomes King of the WWF. So I guess King is a new title, but it’s under Mexican rules since it can change hands via DQ. Lawler ended up carried out on a stretcher. While on the stretcher, Bruce attacked Lawler. As a match, it’s maybe three stars, but the whole scenario from start-to-finish was worth ****.

1994: Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart in a steel cage match for the WWF World Championship

Meltzer: *****
Observer Readers: 82% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 9.07

This actually was not the main event of the show; that honor went to Undertaker vs. Undertaker in a match rated 1.66 by Observer readers and -* by Meltzer. As Meltzer wrote at the time:

The WWF’s lack of talent depth showed itself once again at SummerSlam, a well-produced show with a phenomenal title match followed by possibly the worst main event in the history of PPV. … The contrast between Bret Hart and Owen Hart putting on the absolute best match humanly possible given the constrictions of WWF cage match rules. … Still, no matter how bad the main event was, I could never give a thumbs down to a show with a match as good as Bret and Owen in the cage.

And from his detailed match review:

As they were building the cage, they showed all the film clips dating back to Survivor Series last year, including tons of interviews along the way. They also went through the family interviewing many of them, and showing Jim Neidhart sitting with the family but as the lone member supporting Owen. … As mentioned earlier, these kind of cage matches have many limitations because big moves play second fiddle to climbing and running, and it’s impossible to climb and run for more than 30:00 without it getting repetitive. Bret worked the match with a strep throat. But you couldn’t ask for a better performance or a better match given those limitations. Although it wasn’t wrestled like an All Japan Budokan main event, the psychology was almost identical although it fell way short when it came to believability in that guys were out of the cage on their way down and pulled back in too many times. … Owen used a piledriver and went up. Bret followed by as they brawled on the top rope, Owen punched Bret in the ring, lost his own balance and crotched himself. … The manner in which this match was worked really put Owen over strong as a face until the post-match which changed things because both men worked as equals and came off as having never-say-die attitudes, which after 20:00 made fans have to respect both. … Bret superplexed Owen off the top of the cage and went for the door which appeared to be the finish but Owen pulled him back in. Owen got the sharpshooter, but Bret reversed it and got it on himself. Bret started climbing and it looked to be the finish but Owen got up and both took a big bump back into the ring. Both climbed out together and were over and on the way down when Bret hooked Owen’s leg into the cage and hung him upside down and hit the floor for the win. At this point Neidhart … hopped the rail and attacked Bret. Owen momentarily watched, almost as if to tease a face turn, but then joined in. They threw Bret back into the cage and Owen destroyed Bret while Neidhart tried to lock the cage behind him (it took Neidhart forever to lock the door which is the only negative thing). The two destroyed Bret while the other brothers tried to save him and Neidhart and Owen kept knocking them off the cage. Finally the brothers got in and Neidhart and Owen climbed out and ran, but not until Davey Boy got Neidhart by the foot and pulled his shoe off. This probably won’t win match of the year, but it beat their Wrestlemania match and I believe it’ll be years before we see a cage match under these limiting circumstances that is this good.

1997: Bret Hart vs. the Undertaker for the WWF World Championship with Shawn Michaels as special guest referee

Meltzer: ***
Observer Readers: 54% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 7.97

This was Hart’s fifth WWF World Championship win, tying him with Hulk Hogan for most ever at that time. And no, it was not a particularly great match, but the Attitude Era is rarely remembered for great matches. Only two other matches (Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin and Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley) got votes from Observer readers as best of the night, and this was the Austin match where Owen dropped him on his head on a botched piledriver and Austin could barely even function enough to finish the match. But while the main event won’t be shown on anyone’s best-of collection, it did set the stage for two of the biggest matches in company history: Undertaker-Michaels in the first-ever Hell in a Cell later that year, and Michaels-Hart in the Montreal screwjob at Survivor Series in November.

Meltzer’s review:

Bret’s facial expressions are incredible, particularly the combination disdain and sadness he appeared to show at the live crowd when they booed and cheered the Canadian national anthem. … As Hart came off the apron, Undertaker caught him and smashed his back into the ringpost twice and followed with a backbreaker. Hart came back working on Undertaker’s left knee. Paul Bearer came out. Undertaker got out of the ring and attacked him, but it allowed Hart to come from behind with a chop block and continue to work the knee. … Overall Michaels did a phenomenal job as referee, both in building his own character for the finish and also being credible in the role of referee at the same time. Owen Hart and Pillman came out. Bret continued to work the knee until Undertaker ran out and attacked Owen and Pillman. Michaels ran out of the ring and began arguing with both, while in the ring Undertaker choke slammed Hart but Michaels wasn’t there to make the count. At this point Undertaker grabbed Michaels and began arguing with him. Bret used a schoolboy for a near fall and Undertaker went after Michaels again, building to the finish. … Undertaker made a comeback, barely selling the leg at all, with punches, a flying clothesline and the Hogan trademark foot to the face and legdrop which Hart symbolically kicked out of. Undertaker then choke slammed Hart from the apron to the middle of the ring for another near fall. He went for his rope-walk spot, but Hart tripped him up and Undertaker crotched himself. … Hart went for the sharpshooter, and Undertaker became the first person to break the hold kicking Hart out of the ring. Hart was mouthing the f word throughout the match and did again here. Hart then put the sharpshooter on around the post, but Undertaker broke that as well and in doing so, knocked Hart onto Michaels on the floor. Michaels started selling his knee. While Michaels was hobbling, Hart took a chair and hit Undertaker with it and motioned for Michaels to make the count, but Undertaker kicked out. Hart and Michaels began arguing, particularly when Michaels noticed the chair at the ring. He started screaming at Hart if he’d used the chair, and finally Hart spit in his face. Michaels then swung the chair at Hart which theoretically would have had he hit him been the end of both in the United States. Hart ducked and the chair hit Undertaker. Michaels then counted the pin and stormed off.

2010: Team WWE vs. Nexus

Meltzer: ***1/2
Observer Readers: 89% of the votes for best match
Cagematch: 6.93

We told you this match would come up a lot. We talked about while discussing Chris Jericho in our Honorable Mentions piece, and then again when talking about Edge. And if it was strange to credit Jericho and Edge for their limited contributions to the match, it’s flat-out ridiculous to credit Hart, who could barely do anything after suffering his stroke and was eliminated not even one-third of the way through. But rules are rules. It’s also worth pointing out that even if you threw out this match, the Lawler match, and the Brain Busters match, Hart would still finish in third place in this series.

Here’s all the Hart-related commentary from Meltzer’s very long review:

Fans started a “We Want Bret” chant. … Bret Hart tagged in to work with Slater, throwing punches, a reverse atomic drop and went for the sharpshooter. Hart can’t do a match because he can’t bump or take any shots, but his movement and offense looked good. It was actually incredible considering he’s 53, has an artificial knee and suffered a serious stroke. Barrett threw in a chair and Hart used the chair on Sheffield for the DQ in 12:10. The crowd was genuinely mad when Hart was eliminated, and he was the only guy in the match you could say that about.

Come back tomorrow for the No. 2 spot in the Mr. SummerSlam Countdown, a man who could still finish at No. 1 before all is said and done.

WWE News