Top 5 WrestleMania Matches from Bret "Hitman" Hart

So recently I did a Top 5 list on some of the best matches in the career of future WWE Hall of Famer, the "Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels. That got me to thinking that with the shock of current WWE Hall of Famer Bret "Hitman" Hart being announced as the General Manager of Monday Night Raw, maybe I should do a list for him.

So here's basically what's going to happen - you guys will occasionally see Top 5 lists out of me. They might be top matches of a particular superstar, tag team, or group, or it could be top specialty matches or top PPV matches. They are in no particular order or reason, just random matches I pulled off the top of my head at any random point in time. In this case, it's well past three in the morning, so these could be quite random.

Now as with most of these Top 5 Lists, I do need to file this under the Heartthrob Disclaimer Act. The following is a mere opinion of some of my favorite matches of a particular superstar or event. It in no way expresses the opinion of any reader who might see this article, and any and all comments are encouraged and welcomed. As always, if you have a suggestion for a superstar you would like to see, please let me know! That said, I present the Top 5 WrestleMania matches for Bret "Hitman" Hart.

The first WrestleMania match we are going to look at is a personal favorite of mine. Going back to WrestleMania X at Madison Square Garden in New York City. One of the early matches on the card would pit brother versus brother, as Bret would face baby brother Owen. This match came about as a result of Owen turning on Bret at the 1994 WWF Royal Rumble. They had been having problems off and for about four months, and it finally boiled over and they agreed to a match at WrestleMania. It kicked off the WWF's premier rivalry of 1994. In a back and forth contest, the "Rocket" surprised his older brother with a victory roll and getting the upset win. A loss in the epic encounter would not deter Bret, as he would go on later in the night to capture the WWF Championship from then-champion Yokozuna, the man who beat Bret for that very title a year earlier at WrestleMania IX in Las Vegas.

WrestleMania VIII takes the second spot on the list, as Bret would look to capture the WWF Intercontinental Championship from the often-controversial "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. The "Hot Rod" had beaten The Mountie at the 1992 Royal Rumble to capture the title. The two traded some words in a prematch interview, getting emotions stirred up. Bret Hart got busted open midway through the match, but when Piper locked in his signature sleeper hold, Bret used his feet on the turnbuckle to roll backwards onto the "Hot Rod" and get the victory, claiming his second WWF I-C Title.

Up next on the list takes us back to the infamous confrontation in 1997 at WrestleMania 13 with "StoneCold" Steve Austin. These two already had a feud brewing, as Bret defeated the Texas Rattlesnake at the 1996 Survivor Series when Bret returned the company after an 8-month hiatus. In this confrontation, UFC powerhouse Ken Shamrock was the special enforcer for the match. This has been referred as one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history. During the match, Austin's head was split open because of a shot taken to the ringside guardrail. Bret saw this and used every move and submission to make Austin work harder, and make the blood flow quicker. StoneCold would fall victim to the Sharpshooter, passing out from blood loss in the middle of the ring. However Bret refused to release the submission hold, leaving Shamrock and ringside officials no choice but to reverse the decision. Bret attacked Austin after the match, turning on the fans and becoming one of the most hated heels in recent memory.

The fourth entry into the Top 5 list takes us back to 1990 at WrestleMania VI from the SkyDome in Toronto. In a main event that featured Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior in a champion vs. champion match, Bret was involved in one of the shortest matches in WrestleMania history. As part of the Hart Foundation (alongside his brother-in-law Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart), they interrupted The Bolsheviks national anthem, and defeated the Russian duo in under 30 seconds with their Hart Attack finisher. This would eventually set up the Hart Foundation for the first of two WWF Tag Team Championship reigns.

The final match on this list puts us on road trip to Hartford, Connecticut, and WrestleMania XI. The "Excellence of Execution" went one-on-one with former WWF Champion, Bob Backlund in an I Quit Match. Backlund had been angry for several years, after his late manager Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel in Madison Square Garden and cause him to lose the WWF Championship to the Iron Sheik. Both men went into the match with an extensive wrestling background. Backlund had his amateur background from the University of Minnesota, and of course Bret had the training from the infamous Hart Family Dungeon in Calgary under the leadership of his father, Stu Hart. Using Backlund's own Cross Face Chicken Wing as well as his own Sharpshooter submission, Bret make his opponent say the magic words and Bret would refocus his attention on the WWF Championship, which he would get for the fifth time at Suvivor Series later in the year.

So there you have it, the Top 5 WrestleMania matches of Bret "Hitman" Hart. For those of you thrown by my use of the WWF lettering instead of WWE, I refuse to acknowledge the fact that a certain group of panda-pushing wildlife airheads made the World Wrestling Federation change everything up.

Like I mentioned earlier, if you agree or disagree with these matches or if you have any comments or arguments, please feel free to let me know. In the coming weeks you will see more of these Top 5 lists like this one and the Shawn Michaels list. If you have any suggestions, let me know and you might see your suggestion in an upcoming article! If you want more information on these matches and more, check out the WrestleMania subsection of WWE.com.