"The Hitman" gimmick

[Stickman]

Is it just me or was Bret Hart's gimmick mainly just a guy who's really good at telling a story in the ring while wearing pink tights? I don't recall many cheesy lines about him being a hired hitman or anything. Seriously, what was his main gimmick?

[Schlomey]

The only gimmick he really used was the Pro-Canada thing for a while. He was a straight up wrestler who didn't really need a gimmick. One of the few who got over on talent and name value alone.

[Schlomey]

He exploited his family name and his brothers in the assist as well.

[Anybody Thrilla]

He borrowed the nickname from the boxer Thomas Hearns (with his blessing) just because he thought it sounded cool. There was never any mention of him being an actual hitman. The closest thing I can come up with for the name actually being a fitting one is that he was extremely precise with his work, much like a hitman.

[Volare]

Excellence of Execution.

[Schlomey]

Did he get that nickname because he executed people!? :eek:

[Joesgonnakillyou]

no gimmicks needed

[kareru]

bret hart is like bryan danielson, they both lack charisma but the crowd still loves them
exactly what JGKY said no gimmicks needed

[Stickman]

bret hart is like bryan danielson, they both lack charisma but the crowd still loves them
exactly what JGKY said no gimmicks needed

Did you seriously just compare Bret Hart to some no name?

[Stickman]

The only gimmick he really used was the Pro-Canada thing for a while. He was a straight up wrestler who didn't really need a gimmick. One of the few who got over on talent and name value alone.

This is what I thought.

[Xero]

no gimmicks needed

That's just a fucking lazy-ass cop-out in EWR.

[kareru]

Did you seriously just compare Bret Hart to some no name?

byran danielson isn't exactly some no-name, im just pointing out the similarities both not charismatic at all both very impressive in the ring and i think thats why they can get over like they do, with all the outlandish characters with huuuuge ego's the crowd can really get behind a straight up athlete.

[Jakob Synn]

HEewas like a hitman. He went out and got the job done.

[Sixx]

HEewas like a hitman. He went out and got the job done.

Basically that's what garbagemen and 100000 other professions do as well.

[Zeeboe]

bret hart is like bryan danielson, they both lack charisma but the crowd still loves them
exactly what JGKY said no gimmicks needed

Totally disagree. Bret Hart has great mic skills, and I've never understood why some guys think otherwise.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Bret Hart was Bret Hart on the mic and it's all he ever needed to be.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

kareru I've decided you don't understand wrestling all that much. Well I'm sure you do, but you see it in a very black and white way.

[kareru]

kareru I've decided you don't understand wrestling all that much. Well I'm sure you do, but you see it in a very black and white way.

how so?

[Xero]

Totally disagree. Bret Hart has great mic skills, and I've never understood why some guys think otherwise.

Seemed very unsure of himself on the mic outside of a few angles in the Canada vs US storyline.

It's a similar problem I have with Morrison. He can be okay, but he always seems very unsure of himself if it's not a sketch. The confidence issue takes a lot away for me.

Bret has just enough charisma, though. Just sub-par mic skills. (They are not one in the same.)

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

how so?

TNA-2 WWE-1 is all I need to say.

[Jakob Synn]

Bret has just enough charisma, though. Just sub-par mic skills. (They are not one in the same.)

Bret was pretty good on the mic when he had to be.

[kareru]

TNA-2 WWE-1 is all I need to say.


that was just my scoring on my rate of enjoyment,
it must be a british thing because impact and smackdown are by far the highest rated wrestling shows over here

[Xero]

Bret was pretty good on the mic when he had to be.

Very rarely and was the exception, not the rule.

[Brian Bee]

Gotta love WCW.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IJWoeaUQL._SS500_.jpg

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

that was just my scoring on my rate of enjoyment,
it must be a british thing because impact and smackdown are by far the highest rated wrestling shows over here

Smackdown is a WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY fucking better show than Impact.

[Jakob Synn]

Very rarely and was the exception, not the rule.

I'll give that to you, but when it really mattered Bret knew how to deliver.

[Xero]

Gotta love WCW.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IJWoeaUQL._SS500_.jpg

rofl

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Xero what are you talking about? He was just a straight shooter on the mic same as he was in the ring. God you're infuriating when you talk about bret hart lol. It's not liek Shawn Michaels was all that much better on the mic. Neither of them were a Rock or an Austin but they cut promos that were straight to the point.

[Xero]

Michaels kept my attention and they felt like they had emotion. Plus a lot of Shawn's had character.

Bret's, not so much.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Bret's promos were exactly his character. The humble hero. You seem to forget that when Shawn was champ he had the same fanbase as Cena.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Not that I'm saying one was better than the other.... but Shawn was forced down our throats.

[kareru]

Gotta love WCW.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IJWoeaUQL._SS500_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IJWoeaUQL._SS500_.jpg


erm.. is that a tommy gun i see????

edit: lmao i just noticed the handgun in the top right

[Xero]

Bret's promos were exactly his character. The humble hero. You seem to forget that when Shawn was champ he had the same fanbase as Cena.

I won't take anything away from Bret in the ring (he can be boring TO ME, but that doesn't mean I can't respect his work). However, the vast majority of Bret's promos just didn't feel like they had emotion. I understand that he didn't NEED to be over the top, and I wouldn't expect him to be. There just felt like something was missing and, again, felt like he was unsure of himself.

Did his promos get the job done? Absolutely. But they could have been much better for the position he was in.

No idea why we're talking about Shawn being shoved down our throats, though. Not talking about pushes, just mic work.

[Favre4Ever]

Bret has just enough charisma, though. Just sub-par mic skills. (They are not one in the same.)

I guess the biggest comparison we could have to this in today's wrestling world is Jeff Hardy. Whether anyone wants to argue that he has improved or not, Jeff has been a pretty shitty mic worker for most of his career. But like Bret, he didn't need it to get over.

[Jakob Synn]

Xero what are you talking about? He was just a straight shooter on the mic same as he was in the ring. God you're infuriating when you talk about bret hart lol. It's not liek Shawn Michaels was all that much better on the mic. Neither of them were a Rock or an Austin but they cut promos that were straight to the point.

I hate Shawn Michaels and I agree that he was better on the mic than Bret

[Xero]

I guess the biggest comparison we could have to this in today's wrestling world is Jeff Hardy. Whether anyone wants to argue that he has improved or not, Jeff has been a pretty shitty mic worker for most of his career. But like Bret, he didn't need it to get over.

Completely agreed.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I won't take anything away from Bret in the ring (he can be boring TO ME, but that doesn't mean I can't respect his work). However, the vast majority of Bret's promos just didn't feel like they had emotion. I understand that he didn't NEED to be over the top, and I wouldn't expect him to be. There just felt like something was missing and, again, felt like he was unsure of himself.

Did his promos get the job done? Absolutely. But they could have been much better for the position he was in.

No idea why we're talking about Shawn being shoved down our throats, though. Not talking about pushes, just mic work.

His character was kinda like the original Cena though. We had vince up his ass, and Shawn would just kiss ass sooooooooo hard. Mind you he was great on the mic as a heel, but I'd say Bret was just as good as a heel on the mic.

Now when Michaels came back in '02 his promos were WAY better. But the original big face run, he was super hokey and gay and like Bret said he played that "male stripper" gimmick. It was like he was this uber cocky guy but sucking up to the fans... it was pretty fucking annoying.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

w/e either way, to say Bret was crap on the mic is full of shit, whether Michaels was better or not.

[Kapoutman]

No idea why we're talking about Shawn being shoved down our throats, though. Not talking about pushes, just mic work.

I think he's talking about his first championship push. It's true that in a way, Shawn had an almost Cena push.

Fans started by warming up to him when he was a heel. WWF pulled the trigger, made him champ, but then he became the smiling babyface with his "clique" cam and all that stuff. Video packages all the time, etc. Then fans got tired (except girls and kids), even started cheering for Sid against him (which has always baffled me). When he turned heel again and started DX, things got good for him again.

I think Cena is stuck in the "fans start cheering opponents", but WWE won't pull the trigger because he's selling too much merchandise. Michaels could be afforded as a heel back then because they had Austin who started selling lots of merchandise, while they're only other option in that field these days is probably Mysterio.

[Jakob Synn]

I think he's talking about his first championship push. It's true that in a way, Shawn had an almost Cena push.


It's because of the whole "Boyhood dream" thing.

[Kapoutman]

I know that. The reason of the push is not what I'm talking about. It's the way it was handled.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

Yeah and he danced to the ring like a fucking clown.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

They kind of made him "Hogan" like... like obviously he could work like a motherfucker but he was so damned untouchable, that every match he did sort of had a very basic formula. I'd say only once he returned in 1997 (That fucking whitehot tag match teaming with Austin vs. Bulldog and Owen) that he picked up his steam again

[Jakob Synn]

Yeah and he danced to the ring like a fucking clown.

But he was a boy toy, so it was expected of him.

Plus

http://cdn1.ioffer.com/img/item/516/234/11/1096.jpg

[Kapoutman]

Mario Van Peebles will try anything once. :eek:

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

yeah I'm not doubting that he was a boy toy, but how are males between 18-30 really gonna cheer that guy, especially once he starts kissing their ass. if he was cocky and rogueish and didn't kiss ass like that then it would have been fine, but he wanted his cake and he also wanted to eat it.

[Schlomey]

haha kapoutman beat me to it :(

[The Show Off]

bret hart is like bryan danielson, they both lack charisma but the crowd still loves them
exactly what JGKY said no gimmicks needed

Danielson actually has a lot of charisma. Watch him in ROH in 2006 and tat is some top quality heel work. His mic skills are pretty good. The whole "I have til 5" thing was his biggest catch phrase and was done during a match.

I dare say Danielson takes the technical expertise of Bret Hart (William Regal really) and combines it with the in-ring showmanship of Shawn Michaels. It's an awesome combination.

[Loose Cannon]

Nobody mentioned it, but WCW actually gave him a "Hitman" gimmick during his run there. He took out the likes of Nash, DDP and I think Chris Benoit. He would always try to break thier legs/damage thier knees. It was pretty cool actually.

On the mic, I thought he always did a great job. When he first started his singles run, there was definately a lot of room for improvement and he'll even admit that. But you could tell he started getting comfortable around Wrestlemania 8 and really improved every year. His best year was 1997, where he had to carry a ton of promos on Raw.

[Jura]

Yeah in most of his matches he attack their knee to set them up for the sharpshooter. He's the Excellence of Execution. The execution of wrestling moves. In that way he is the Hitman. He does have a lot of charisma and can talk on the mic but a lot of fans who started watching after and didn't see him at all feels differently. He's not the Rock or anything but I guess you had to see it live as it was happening otherwise you won't feel the whole effect.

[Jakob Synn]

Yeah in most of his matches he attack their knee to set them up for the sharpshooter. He's the Excellence of Execution. The execution of wrestling moves. In that way he is the Hitman. He does have a lot of charisma and can talk on the mic but a lot of fans who started watching after and didn't see him at all feels differently. He's not the Rock or anything but I guess you had to see it live as it was happening otherwise you won't feel the whole effect.

He came from not only a wrestling family but from the era that wrestling was big, then just before the Screwjob it was slowly turning into big bad characters and the Hitman just couldn't compete with that.

I remember when he was going against Austin back in the day and feeling bad because as much as I loved him he could never get a crowd reaction the same as Austin and that somewhat annoyed me because in my mind Bret was better than Austin.

[Xero]

Yeah in most of his matches he attack their knee to set them up for the sharpshooter. He's the Excellence of Execution. The execution of wrestling moves. In that way he is the Hitman. He does have a lot of charisma and can talk on the mic but a lot of fans who started watching after and didn't see him at all feels differently. He's not the Rock or anything but I guess you had to see it live as it was happening otherwise you won't feel the whole effect.

I don't want him to be Rock. Very few can even dream of being that good on the stick.

But I'd expect him to be on par with who his peers were, and that includes anyone with a mouthpiece. Diesel could talk, Shawn could talk, Cornette (for Yoko) could talk. Hell, even Sid could talk. All these people brought somewhat of a presence. Bret did not.

Bret's mic work was fine, for a non-main event player of the early-mid 90s.

And I do agree his best year was 97. But everything else he's done seemed just plain boring and awkward at best.

[Jakob Synn]

Hell, even Sid could talk.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I wouldn't go that far.

[Xero]

Sid brought more character (not THE character, but character within his promos) than Bret ever could. And that, to me, is important during that time frame.

[Jakob Synn]

Sid brought more character (not THE character, but character within his promos) than Bret ever could. And that, to me, is important during that time frame.

But here's the thing, Sid was a character of Sid Eudy he wasn't playing himself like Bret was.

Bret came into the WWF as himself and never really had a character to outline himself after. That's why WCW had troubles with him, they couldn't come up with something for someone who actually knew how to wrestle and had a background like his.

[Xero]

Fine, then Bret is boring and awkward in real life.

[Jeritron]

Sid brought more character (not THE character, but character within his promos) than Bret ever could. And that, to me, is important during that time frame.

Highly disagree

[Johnny Vegas]

Back to the topic at hand, Jura is i think the most correct. He was a hitman because he was so technical and precise with his attacks to set up the "kill" ala Sharpshooter.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I don't want him to be Rock. Very few can even dream of being that good on the stick.

But I'd expect him to be on par with who his peers were, and that includes anyone with a mouthpiece. Diesel could talk, Shawn could talk, Cornette (for Yoko) could talk. Hell, even Sid could talk. All these people brought somewhat of a presence. Bret did not.

Bret's mic work was fine, for a non-main event player of the early-mid 90s.

And I do agree his best year was 97. But everything else he's done seemed just plain boring and awkward at best.

Ugh. I'm sorry but Nash's promos were no better than Bret's. You drink the Bret Hart hatorade.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

And sid :|, Xero, honestly, shutup please.

[XIII]

bret was the shit during the bret/luger rumble draw.. as for his gimmick, imagine if he would have went with the cowboy gimmick he talked aobut in his dvd

[Xero]

And sid :|, Xero, honestly, shutup please.

Lucky I didn't add Warrior to my list.

[Zen v.W.o.]

byran danielson isn't exactly some no-name, im just pointing out the similarities both not charismatic at all both very impressive in the ring and i think thats why they can get over like they do, with all the outlandish characters with huuuuge ego's the crowd can really get behind a straight up athlete.

The lack of charisma is not al true for Bret though. His charisma wasnt flashy or full of pizazz but he had that something that drew people in, not to mention he was a great storyteller and managed to cut promos and such that made you believe in them, that made them feel all the more legit. He was probably the best at that.

[Zen v.W.o.]

Yeah and he danced to the ring like a fucking clown.

That and he dressed like a big time gay. Male audiences couldnt get behind that.

[Zen v.W.o.]

Sid brought more character (not THE character, but character within his promos) than Bret ever could. And that, to me, is important during that time frame.

All Sid ever did when he talked was not make any sense and fuck up and stumble his lines.

I will beat you because I am the man, and the master and the ruler of the world!!!! Same shit all the time, never made any sense.

Bret cut promos that made people care, he added something to the feud with the way he managed to build things up. Bret was real motherfucker.

[Verbose Minch]

Fine, then Bret is boring and awkward in real life.

I think you need to realize that you aren't right all the time.

[DLVH84]

I grew up watching Bret from 1988 till his retirement in 2000. I say his promos were as awesome as his wrestling ability. The promos make sense, have the passion, and the emotion.

[Jura]

Fine, then Bret is boring and awkward in real life.
Almost all of us are boring and awkward in real life. Hitman wasn't really a character. Almost every time he was playing mostly himself except the anti-America heel. It's like he talks about being the best and trying to take the guy out and using his great wrestling skill because it's all true. I fucking wouldn't want to watch Steve Borden the Christian or Shawn Michaels the Christian or Scott Hall the drunk. I remember when he was in the ring drunk and it was a little funny but he was a mess. I think at the time Bret's stuff was good in that era but if it happened now it wouldn't be that interesting.

I found Mr. Perfect boring. Forgive me but I did. Okay he was good at sports and all this stuff but he wasn't the champion and I rarely seen him with a belt so it was like he was just all talk but people who knew him in real life say he really is Mr. Perfect because he's actually really good at all those things he did.

Fast forward to the future and look at Chris Masters and M&M who did a not exact but similar gimmick and I thought they were pretty bland. Like I said you'd pretty much had to see it live and be in the moment and everything was much better and it worked back then.

Back to the topic at hand, Jura is i think the most correct. He was a hitman because he was so technical and precise with his attacks to set up the "kill" ala Sharpshooter.
Let's have sex.

[Jura]

Also, I liked The Blue Chip Rocky Maivia. He looked weird and smiled all the time but I thought he had really good energy and was a good performer in the ring plus energetic on the mic. His character was actually himself. He was promoted as the son of Peter Maivia and Rocky Johnson and is a 3rd generation wrestler or some shit and that's who he really was but people fucking hated him. Then he became "The Rock" and the most electrifying athlete in sports entertainment. Further proving characters close to the real wrestler worked back then but not now.

[6-String King]

Bret was around when an insert nickname was cool

Jim "the anvil" Niedhart

Randy "macho man" Savage

Andre "the giant" Giant

No he didn't have a "hitman, or sharpshooter" gimmick. It was just a name. And btw he used the color pink because the Canadian flag is red and white. Red and white together make pink. Straight from "the hitman's" mouth.

[Juan]

Bret was around when an insert nickname was cool


I think that might be why he was initially given the nick name, but I think Bret embraced it and it evolved into what some in this thread have been talking about.

[Sixx]

Andre "the giant" Giant

Um.

[Indifferent Clox]

Times have changed, Vampire Weekend a 'no name' band had the number one album in america. With the advent of the web bryan Danielson hasn't been a no name for years.

ECW was counter culture and has been compared with Nirvana. ROH is counter culture now and I'd make the comparison to indie, because A) they are both independent B) A lot of names go to the majors C) a lot of wrestlers don't even want to go to the 'big leagues' because they know their wrestling arsenal will be cut in half, like a lot of indie bands don't want to be on a major label because their creativity will be mainstreamized (mainstreamed).

[Indifferent Clox]

Also bryan danielson cuts great promos. Checkk out his last PWG promo, or his promo against lance storm or samoa joe. He's always been able to play a great heel, it's when he's a face he's alittle bland, but no more so than Shelton Benjamin.

[Jeritron]

mainstreamized

[DaVe]

lol at the continued use of 'charisma' and the like when people really mean 'showmanship'. If you think Bret had little/no charisma but was still very over then you have no idea what charisma is.

Even after destor's thread.:(

[Indifferent Clox]

Bryan Danielson has showmanship, it just works better when he can tak to the fans and the fans can make funny comments back and he can actually hear them and respond in kind.

i've got till 5

[Shadrick]

Excellence of Execution.

This.

[thedamndest]

Anybody Thrilla's answer about using Thomas Hearns' name was correct. I remember reading it in an old WWF Magazine.