Bret Hart at WWE Payback.
As you likely saw 2 weeks ago, Samoa Joe defeated Finn Balor at an NXT live event to win the NXT Championship. This shocked the wrestling world and let us know that surprises can happen, even at house shows! Bret Hart has gotten his fair share of criticism for being very negative towards the WWE and the current product. On the most recent episode of the Sharpshooter Show hosted by WrestleZone, Bret praised the title change, linking it to a time in wrestling’s past:
“When some people think something is going to happen or know something is going to happen, when you knoooow Triple H is going to lose to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. You know it. It just takes the fun out of it. If you don’t know then it’s more of a mystery. When I had a wrestling match and I did moves and stuff in the ring. The fans knew a certain move was going to come up. I’d throw a swerve in to it and have something else happen. I think that’s important to wrestling in general. In everything. You never want people predicting what’s going to happen or know what’s going to happen. “Oh, he’s going to move on this one.” Then you move every time. You’ve got to change it up and actually jump up and land on somebody sometime and change the thinking. It’s good to spice it up and have house shows mean something again. I beat Ric Flair for the belt and it wasn’t even on TV. My first WWE Championship win. It’s always fun to keep it real. I think there’s an important legacy there. Wrestling was exposed a long time ago. Through the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s… we’ve always, in our own little way, tried to keep it real. When you dismiss that it’s not important anymore” (Source: Wrestlezone).
Agree with Bret, I thought it was a great moment. I think the WWE should follow suit here and do something similar. Maybe not with their top title but at least one of the lower tier ones to show fans that house shows can mean something. This can only help improve ticket sales for these shows!!
Let us know what you think!