Joseph and Colette Discuss Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin

A programming note before hopping into the discussion: This match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin is going to be the last WWE match BIG EGG covers for a while. You can probably guess why, which is a relief: I don't want to rehash what would have been an all-time "why am I devoting my time and attention to this product" week of WWE programming if I happened to engage with WWE programming on a blog that has nothing to do with news. Lucky me, I don't engage with WWE programming outside of the off match Joseph and I choose to watch for BIG EGG, so turning that spigot off entirely is actually pretty easy. If it weren't for the fact that I'd scheduled the Triple H vs. Undertaker Hell in a Cell match for Rematch Month, I wouldn't have to mention it at all.

What I will say, though, is that a common refrain whenever people who've been watching wrestling for a long time say that people who truly love wrestling should stop watching WWE is that it's difficult. How do you find out about new promotions, new wrestlers, new cultures of professional wrestling without WWE worming its way in somehow? It's tough, which is one of the many benefits of WWE having enjoyed a monopoly for as long as they have, but it is doable. BIG EGG has covered 68 wrestling matches in this format, and by my count 14 of them took place in a WWE ring. That count swells a bit if you include matches that are in WWE's tape library, but I'm gonna keep things simple here and point to the other 54 matches we've done as proof that it is possible to build a canon that exists entirely outside of a WWE ring. Ours, the BIG EGG MASTERLIST, would be actively better without four of the WWE matches we've covered.

If my contention as a critic is that you can create a canon without WWE, the least I can do is follow through on my end of the deal. So, no Triple H/Undertaker. Hunter Month is finally over. In its stead, the Crush Gals will explode AGAIN, as the 2/26/87 clash between Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo fills that slot. I don't know how long we'll be avoiding WWE content on BIG EGG, but it won't be that big of a deal: The WCW NITRO MASTERLIST project will continue as I'm working from a cache of VHS rips, and most things in their tape library can be accessed elsewhere.

Anyhow, I'm glad we're closing the book on WWE here, with a somewhat neglected gem that's on YouTube by the grace of some guy who ripped it from the Bret Hart Dungeon Collection DVD set.

UP NEXT: BIG EGG'S COMING AT YOU LIKE A VCR TO THE HEAD WHEN WE GET BACK TO NECRO/TOBY. They rematch in the following year's King of the Deathmatch and we're here to find out what fresh hell they've decided to unleash upon each other and us at the EGG!

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BIG EGGColette Arrand

Colette Arrand
It's been a big year for the most famous Bret Hart/Steve Austin match: WWE made a weird-ass brass bust of Hart and Austin because they ran out of people to induct into their phony hall of fame, and it took down the top slot in this year's Greatest Match Ever poll. Neither accolade factored into why I chose to revisit this pairing for Rematch Month, but there's something fun about visiting a match like this in a year where the canonical greatness of their big match has been affirmed in two very different ways. It's not a B-side or a demo, either, but a fully fleshed-out expression of what made both wrestlers so great, particularly at that moment in time. Ireally liked this match and think we're extremely lucky that there was a TV crew on hand to broadcast this one. A minor gem!

Joseph Montecillo
Yeah this match is great and pretty noteworthy for being the most "textbook" of their matches that we have on tape. This is, most likely, what the WWF envisioned when conceiving of this pair. Austin as a blustery but in the end insufficient heel against the consummate professional in Bret Hart. They play the classics here and they're predictably great at it.