Jake Roberts: Bret Hart and HBK were the worst WWE champions

[octopus]

www.fightful.com/wrestling/jake-roberts-calls-shawn-michaels-bret-hart-worst-champions-ever?utm_source=TW-FightfulWrestling&utm_medium=Fightful%20Wrestling%20News&utm_campaign=dlvr.it.organic

“Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. Those chumps needed the title. Nobody paid attention to them. [Michaels] was in a tag team and they were pretty good and they made the girls say, ‘Oooh!’ But that’s about it. [Michaels] worked his ass off. I’ll give him that. He performs his ass off. But was he a good champion? Hell no. Did he put asses to seats? Not that many. Check the books. Bret Hart & Shawn Michaels were the worst champions of all. They did not put money in the bank. Shawn Michaels had the ‘It’ factor but he was 215 pounds and in my day, you’re getting in the ring with 275, 300, 350 pound guys. Then you go Andre who’s 550. Can you imagine Shawn going up against Andre? My case is closed,” Roberts said.

Now, Roberts gave his pick as to who was the best champion.

“Oh, that’s easy. Steve Austin. He was very refreshing when he came along. During the Bret and Shawn feud, they were getting hammered by WCW not just in TV ratings either. Check the numbers.”

[XIII]

WWF wasn’t the only thing getting hammered during the Bret/Shawn feud. lol

Not necessarily wrong, but also not necessarily right, such are opinions, 🤷🏻‍♂️

Regardless, love to hear Jake’s thoughts on things. Great mind.

[Spider2024]

"Now, Lance Archer, there's a future champ you could set your watch to!"

[Spider2024]

Mar 19, 2020 16:36:40 GMT -5 XIII said:

WWF wasn’t the only thing getting hammered during the Bret/Shawn feud.

So was Jake.

[cabbageboy]

No mention of Nash when he had the title? I think 1995 was really their worst year financially. I tend to agree with Jake when it comes to Michaels. I know from my own HS experience that a lot of guys switched over to WCW once he got the title. But Bret? His non title stuff with Lawler drew better than most stuff from that era, as did some of the house shows against Owen and Yoko. His early 1996 title run also certainly rebounded numbers at the gate and also TV.

All this being said, I think the WWF's financial woes from 1996-98 are exaggerated. I did in fact check the live attendance numbers and of the 22 months WCW was whipping them in the ratings (June 1996-April 1998) the WWF actually had better attendance in 15 of those 22 months. PPV numbers also increased during that time period. The ticket buying public did not desert the WWF. Guy Evans talked about that in the Nitro book, that for all of Bischoff's bluster about Monday night ratings the actual metrics aside from that told a different story.

[bob]

clearly Jake never saw Jinder's title run

[Deleted]

We live in a post-Jinder Mahal world, there are no other answers.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2020 16:43:42 GMT -5 bob said:

clearly Jake never saw Jinder's title run

Lucky him.

[warden]

Where's that bret hart gif in response to this?

[Jaws the Shark]

I know he's regarded as having a "great mind for the business" but he's way off. He appears to be basing it on size alone, in which case the similarly-sized Jack Brisco, Ricky Steamboat and Buddy Rogers were the three worst NWA World Heavyweight champions ever, except clearly they weren't. Hart and Michaels weren't massive draws by any stretch but were probably what kept the WWF from completely tanking in the mid nineties, Hart in particular was important as a big draw in Europe when business was down in America and the WWF and WCW were relying heavily on their popularity overseas.

And as people have pointed out, even without that they were in no way, shape or form any worse than Jinder, or Stan Stasiak, or Sgt. Slaughter, or the Iron Sheik.

[realist]

Mar 19, 2020 16:44:02 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

We live in a post-Jinder Mahal world, there are no other answers.

You are 100% correct. And I say this as a fan of Jinder and someone who sincerely hoped that he could make it work. I do feel that much of the blame falls on bad booking, but that's another story.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

Jake: “Bret Hart and HBK”


“Hold my BLAAAGHAAHA”

[The Dark Order Inferno]

The new generation champions topped cards that were filled with crap, good talent beat to hell and booked into oblivion, saddled with angles and characters nobody would pay to see. You put Steve Austin atop a card filled with smiling cowboys thirty years past people giving a crap about westerns, Bastion Booger, King Kong Bundy, Henry o. Godwin and the 1-2-3 kid in diaper matches and he wouldn't draw anything like he could have. Taker was on top as much as Bret and Shawn, shockingly he didn't draw flies either, heck, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair didn't exactly do huge numbers, Flair did so poorly Vince let him go to WCW before his contract was up without jobbing him out in some humiliating way.

[bob]

Mar 19, 2020 17:20:02 GMT -5 warden said:

Where's that bret hart gif in response to this?

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

[Mozenrath]

I'd put Bret and Shawn over Slaughter, if we're going examples prior to them. Slaughter would have been a good champion years prior maybe, but by that time, he was out of shape and busted, saddled with a stupid angle. Diesel's also probably worse, though in his case, he wasn't exactly given an enviable task trying to work with Mabel, who was WAY too inexperienced for the spot.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Drawing wise? He’s not wrong, nobody gave a f*** about those two as champions, throw Nash in there. There’s a reason they had to work high school gyms during those years.

[Hulkshi Tanahashi]

Show him all of Jinder Mahal's run. He'll change his mind real quick.

[PKO]

I might not agree totally, but I actually thought he was talking some sense until he started on about weight.

I like wrestlers of all shapes and sizes, and with good storytelling (aka, good *wrestling*) I can easily buy smaller wrestlers beating bigger wrestlers.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

whilst Bret and Shawn's numbers aren't great on top, it was the lean years, the product wasn't great and their work was often the highlight, circa-2000 The Rock would have risen to the top when he's in a blood feud with Sparky Plug, he'd of been pissing in the wind for a good majority of it

re: the size thing

two of the hottest acts in the company of the 2010s where CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.

I think sometimes people can forget audiences aren't looking for the same thing in a superstar as 20-30 years ago, can you imagine Daniel Bryan going up against Andre The Giant? (case closed)