It didnt work and Triple H was seen as a hero, even in his defeat.
Fast-forward and we were given Roman Reigns.
He too was being shoved into the #1 spot despite vocal antagonizing from the WWE fans.
Wrestling is funny like that.
With a narrative style thats repetitive by design, its easy to see parallels in stories and events.
Sometimes the similarities grow bigger and more notable.
Like, for instance, the ten-year curse ofWrestleMania.
In fact, its .
Bret spent years in WWF as part of the Hart Foundation with tag partner Jim The Anvil Neidhart.
It wasnt that bad, since this was during an era when the tag team division mattered.
On paper, it sounds fantastic, but he didnt so much score it by winning Vinces heart.
Bret was small enough to make it work.
Truth be told, they really did get behind him as champion by playing up a new dynamic.
Bret Hart was a fighting champion and it was new and cool.
Hed defend his title against whoever, whenever.
AtWrestleMania IX, Bret would lose to the unstoppable Yokozuna via cheating.
Hulk Hogan who had an earlier match would show up and get challenged by Yokozuna.
Through backfired cheating, Hogan would win the title in seconds.
Then hed face Bret atSummerSlam, lose, and pass the torch to the new generation.
Well…Hogan didnt go through with that after winning the title.
He wanted out so he could do more movies.
Bret spent months battling a shlub that he couldnt shut up.
WrestleMania Time
Survivor Series 93laid the seeds for a rivalry between Bret and his younger brother Owen.
Owen lost his mind, attacked Bret, and turned heel.
Bret reappeared in the Royal Rumble match itself.
It ended with he and Lex Luger eliminating each other at the same time.
The original plan was to have a mini-tournament atWrestleMania Xwhere Luger would win and finally be champion.
Problem was, the fans were WAAAAAAY more in Brets corner.
McMahon paid attention and changed plans.
At the show, Bret would face Owen in a warm-up match.
No matter the winner, Bret would advance against the winner of Luger vs. Yokozuna.
In a wonderful opener, Bret got pinned by Owen.
A bit later, Yokozuna defeated Luger via a really lame disqualification spot.
Bret Hart was champion.
Even better, this loss to Owen gave him a smoking hot title program to jump right into.
The Unfortunate Aftermath
Bret Hart would not main event another PPV for a year and a half.
Yes, even as champion.
The whole point is that Owens a sociopath!
AtSurvivor Series, he turned Diesel face and gave him a ton of momentum.
Diesel proceeded to demolish Backlund in seconds and became a champion.
On paper, this should have worked out.
Instead, WWF fell into a crater both financially and creatively.
Bret himself spent his PPV matches taking on such midcarders as Hakushi and Jean-Pierre Lafitte.
Keep that in mind for later.
Anyway, Diesels reign was such a failure that they put the belt back on Bret again.
Of course they did.
Vince even had him sign a 20-year contract that would net him $10 million!
Buuuuut WWF wasnt doing so great at the time, so Vince suggested he just go to WCW.
That should have been the golden ticket for WCW.
WCW famously botched their use of Bret from day one.
Granted, there were some bright spots mixed in there, but things didnt exactly work out so well.
They did thrust him into the title picture eventually, and it went very wrong.
Rather than take time off and have it treated, Bret continued to wrestle for a few more weeks.
That only made it worse and he had to stop wrestling completely.
Sometime after, Bret suffered a stroke.
As an upside, Bret did eventually make amends with Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels.
But he did do better than this next guy.
PART TWO: CHRIS BENOIT
Yeah, this guy.
WCWs high became a chaotic low and Benoits perseverance finally started to pay off.
For what its worth.
Russo soon got the axe and several names wanted out of the company.
In early 2000, Benoit appeared onRawalongside Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn.
He was in a better company, but his prospects were still limited.
As good as he was, he was still in WWF during their renaissance of quality.
Benoit sniffed the main event, but he could never get farther than the occasional failed title match.
With the death of WCW, WWF (and then WWE) became a haven of dream matches.
Benoit held on throughout.
As he did, the company started to transition.
Austins health deteriorated and he had to retire.
The Rock left for Hollywood.
Hulk Hogan had returned and quickly wore out his welcome.
Chris Jericho fell deep into the midcard.
Undertaker was on vacation.
Bill Goldberg was on the way out.
Meanwhile, WWE at least had some names coming up the pipeline.
Guys like John Cena, Randy Orton, and Batista.
He hit the sweet spot by kicking ass in-between the Attitude Era and the Cena Era.
OnSmackDown, Benoit was booked with the usual face tropes.
Coincidentally, his storyline also led to him giving the rub to newly-turned face John Cena.
In an inspired bit of booking, Benoit took his guaranteed shot for a world title and jumped ship.
At the time, Triple H was in an endless (andI.
feud with Shawn Michaels, so not getting to fight Triple H for one PPV made Michaels all antsy.
Michaels ended up barging into the match regardless, making it a Triple Threat.
Benoit winning made sense storywise, but there was so much doubt.
Triple H is notorious for holding down talent.
Would he put Benoit over?
In the end, Benoit won.
He made Triple H tap out to the Crippler Crossface after an amazing main event match.
His fellow Radical Eddie Guerrero showed up at the end, brandishing the WWE Championship belt.
The two embraced and then posed in a shower of confetti.
The catharsis of years of hard work paying off.
It felt like the final shot of a Hollywood film.
Benoits five-month title reign was less-than-stellar.
It started off well enough.
Then he moved on to feud with Kane.
Coincidentally, Benoit got blamed when the show didnt do so well.
Benoit came off as a third wheel in his own world title defense.
In fact, there was very little emphasis on Benoit as champion in general.
It was still Triple Hs show.
During this time, the next crop was finally starting to show fruit.
Benoit floated between being a low-ranking part of the upper card and being a midcarder.
Benoit had a role of being the great hand who could have awesome matches with near everyone.
He wouldnt be champion again, but hed at least be preparing the next generation of potential champions.
In 2006, WWE reintroducedExtreme Championship Wrestlingas a third show and separate roster.
In 2007, Benoit was drafted toECWwhile the shows champion Bobby Lashley was sent toRaw.
That meant the title had to be vacated.
A four-man tournament was held.
The two finalists, Benoit and newcomer CM Punk, ended an episode staring each other down.
AtVengeance, Punk was instead challenged by Johnny Nitro.
In truth, Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy and their son Daniel.
The emphasis on preventing another Chris Benoit may have saved the life of our next subject.
The plan was even to have him lose the cash-in, but he never got to that point.
This came to an end atWrestleMania XXVIII, when he lost to Royal Rumble winner Sheamus in 18 seconds.
Bryan turned face as the tag partner and best friend of Kane.
After a lengthy run as tag champs, they became enemies of the unbeatable trio the Shield.
He and Kane went their separate ways as Bryan was interested in going after the WWE Championship.
He saw Cena vs. Bryan as the biggest money match WWE had.
Vince took the advice and booked it forSummerSlam.
Orton cashed in and won the title.
WWE saw Bryan the same way they saw Bret Hart and Chris Benoit.
That was more for someone like Cena or Orton.
They spent several months with Bryan feuding with Orton over the title, which was repeatedly vacated.
Then Big Show showed up and cried a lot while punching people.
WWE figured Bryan was only chant over and had Big Show co-opt the YES!
chant as his own thing, but that fell flat on its face.
TheWrestleMania XXXplans for Bryan kept changing at a rapid pace.
First, he was intended to be in a tag team match alongside Bray Wyatt, but the YES!
If you know anything aboutRoyal Rumble 14, you know how that idea turned out.
The fans rejected Batista as the top face and behind-the-scenes, Batista agreed with them.
He fought through all three men and made Batista tap out.
While not an especially fantastic match, Bryan defeated Kane via his flying knee.
Sadly, that was it for Bryans title run.
He had to drop the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which was soon picked up by John Cena.
As Bryans title run was cut short, it was easy to see what the original plans were.
Even though he got everyone pumped withWrestleMania XXX, he wasnt meant to be champion pastSummerSlam 14.
He was going to be demolished by Brock Lesnar, the same way Lesnar ended up demolishing John Cena.
Bryan returned to the ring in time for the nextRoyal Rumble.
Bryan won the Intercontinental Championship atWrestleMania 31.
Soon after, he started feuding with Sheamus.
During a tour, Bryan was removed from all of his dates and sent home.
Bryans doctors claimed he was fit to compete.
WWEs doctors said differently.
Bryan sat on the sidelines for a long time, increasingly frustrated that he couldnt wrestle.
Finally, Bryans doctors relented as they saw that years of concussions had messed up his brain extensively.
Later, Bryan admitted to suffering seizures.
He had no choice but to step down for his own sake.
On February 8, 2016, Bryan emotionally announced his retirement onRaw.
At only 34, he had to leave his dream job behind and find a new life.
Everything he worked for was something he could no longer be a part of.
But we know that its for the better.
He could have kept wrestling like Bret, causing a stroke.
He could have kept it all under the radar until doing something truly self-destructive like Benoit.
Instead, he at least got to walk away before it was too late.
