The storyline

[Guest Drury37]

Here is an article I wrote for my web site:

The Storyline- Bret Hart, The Mountie and Rowdy Piper.

August 1991- April 1992

By: John Finan <[email protected]>

 

- Welcome to a new weekly article here on Finan’s  Wrestling Page called The Storyline!!!  Every week I will touch on a different storyline and tell you the background of  it, the matches that took place during it and what worked and what didn’t work.  So let’s begin with the storyline that took place from August 1991- April 1992 between Bret Hart, The Mountie and Rowdy Piper involving the Intercontinental Title.

 

- It all began on August 26, 1991 at WWF SummerSlam in Madison Square Garden, New York, NY.  That night the Big Bossman defeated The Mountie in a Jailhouse Match, in which the loser had to spend the night in the New York City Jail, the Bossman defeated The Mountie.  On that same night Bret Hart defeated Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental Title for the Hitman’s first ever singles title in the WWF.  The Jailhouse Match was not very good at all although there was some good comedy in the after the match with The Mountie.  On the other hand the Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect match was one of the best in the WWF in the ‘90s.  Oddly enough Mr. Perfect and the Big Bossman wrestled each other in the previous Pay Per View,  WWF WrestleMania VII but that is a different story for another time.

 

- A few weeks later on WWF Superstars Bret Hart began calling The Mountie a jail bird and he was laughing at him, instead of The Mountie just standing there taking the abuse he went out of the ring and dumped a bucket of water on the Hitman and then shocked him with his cattleprod and Bret Hart got electrocuted .  Now this is kind of stupid for two reason, first of all I have never seen a Mountie with a caddleprod (actually since I live in Connecticut I have never seen a Mountie at all) and second reason why this was stupid is because now a man being electrocurws is part of a storyline electrocuted.  Bret Hart and The Mountie were on opposing teams at WWF Survivor Series 1991 in a very good match in which Ric Flair was the sole survivor.  This lead all was supposed to lead up to huge match at WWF Royal Rumble 1992, but things don’t always work out how you think they will unless your name is Vincent K. McMahon.

 

- Two days before WWF Royal Rumble 1992 The Mountie defeated Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Title at a house show, because Bret Hart had a 102 degree temperature (well in the storyline that is).  I heard Vince made Bret drop the title because he heard Bret was in negotiations with WCW and he was going to leave the WWF with the Intercontinental Title.  Since Bret was still “sick” come Sunday he had Rowdy Piper sub for him.  Hot Rod defeated The Mountie to win the WWF Intercontinental Title (which was his first ever title in the WWF) in an alright match but it is still a lot of fun to watch for historical purposes.  The Mountie would get a rematch on an episode of WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event in which the winner would have to wrestle Bret Hart at WWF WrestleMania VIII.  The Mountie had Hot Rod beat when he went outside the ring and got a cup of water and poured the water on Rowdy Piper and then he got his cattleprod and shocked Piper, Piper fell down but got up right away and he shocked The Mountie and he got the win.  After the match he took off his shirt and he vest on underneath that said SHOCKPROOF on it, yes he wore a bullet proof or should I say a shockproof vest on, yes it was clever and dumb all at once.  This meant that Rowdy Piper would wrestle Bret Hart at WWF WrestleMania VIII.

 

- There was not a lot of build up for the match between Piper and Bret other than that on WWF March to WrestleMania VIII Shawn Michaels wrestled Rowdy Piper in a non title match and Michaels hit Piper with Sherri’s boot and Piper was knocked out until Bret Hart came down and Piper got up and Bret gave him the boot and the ref got up and saw Piper with the boot and he got disqualified.  Piper got extremely at Bret and told him to stay out of his life.  This was kind of weird because the whole match was being built up as baby face vs. baby face so there really was no build up behind it other than that one moment that has seemingly been forgot about.  It was finally April 5, 1992 and Bret Hart challenge Rowdy Piper for the WWF Intercontinental Title.  They had an awesome pre match interview with Gene Okerlund and that led to the match.  Right from the beginning they went at each other in what was half wrestling match, half brawl.  Finally at the end Bret Hart reversed the sleeper hold into a pin and Bret won the Intercontinental Title for the second time.  It was one of my favorite matches of all time and at the end Bret and Piper did the baby face hug which officially ended the storyline.

 

- Bottom Line: I thought this was a great storyline with a lot of different twist and turns and I thought it cool how all three guys won the WWF Intercontinental Title and how the same guy who began the storyline with title had the title when the storyline ended.

 

I recommend to check out this storyline by seeing  the following:

WWF SummerSlam 1991

WWF Survivor Series 1991

WWF Royal Rumble 1992

WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event from early 1992

WWF March to WrestleMania VIII

WWF WrestleMania VIII.

 

Tell me what you think.

Thanks.

[Guest Tony149]

Pretty cool. Good read. I know someone would here knows the answer to this question, but didn't the WWF get in trouble for using some patch or something on The Mountie?

[Guest Drury37]

Thanks,I doubt it because it would be like using a cop and I doubt they ever got in trouble for the Big Bossman,but you never know.

Thanks.

[Guest The Masked Yodeler]

The Royal Mounted Police complained to the WWF for calling him The Mountie.  Apparently, Mountie is copyrighted or something.

[Guest Drury37]

That's crazy,well that's canadian mounties(cops)for ya.I would have never thought they would have gotten mad.

Thanks.

[Guest Tony149]

I guess that gave the WWF the idea to make the "I'm the Mountie" theme music.

[Guest Drury37]

I'm still in shock that "The Mountie" is copyright,it is like copyrighting "Bossman" you know what I mean?

Thanks.

[Guest Tony149]

I don't know, but I guess that was the case because The Mountie's are real. The Boss Man was a gimmick based on a cop.

[Guest Drury37]

Oh ok,yeah it's a nick name(Bossman that is)and a Mountie is actually called a Mountie,good point,never thought of it that way before.

Thanks.

[Guest The Mountie]

YOU CAN NEVER COPYRIGHT ME!!!

DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?

I’M THE MOUNTIE!!!!!

[Guest]

Which is why the Quebecers sang We're not the Mounties in their theme song. Oh, the Mountie. Now there's a comedy charecter heel that worked.

[Guest Drury37]

That makes a lot of sense,now.

Thanks.