BRET THE HITMAN HART

Bret Hart^[1] (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler, former amateur wrestlerwriter who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), appearing on the Raw brand. Best known for his work in WWE, its previous incarnation, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as Bret "Hit Man" Hart,^[3] he is among the biggest names in professional wrestling history.^[4][5] Hart is also known by the monikers "The Pink and Black Attack", in reference to his ring attire,^[6][7] and "The Excellence of Execution."^[3] He is a member of the Hart wrestling family. and
Hart debuted in professional wrestling in 1978 with his father, WWE Hall of Famer Stu Hart's promotion, Stampede Wrestling, and would wrestle alternately as a fan favorite and a villain for the duration of his career. In 1984, he signed with the WWF and was soon paired with brother-in-law Jim Neidhart to form the successful tag team The Hart Foundation, while also enjoying a singles career. WWF management separated the team in 1991, with Hart winning his first WWF Championship the following year, and becoming arguably the most popular professional wrestler in the world.^[8] Hart made appearances in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) during his tenure, and eventually left the WWF for a lucrative World Championship Wrestling (WCW) contract following the Montreal Screwjob in 1997, where he enjoyed continued championship success until his initial retirement in 2000, due to injury. He continued to make non-wrestling appearances in promotions such as World Wrestling All-Stars (WWA), One Pro Wrestling (1PW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) for the remainder of the decade. He returned to in-ring competition in 2010 with WWE, where he has achieved further championship success, and briefly served as the General Manager of the Raw brand.
Widely regarded within the industry as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time,^[3][9] Hart has held championships in every decade since the 1970s, with a total of thirty-two held throughout his career. He is recognized by WWE as a seven-time world champion: a five-time WWF Champion^[4] and two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion,^[10] and the second WWF Triple Crown Champion.^[11] Also a five-timeWCW/WWE United States Champion (his four WCW reigns being the most in the history of the organization), he is tied for most reigns in history.^[12] In addition to championships, he is the 1994 Royal Rumble co-winner (with Lex Luger), and the only two-time King of the Ring in WWE history, having won the 1991 tournament and the first King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1993. Hart is also known for popularizing the Sharpshooter submission hold, named by WWE as the most devastating submission hold in professional wrestling history.^[13] He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 by former on-screen rival Stone Cold Steve Austin.^[14]

Raw General Manager and feud with The NEXUS

On the May 24 edition of Raw, Hart was named the new General Manager of Raw. He vacated the United States title, which was later won by R-Truth, and once again retired from the ring to fulfill his duties as General Manager.^[116] The next week, he was confronted by Vince McMahon who congratulated Hart on becoming General Manager but warned him that he would have to make tough decisions in the future. Hart retaliated by declaring a Viewer's Choice episode of Raw.^[117] The week after the Viewer's Choice episode, he confronted the NXT rookies who demanded WWE contracts. Hart denied their requests and fired NXT Season 1 winner Wade Barrett. At the end of the night, the NXT rookies attacked Hart and demanded for contracts giving Hart until the Fatal 4-Way pay per view for his answer.^[118] For reasons not yet established, Hart legitimately did not appear at the pay-per-view or the following night's Raw as advertised. On Raw, Vince McMahon scolded Hart for failing to appear at the pay-per-view, and to hire extra security to prevent the "chaos" caused by the NXT rookies, relieving him of his duties as General Manager.^[119] Hart's profile was subsequently removed from the Raw roster on WWE.com. Some speculated that Hart had left the company, with the most commonly reported explanation being that Lloyd's of London, with whom he has an insurance settlement following his career ending injury in WCW, were unhappy with the level of physicality involved in his WWE appearances.^[120][121] After a five-week absence from WWE programming, Hart returned to Raw on July 19, where it was announced by John Cena that he, The Great Khali, R-Truth, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, and Hart would face the NXT rookies, now known as The Nexus, at SummerSlam.^[122][123] The following week, Hart teamed with John Cena to wrestle SummerSlam teammates Edge and Chris Jericho to a no-contest.^[124] At Summerslam, Hart was disqualified for using a steel chair on Skip Sheffield. However, his team went on to win the match.^[125] On the August 16 edition of Raw, Bret Hart introduced the new tag team title belts to the champions, The Hart Dynasty. Later on in the night during the Nexus vs. Raw challenge, Hart was scheduled to face Justin Gabriel, but was unable to compete after the anonymous GM removed him from the match and replaced him with Randy Orton.^[126]