Bret Hart v. Jean Pierre LaFitte
By Scott Keith on 31 August 2024
Mr. Keith:
I think it's been years since I've bugged you by email. I finally decided to watch the Hart vs. LaFitte match from IYH 3 after the blog was talking about how underappreciated Bret Hart was. I know he worked in a ice cold era, but I found Bret (in retrospect) to be a solid guy and a secular miracle worker with the guys he worked with. He bumped like a pinball for Carl Oulette (LaFitte) and treated him like a credible opponent. In a vacuum, it's a fantastic match and I agree with your 2007 era review that it should have made Oulette a star in 1995. I always found Bret to be a better draw than he might have been based on the numbers, because I really enjoyed his work starting in 1997 and started really loving the stuff from the 93-95 era. I really can't stand the modern era today, and in a vacuum I still enjoy the SNME era and maybe even the 1993 WCW era for reasons I'm not sure of.
P. S. I still find Owen Hart vs. Vader from One Night Only '97 to be an underappreciated gem too. I was never a big fan of Owen in his lifetime, but when I watched the Vader match years ago on the WWF Network — I was in awe.
I obviously have a bit of a different perspective on Owen since I watched him literally from his first match in Stampede and I've seen nearly every televised match he ever had for his entire career.
And 1993 WCW was a special time for many people and it was pretty awesome, quality of certain PPVs aside. No shame in loving WCW.