My God Did I Love Bret Hart vs. Fatu

Bret Hart vs. Fatu WWF Raw 3/1/93

ER: This might sound hyperbolic, but this was one of the most well-executed matches of 1993. It felt like a 1993 All Japan match worked with 1993 WWF offense within a 1993 WWF match layout, and I loved it. It was Fatu's first ever WWF singles match and Bret hadn't had a televised title defense in over three months. Keeping those things in mind, they went out there and made sure every time they made contact, it looked realistic. Their shoulderblocks and slams all hit, every bump looked like they had to wait a couple seconds for their nerves to stop tingling, and Bret kept taking increasingly damaging bumps into the turnbuckles. Hart was an excellent babyface champion here, at times at a real disadvantage, and his harder and harder bumps made the struggle feel more real. Bret whips back on headbutts and goes neck first into thrust kicks, gets thrown to the floor and jumped by Samu. An odd, never explained cut on his nose gets opened up and gives us the sick ass visual of a bloody nose babyface taking on three savages. He also took a fantastic piledriver and a hard slam on the floor, which was arguably an easier landing than in the dead center of an unmoving ring. 

Samu and Afa both played important roles and the payoff sequence for their comeuppance was so worth it. Their involvement kept increasing, with Samu and Fatu pulling off some double switches, even though their face, hair, and body differences left the referee's "they all look alike" racism as the only plausible explanation for the double switch's success. Bret hit an awesome superplex, and the finishing stretch car crash was aided with camera angles that actually felt expertly planned in advance. You usually don't see heel interference comeuppance pulled off this well, but that goes back to thinking this match had a lot of expert examples of timing and execution. Samu and Fatu collide after Samu breaks up a pin, Bret hits a running dropkick to knock Afa off the apron and Afa takes a fucking BACK BUMP off the apron in the foreground, while Samu gets his fucking neck hanged between the top and middle ropes, struggling and twitching in the background. Afa took the bump in the foreground, Samu dangled in the background, and Bret/Fatu were framed in the middle. It was a real professional shot from a company who no longer has any idea how to film wrestling, and an incredibly well orchestrated moving parts finish. Being a Bret truther only gets easier and easier to defend every year removed from his career.