BRET "The Hitman" HART vs. JERRY "The King" LAWLER

The feud between these two all-time legends began when Bret won the 1993 WWF King of the Ring Tournament, the first-ever tournament that's since became an annual tradition. In the first-round, Bret defeated Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) to advance to the semi-finals, where he defeated Mr. Perfect (Curt Hennig) in a **** match (maybe even better). With this victory, he advanced to the final-round, where he defeated, "The Beast From The East," Bam Bam Bigelow. This gave him the unique accomplishment of being the first-ever grappler to win the WWF King of the Ring Tournament on PPV. After the win, Bret walked down to the coronation stage, where "Mean" Gene Okerlund was ready to officially crown him, complete with a crown, robe, and even a scepter. Before Bret can make his victory speech, though, Jerry Lawler entered the main arena area and confronted Bret. He let him know that he was the only "King" in the WWF, but Bret quickly retaliated, informing Lawler that the only "King" he is is the "Burger King." Incensed with the insult, Lawler proceeded to attack Hart, leaving him lying in the middle of his own coronation stage as the PPV went off the air. To put an exclamation point on it, he even destroyed all of the props on the stage, including the crown, robe, and scepter. Lawler had ruined Bret's shining moment.

The honor of winning the King of the Ring Tournament normally brings the award of Number One Contender for the WWF World Heavyweight Title. However, since Lawler continued to insult Bret and his family (mainly his father, Stu, and now-late mother, Helen) on WWF television broadcasts, Bret decided that he wanted to get revenge on Lawler before he got a rematch for Yokozuna's WWF Title ('Yoko's manager, Mr. Fuji, had thrown powder into the eyes of Bret during his title defense at WrestleMania IX, causing 'Yoko to gain the tainted win and the title). A match between the two rivals was booked at SummerSlam '93, two and a half months after their altercation at the King of the Ring. However, Lawler came out that night on crutches with a bandaged-up knee, "claiming" to be injured in a "30-car pile-up up on I-95" earlier that afternoon, and therefore unable to compete against "The Hitman" that night. Lawler also insisted that he helped pull several people out of their cars, saving their lives, and that, although he wanted to wrestle Bret that night, his doctor hadn't cleared him and he wasn't going to disobey him. He even managed to throw in a few insults directed at Bret, which drew incredible heat from the largely pro-Bret Hart crowd. While Lawler himself may not have been "able" to wrestle Bret that night due to "injury," he introduced his replacement to take on Bret later on in the broadcast, Doink The Clown.

So, a very pissed-off Bret Hart and very, cheerful, to say the least, Doink, faced off that night. Bret dominated Doink for the first eight minutes, until he locked in the Sharpshooter on Doink, and Lawler, who was sitting at ringside for the match, ran into the ring, dismissing any doubt that he was actually injured, and nailed Bret with his crutch, giving Bret the DQ win. Lawler continues to beat Bret down with his crutch and bare hands. However, as Lawler is heading toward the backstage area, then-WWF President Jack Tunney walks through the curtain and confronts him. He informs Lawler that, since he faked his injury, he either must enter the ring right then and wrestle Bret, or he's suspended from the WWF forever. Lawler tries to once again weasel his way out of the match by attempting to fake the injury again, but Tunney is stern, yelling for him to enter the ring and face Bret in a clean match.

Before he can, though, Bret charges down the aisle at him, grabs him and beats him down all the way to the ring, eventually tossing him in. Bret continues to beat down Lawler while in the ring, but Lawler once again grabs his crutch and wacks Bret with it. However, one mistake on Lawler's part is all it takes, as Bret starts mounting a comeback, before locking Lawler in the Sharpshooter, forcing him to tap-out, giving Bret the win, and some revenge for the earlier uncalled-for assault. Bret continues to wrench back, as the fans are going absolutely nuts. Referees and WWF officials try to pull him off Lawler, but he won't let go. Bret's certainly gained revenge toward Lawler for his unrelentless insults toward him and his family, but he may be going to far. Bret's brothers, Owen and Bruce, who are sitting at ringside, even enter the ring to try to calm Bret down into releasing the submission-hold, but it's no use. He's relentless, and the referee eventually is forced to reverse the decision, disqualifying Bret, thus giving Lawler the DQ win. Bret finally releases the hold on Lawler, but he had obviously snapped, and the damage has been done. Lawler was in the excrutiatingly-painful Sharpshooter for two-and-a-half full minutes, and he was clear that his agonzing pain was no act. He was wheeled away on a stretcher by a handful of officials and EMT's all the way to the backstage area, leaving a still furious Bret in the middle of the ring to hopefully cool off.

Lawler was scheduled to team up with some other heels to take on the Hart Family at the next WWF PPV, the Survivor Series, but his participation in the angle was scrapped due to him being accused of raping a woman, and therefore having to go to court. Although the charges were eventually dropped, the WWF never mentioned his real-life problems, but instead just had Shawn Michaels take the place of Lawler at the event. This was the PPV where the whole Bret-Owen feud began, so, for the next year or so, the two brothers feuded, eventually wrestling eachother in classic ***** bouts at WrestleMania X and SummerSlam '94. He then went on to a short feud with Bob Backlund over the WWF Title, before his feud with Lawler resurfaced.

Lawler began to team up with a high-flying Japanese grappler named Hakushi (a.k.a. Jinsei Shinzaki, who later resurfaced in ECW for a short while, teaming up with Hayabusa to challenge Rob Van Dam and Sabu for the ECW World Tag Team Title at Heatwave '98), and, together, they focused on taking out Bret once and for all. Hakushi challenged Bret to a match at the first-ever WWF In Your House PPV, on Mother's Day of 1995. Therefore, Bret dedicated the match to his now-late mother, Helen, the so-called "Hart-Family Patriach." Entering the match, Hakushi, who is pretty over as a heel, although the fans do enjoy his high-flying style, is undefeated, so, if Bret was to win, he'd end Hakushi's undefeated streak. Hakushi controls a respectable part of the match, and wows the crowd with his spectacular high-flying antics, and risk-taking style. However, Bret ended the Japanese superstar's undefeated streak with a victory-roll for the 1-2-3 pin about 15 minutes in. This made for a hot opener to the first-ever In Your House PPV, but, as Bret had previously agreed to, this wouldn't be his only match that night.

Lawler (who had gotten off of the rape charges when the victim confessed that she made the whole story up, which is questionable, to say the least; Lawler had therefore returned to the Federation, and continued his feud from where he left off)had challenged Bret to a second match that night. He was convinced that Bret wouldn't except the challenge because he had already wrestled once that night, thereby making him (Bret) look like a wuss in refusing to face him. Lawler was wrong, though, as Bret agreed to the challenge and vowing to wrestle Lawler later that night. So, the man of his word that he is, Bret followed up on his promise, and wrestled Lawler later that evening, who had been rekindling his feud with "The Hitman" by once again beginning to insult him and his family on WWF telecasts. Therefore, the bitterness between the two once again surfaced, and their match, as scheduled, occurred later that night.

Bret had been selling a knee injury leading up to the bout, thereby giving the fans some doubt as to whether he was at 100%, but, during the match, when Lawler began beating on Bret's "injured" knee, it was obvious that Bret had gotten the best of him, tricking him into believing he was hurt. Bret thereby begins to dominate a confused Lawler for most of the match, until Sinja, Hakushi's manager, and Hakushi himself, interfere behind the referee's back (who had taken a hard bump, therefore eliminating his presence during the match). They attack Bret, and revive the referee after they've assaulted him, giving Lawler the easy win five minutes in. After the match, however, Bret eventually gets to his feet, and Hakushi runs toward him with an outstretched arm, but Bret ducks, and the clothesline hits Lawler. Bret then attacks all three of his foes (Lawler, Hakushi, and Sinja), as the camera fades out to a backstage interview with Psycho Sid.

The bitter feud between these two is still not quite over, as they lock up one-and-a-half months later at the King of the Ring PPV in the first-ever (and, to-date, last-ever) "Kiss My Foot Match," where the loser must actually kiss their opponent's foot. Wierd stipulation, but...on to the match! The two go back and forth for most of the match, until Lawler gains a serious advantage with three straight Piledrivers, repeatedly bouncing Bret's head off the mat. Bret kicks out of the pin, and Lawler resorts to questionable tactics by bashing Bret with his boot, which is presumably loaded with brass-knuckles or something. Bret eventually gets back to his feet, when Hakushi runs in and, like at the previous PPV, goes for a clothesline, but Bret ducks and Lawler gets smacked down. Bret takes care of Hakushi, and then locks Lawler in the Sharpshooter, forcing him to submit to the pain about nine minutes in. He doesn't release until the referee gets to four-and-a-half (if he got to four, Bret would once again get disqualified), showing that he's learned his lesson from his similar mistake more than a year earlier.

After the match, Hakushi once again runs in, but Bret is ready for him, as he once again takes care of him. Then, like the stipulation demands, Bret takes off of the Japanese grappler's shoe and shoves his foot down Lawler's throat. However, that's not all, as he also takes off his own shoe and shoves his smelly foot down Lawler's throat.

This basically ended the Bret Hart-Jerry Lawler feud, proving that what goes around comes around, as Lawler obviously got what he deserved. This feud was voted the "1993 Feud of the Year" by Pro Wrestling Illustrated (or P.W.I., for short).

SuperCard/Pay-Per-View One-On-One Match Results:

1. SummerSlam (8/30/93): Lawler d. Bret via DQ when the referee reversed his previous decision
2. In Your House #1 (5/14/95): Lawler d. Bret
3. King of the Ring (6/25/95): Bret d. Lawler in the first-ever "Kiss My Foot Match"