#3 – Bret Hart
Hart gets a huge spot on this list for what essentially amounted to a few months of work. For years, the world knew Hart was from Canada, and yet it was never a big deal. Until, that is, 1997 when Hart became a heel verbally attacking the American fans for their love of Steve Austin and their “turning against” Bret.
Hart subsequently reformed “The Hart Foundation” as a stable, this time with brother Owen, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and Brian Pillman. Bret and co. feuded with Degeneration X, the Nation of Domination, and several other stables. The cool part of Bret’s short heel run was how wildly popular the Hart Foundation was in Canada and Europe, and how hated they were in the US. It marked one of the first times there seemed to be a palpable rivalry between US fans and Canadian fans.
The Montreal Screwjob ended it all, and Bret wound up in WCW.
