MOTW 116: Bret Hart vs British Bulldog

"M.O.T.W. #116: Bret 'The Hitman' Hart vs. 'British Bulldog' Davey Boy Smith" - ink & digital illustration

We're up to the 116th edition of our Chris Things Art 'Match of the Week' illustration series & this week we find ourselves in the mid 90s 'up north' territory for a Christmas classic!

This very satisfying Professional Wrestling bout took place on December 17th, 1995 at WWF's In Your House 5: 'Season's Beatings' Pay Per View from the Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, PA.

So this wound up being my official favourite match that we watched this past Monday night at our final Wrestling Club at The Scratch Bar of 2025. It's always a bit of a surprise when a 'Fed' match manages to beat my more niche wrestling interests but man, this one really earned it! As the big sequel to one of my favourite WWF matches ever (Bret vs Davey at Wembley), this thing had a lot of pressure on it. But both guys do a fantastic job of doing a completely different but still really, really great match here in Hershey. We get callbacks to the original, but like any truly great sequel, this stands on its own feet as being great in its own right.

A big part of my love for the Wembley edition was reportedly how 'away with the fairies' Davey was for that one & just an otherworldly carry job by Bret. But in this one, Davey really has an excellent performance in addition to the greatness of the Hitman.

We did have the hokey torn loyalties wife thing going on - which normally for the Fed can often ruin an otherwise great in-ring match for me. But even that was done quite well. Props to Diana!

And of course, that crimson mask! This was SO PERFECT! And really took things to that next level. I still don't know whether this one occurred during the dreaded 'ban of the blade' era of WWF, or thereafter. But Vince Jr. on commentary certainly expresses his contempt for it very audibly on commentary (which kind of makes it even better). Even instructing the production team to not show any close ups of Bret! Thankfully, we still manage to get a few.

Overall great stuff!

ENJOY!!

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