The Complete History of the WWE Championship - Part 5

Bret "The Hitman" Hart (March 20, 1994 - November 23, 1994)

Bret Hart regained the WWE Championship from Yokozuna at WrestleMania X

Yokozuna was a stop-gap champion. He was a transitional champion, acting as a go-between of sorts between Hulkamania and WWE's New Generation era.

By the time 1994 rolled around, Bret "The Hitman" Hart was the fans and company's choice for the leader of the next breed of WWE Superstars.

WrestleMania X was to be his coronation. Interesting then, that Hart would also open the show in a non-title affair with his own brother, Owen.

The brother versus brother storyline had begun at Survivor Series the previous year, when Owen was the only one of the Hart brothers eliminated from a Survivor Series tag team elimination match which pitted Bret, Owen, Keith and Bruce versus Shawn Michaels's team of Knights.

Owen blamed his elimination on Bret. After patching things up, the brothers attempted to wrest the Tag Team Championships away from the Quebecers. However, the match was stopped when Bret was unable to continue due to a leg injury. Furious, Owen attacked Bret's injured leg setting up their WrestleMania clash.

In a genius piece of booking, Bret lost to Owen cleanly on the same card he was set to wrestle for the WWE Championship. When Bret defeated Yokozuna in a decent main event match to win his second WWE title, his post-Mania feud was already set up.

Bret and Owen did excellent business throughout Europe and the States and clashed again on pay-per-view at SummerSlam 1994 inside a steel cage. In one of the best matches of the era, Bret retained the belt after he successfully exited the cage.

Unfortunately for Bret, WWE had neglected to prepare any new challengers for him post-SummerSlam and he floundered in mini-feuds with the likes of Jim Neidhart.

His Survivor Series opponent was someone that nobody expected.