Not too long after WM7, the brother-in-laws broke the great tag team to pursue other goals. Anvil formed the New Foundation with Bret's younger brother 'The Rocket' Owen Hart, while Bret became a major star as a singles competitor. He would win the Intercontinental title from Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig at Summerslam '91. Prior to the 1992 Royal Rumble, Bret lost the IC strap to the Mountie Jacques Rougeau. 
It was during this time that Michaels and Jannetty broke up, and Shawn would become a star as a singles competitor. Bret would eventually win the IC gold back in a bloody match at WM8 against his friend Rowdy Roddy Piper. Jim Neidhart would eventually leave the WWF, and Owen would then team with Koko B. Ware in an exciting team called High Energy. During this time Shawn Michaels became a contender for the IC title and fought the Hitman in many matches, including the WWF's first ever ladder match. Bret came out on top in every match (with the exception of a few DQ wins for Shawn), and remain ed the IC champ. Later his other brother-in-law the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith would return to the WWF to challenge Bret for the IC title at Summerslam 92 at Wembly Stadium. Davey Boy got a clean win on Bret (in what many people consider the beginning of the historic Hart family feud which be become full blown years later) winning the title from him. Davey would later lose that title to Shawn Michaels.
Bret would then move on to bigger and better things. By the end of the year he would snatch the World Wrestling Federation title from the legendary 'Nature Boy' Ric Flair. After years of hard work and dedication, Bret was on top of the world. But the man who had stalked him for the entire year,
Shawn Michaels wasn't through with Bret yet. At the 1992 Survivor Series, he challenged Bret for the World title in a unique champion vs. champion match. Bret won the match making Shawn submit in the sharpshooter and thus marked the beginning of a new era, as "Hulkamania" soon found its way on a downward spiral. Bret soon earned the reputation as a hardest fighting world champ as he took on all comers within a very short period of time including Flair, Michaels, Razor Ramon, Papa Shango, Berzerker, Virgil just to name a few, and many others. WM9 was the time when Bret lost the title to the mammoth Yokozuna, who in turn, lost the title the same night to a returning Hulk Hogan (who wasn't even entitled to a title shot that night).
After Hogan refused to give a deserving Bret a title shot, Bret went on to win the first ever King of the Ring tournament. However, during his coronation ceremony, Jerry Lawler viciously attacked Bret with the throne, and later piledrived Bret's young brother Owen From there, Bret got into a gruelling feud with Jerry Lawler over who the real
king of the WWF was, a feud Bret would ultimately win. But unfortunately, when Bret put his crown on the line at Summerslam, after destroying Lawler, he gripped him in the sharpshooter, for just too long, and the referee's disqualified him, reversing the original decision, and giving the decision to Lawler, proclaiming him the undisputed king of the WWF. During this time the WWF had gotten themselves a new "Real American" to replace Hulk Hogan. He was Lex Luger, and because of the immense popularity of this American "hero", Bret was forced to take a backseat for nearly a year. In November, he rekindled his feud with Shawn Michaels who had been making wisecracks about the Hart family. Bret with his brothers Owen, Bruce and Keith battled Shawn and 3 knights at Survivor Series '93. The Harts were victorious, but one brother was eliminated by Shawn Michaels. It was 'The Rocket' Owen Hart, a man who had lived in the shadow of his older brother Bret for many years. Tired of this, he came to the ring after that match and started shoving Bret. The two would later settle their differences and decided to channel their energy into something more useful, like the tag titles held by the Quebecers.