good article from sports illustrated...
Bret Hart opens up
Thoughts on Owen, McMahon, rough times and more by Arash Markazi
It's become an annual April Fool's Day tradition, as honored as trick-or-treating on Halloween or turkey carving on Thanksgiving. For the past eight years wrestling fans have endured countless reports that former world champion Bret "the Hitman" Hart was returning to the WWE on message boards, newsletters and from friends before being disappointed by the news that they've been fooled once again.
It is understandable, then, that many wrestling fans still refuse to believe that Hart, who hasn't appeared on WWE television since leaving the company in 1997, will actually be on stage Saturday night -- April Fool's Day -- when he will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at the Rosemont Theatre.
"It's an auspicious day, that's for sure," said Hart. "I've seen some of those stories. At least it gives me a good chance to get even."
Still, though, the mere thought of being in the same building as WWE owner Vince McMahon at a WWE event makes Hart shake his head. It's something he swore he'd never do. Not after the events of Nov. 9, 1997.
The pay-per-view show that night was called Survivor Series, but to anyone associated with the wrestling business, the event is commonly referred to as the Montreal Screwjob. It's an event ripe with more soap opera story lines than anything on Raw or Smackdown and was even the subject of an award-winning documentary, Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows, in 1998.
On that night McMahon promised Hart that he wouldn't have to drop the world title to Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (known to wrestling fans as Shawn Michaels) since Hart, who had signed a three-year, $9 million contract to leave the company for rival promotion WCW a week earlier, did not want to lose the belt in his home country of Canada to Michaels, whom he disliked personally, before he left. He would lose to anyone else, anywhere else. McMahon, however, wanted Hart to drop the belt to Michaels in Montreal and orchestrated a double-cross of Hart by instructing the referee, Earl Hebner, to call for the bell as soon as Michaels put Hart in his signature "sharpshooter" submission move toward the end of the match, giving Michaels the title to the surprise of Hart and nearly everyone backstage. After the show went off the air, an outraged Hart spit in the face of McMahon, who was ringside, and later punched McMahon in the dressing room, knocking him out cold, before leaving the arena and the company for good. As Hart would later say, "People talk about wrestling not being real. It's far more real than people think."
Since leaving the WWE that night, the lives and fortunes of Hart, 48, and McMahon, 60, have taken dramatic turns. McMahon and the struggling WWE turned into a billion-dollar company that would buy out rival promotions WCW and ECW, thanks in part to the devil-incarnate character McMahon had established by "screwing Bret." Meanwhile, Hart endured the most difficult five-year period anyone could imagine. He divorced his wife of 20 years, Julie, with whom he had four children. He lost his younger brother, Owen Hart, who was killed when he plunged 78 feet into a wrestling ring because of a harness malfunction while he was being lowered from an arena catwalk during a WWE pay-per-view show. He lost his brother-in-law, David "Davey Boy" Smith, a WWE wrestler who died of a heart attack while on vacation. He lost his mother, Helen, and his father, Stu Hart. And on June 24, 2002, nearly three years after being forced into early retirement following a severe concussion from a match against Bill Goldberg in WCW, Hart suffered a stroke while riding his bicycle near Calgary's Bow River that hospitalized him for over a month.
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"Vince screws me for real and plays it up as a big story line and turns the fortunes of the company around," said Hart, who is in good health now, having recovered most of his mobility within months of being released from the hospital. "After I left, it all came up roses for Vince and everything kind of went to s--- for me. After Survivor Series I was unfortunately hit with a lot of adversity, and I sometimes wonder who I pissed off."
Hart, who never wanted to leave the WWE but was basically told to when McMahon realized the 20-year contract he had given Hart was a bad business deal, still feels a great deal of regret over having to leave the company he had been with for 14 years and believes his life would be drastically different now if that night in Montreal had ended differently.
"The sad truth of it is if that night hadn't happened, I would have found a way to stay with the company," said Hart, who will be joined by several of his family members, including his four children, Jade, Dallas, Alexandra and Blade, at the induction ceremony. "I also believe with a great deal of certainty that my brother Owen's accident would never have happened. I know how we interacted, and Owen used to come to me about every little thing. I know if he would have come to me and said, 'They want to do this thing where they lower me from the ceiling,' I would have said, 'Why would you put your life on the line like that?' and I would have shot it down, because we were terrified of heights. I also wouldn't have been injured by Goldberg in WCW and probably never would've suffered the stroke that followed my concussion, and so many things would be different for me."
In the end, it was the stroke that brought Hart closer to McMahon -- the WWE owner was the first person to contact Hart while he lay motionless inside Unit 58 of the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.
"I was in the hospital bed the day after my stroke, still reeling from the whole thing and not really sure what was wrong with me yet, and 30 seconds after they plugged in the phone next time to my bed, it rang and it was Vince," said Hart, who also spoke with Walter Gretzky, the father of Wayne Gretzky and also a stroke survivor, while he was in the hospital. "[McMahon] gave me a nice talk, and I found myself in an emotional state and told him that I didn't want to be forgotten. I didn't want everything I ever did to be buried in a basement somewhere. It was the first time we really talked since I left the company. He talked to me about the Hall of Fame during the call, and I told him it was something I always wanted to do despite everything that had happened."
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Although Hart has come to terms with the past -- he and the WWE partnered to make Bret "Hitman" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be, a three-disc DVD collection of his greatest matches that was released in November -- and has moved forward with his life (he married his current wife, Cinzia, on Sept. 15, 2004, in Italy), not everyone was pleased when Hart accepted McMahon's invitation into the Hall of Fame.
"There are a few people who are disappointed in me and think I've sold out by doing this," said Hart. "My brother Owen's widow, Martha, was not happy with it and suspected that I needed the money, but money has nothing to do with this. It's strictly something I felt I had a right to do. I believe I have a right to be remembered."
Since speaking with Hart after his stroke, McMahon not only allowed Hart to have creative control over his DVD, but he published a commemorative magazine of Hart's career and included the five-time WWE champion in the last five video games the WWE has released, in the hopes that Hart would not be forgotten by today's wrestling fans.
"It's true that things for Bret went to hell in a handbasket after [Survivor Series] and things for me went the other way," said McMahon, who called Hart the greatest storyteller in the history of wrestling. "But I think I'm slowly winning Bret's trust back. It's not quite the relationship we had at one time, but it's like any relationship. If it's a honeymoon the entire time, you really never know what you have. We've had our ups and downs, that's for sure, but we're back together, and I think that speaks volumes."
Nearly eight years after his departure, Hart's only request upon his return once again centered on the man he refused to drop the title to at the Molson Centre that night in Montreal.
"I've made it pretty clear that I don't want to be around Shawn," said Hart, who also doesn't plan on speaking with wrestlers such as Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan), Paul Levesque (Triple H) and Richard Fliehr (Ric Flair), with whom he's traded personal barbs in the past but whose presence he will tolerate for one night. "Shawn's different. If I even see Shawn I'll probably get back in the cab and you'll have your April Fool's. I won't have him around. I won't allow myself to be agitated by his presence. If I have to deal with that, I'd rather not even be there."
Hart, who will be inducted by his friend Steve Williams ("Stone Cold" Steve Austin) after the two staged arguably the greatest match in WrestleMania history in Hart's last WrestleMania appearance nine years ago in Chicago, is still unsure what will happen when he hears his entrance music and walks onto stage before a standing-room-only crowd of 4,400 at the Rosemont on Saturday night.
"I'll be honest. I don't mind telling you that I'm really nervous about this whole thing," he said. "I have a very serious fear of being speechless. Because of my stroke I get very choked up and it's not easy to walk out in front of a large audience that's cheering for me like that. When you have these emotional meltdowns, you can't stop them; they keep coming. You'll be talking to someone at the gift shop or while getting a coffee and someone can say the most innocent thing to you, like, 'You're going to be fine,' and all of a sudden you become this blubbering wreck of tears, and it would get to be embarrassing after a while. I worry about that. I have to make sure that during my Hall of Fame speech I don't talk too much about anything that's too emotional or else I'll fall apart."
Whether or not Hart's induction into the Hall of Fame will be an opening to a return to the WWE in some capacity is yet to be determined, although Hart said he doesn't anticipate making any more appearances for the company following this weekend.
"I think I've closed that door," says Hart, who doesn't plan on attending WrestleMania 22, choosing instead to fly out of Chicago before the show begins on Sunday. "I don't want to be remembered for being a commissioner or a ring announcer or a guest referee. I want to be remembered for being a great wrestler. That's all I ever really wanted, and that's what the Hall of Fame is about."
Bret Hart opens up
Thoughts on Owen, McMahon, rough times and more by Arash Markazi
It's become an annual April Fool's Day tradition, as honored as trick-or-treating on Halloween or turkey carving on Thanksgiving. For the past eight years wrestling fans have endured countless reports that former world champion Bret "the Hitman" Hart was returning to the WWE on message boards, newsletters and from friends before being disappointed by the news that they've been fooled once again.
It is understandable, then, that many wrestling fans still refuse to believe that Hart, who hasn't appeared on WWE television since leaving the company in 1997, will actually be on stage Saturday night -- April Fool's Day -- when he will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at the Rosemont Theatre.
"It's an auspicious day, that's for sure," said Hart. "I've seen some of those stories. At least it gives me a good chance to get even."
Still, though, the mere thought of being in the same building as WWE owner Vince McMahon at a WWE event makes Hart shake his head. It's something he swore he'd never do. Not after the events of Nov. 9, 1997.
The pay-per-view show that night was called Survivor Series, but to anyone associated with the wrestling business, the event is commonly referred to as the Montreal Screwjob. It's an event ripe with more soap opera story lines than anything on Raw or Smackdown and was even the subject of an award-winning documentary, Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows, in 1998.
On that night McMahon promised Hart that he wouldn't have to drop the world title to Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (known to wrestling fans as Shawn Michaels) since Hart, who had signed a three-year, $9 million contract to leave the company for rival promotion WCW a week earlier, did not want to lose the belt in his home country of Canada to Michaels, whom he disliked personally, before he left. He would lose to anyone else, anywhere else. McMahon, however, wanted Hart to drop the belt to Michaels in Montreal and orchestrated a double-cross of Hart by instructing the referee, Earl Hebner, to call for the bell as soon as Michaels put Hart in his signature "sharpshooter" submission move toward the end of the match, giving Michaels the title to the surprise of Hart and nearly everyone backstage. After the show went off the air, an outraged Hart spit in the face of McMahon, who was ringside, and later punched McMahon in the dressing room, knocking him out cold, before leaving the arena and the company for good. As Hart would later say, "People talk about wrestling not being real. It's far more real than people think."
Since leaving the WWE that night, the lives and fortunes of Hart, 48, and McMahon, 60, have taken dramatic turns. McMahon and the struggling WWE turned into a billion-dollar company that would buy out rival promotions WCW and ECW, thanks in part to the devil-incarnate character McMahon had established by "screwing Bret." Meanwhile, Hart endured the most difficult five-year period anyone could imagine. He divorced his wife of 20 years, Julie, with whom he had four children. He lost his younger brother, Owen Hart, who was killed when he plunged 78 feet into a wrestling ring because of a harness malfunction while he was being lowered from an arena catwalk during a WWE pay-per-view show. He lost his brother-in-law, David "Davey Boy" Smith, a WWE wrestler who died of a heart attack while on vacation. He lost his mother, Helen, and his father, Stu Hart. And on June 24, 2002, nearly three years after being forced into early retirement following a severe concussion from a match against Bill Goldberg in WCW, Hart suffered a stroke while riding his bicycle near Calgary's Bow River that hospitalized him for over a month.
PAGE 2
"Vince screws me for real and plays it up as a big story line and turns the fortunes of the company around," said Hart, who is in good health now, having recovered most of his mobility within months of being released from the hospital. "After I left, it all came up roses for Vince and everything kind of went to s--- for me. After Survivor Series I was unfortunately hit with a lot of adversity, and I sometimes wonder who I pissed off."
Hart, who never wanted to leave the WWE but was basically told to when McMahon realized the 20-year contract he had given Hart was a bad business deal, still feels a great deal of regret over having to leave the company he had been with for 14 years and believes his life would be drastically different now if that night in Montreal had ended differently.
"The sad truth of it is if that night hadn't happened, I would have found a way to stay with the company," said Hart, who will be joined by several of his family members, including his four children, Jade, Dallas, Alexandra and Blade, at the induction ceremony. "I also believe with a great deal of certainty that my brother Owen's accident would never have happened. I know how we interacted, and Owen used to come to me about every little thing. I know if he would have come to me and said, 'They want to do this thing where they lower me from the ceiling,' I would have said, 'Why would you put your life on the line like that?' and I would have shot it down, because we were terrified of heights. I also wouldn't have been injured by Goldberg in WCW and probably never would've suffered the stroke that followed my concussion, and so many things would be different for me."
In the end, it was the stroke that brought Hart closer to McMahon -- the WWE owner was the first person to contact Hart while he lay motionless inside Unit 58 of the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.
"I was in the hospital bed the day after my stroke, still reeling from the whole thing and not really sure what was wrong with me yet, and 30 seconds after they plugged in the phone next time to my bed, it rang and it was Vince," said Hart, who also spoke with Walter Gretzky, the father of Wayne Gretzky and also a stroke survivor, while he was in the hospital. "[McMahon] gave me a nice talk, and I found myself in an emotional state and told him that I didn't want to be forgotten. I didn't want everything I ever did to be buried in a basement somewhere. It was the first time we really talked since I left the company. He talked to me about the Hall of Fame during the call, and I told him it was something I always wanted to do despite everything that had happened."
PAGE 3
Although Hart has come to terms with the past -- he and the WWE partnered to make Bret "Hitman" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be, a three-disc DVD collection of his greatest matches that was released in November -- and has moved forward with his life (he married his current wife, Cinzia, on Sept. 15, 2004, in Italy), not everyone was pleased when Hart accepted McMahon's invitation into the Hall of Fame.
"There are a few people who are disappointed in me and think I've sold out by doing this," said Hart. "My brother Owen's widow, Martha, was not happy with it and suspected that I needed the money, but money has nothing to do with this. It's strictly something I felt I had a right to do. I believe I have a right to be remembered."
Since speaking with Hart after his stroke, McMahon not only allowed Hart to have creative control over his DVD, but he published a commemorative magazine of Hart's career and included the five-time WWE champion in the last five video games the WWE has released, in the hopes that Hart would not be forgotten by today's wrestling fans.
"It's true that things for Bret went to hell in a handbasket after [Survivor Series] and things for me went the other way," said McMahon, who called Hart the greatest storyteller in the history of wrestling. "But I think I'm slowly winning Bret's trust back. It's not quite the relationship we had at one time, but it's like any relationship. If it's a honeymoon the entire time, you really never know what you have. We've had our ups and downs, that's for sure, but we're back together, and I think that speaks volumes."
Nearly eight years after his departure, Hart's only request upon his return once again centered on the man he refused to drop the title to at the Molson Centre that night in Montreal.
"I've made it pretty clear that I don't want to be around Shawn," said Hart, who also doesn't plan on speaking with wrestlers such as Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan), Paul Levesque (Triple H) and Richard Fliehr (Ric Flair), with whom he's traded personal barbs in the past but whose presence he will tolerate for one night. "Shawn's different. If I even see Shawn I'll probably get back in the cab and you'll have your April Fool's. I won't have him around. I won't allow myself to be agitated by his presence. If I have to deal with that, I'd rather not even be there."
Hart, who will be inducted by his friend Steve Williams ("Stone Cold" Steve Austin) after the two staged arguably the greatest match in WrestleMania history in Hart's last WrestleMania appearance nine years ago in Chicago, is still unsure what will happen when he hears his entrance music and walks onto stage before a standing-room-only crowd of 4,400 at the Rosemont on Saturday night.
"I'll be honest. I don't mind telling you that I'm really nervous about this whole thing," he said. "I have a very serious fear of being speechless. Because of my stroke I get very choked up and it's not easy to walk out in front of a large audience that's cheering for me like that. When you have these emotional meltdowns, you can't stop them; they keep coming. You'll be talking to someone at the gift shop or while getting a coffee and someone can say the most innocent thing to you, like, 'You're going to be fine,' and all of a sudden you become this blubbering wreck of tears, and it would get to be embarrassing after a while. I worry about that. I have to make sure that during my Hall of Fame speech I don't talk too much about anything that's too emotional or else I'll fall apart."
Whether or not Hart's induction into the Hall of Fame will be an opening to a return to the WWE in some capacity is yet to be determined, although Hart said he doesn't anticipate making any more appearances for the company following this weekend.
"I think I've closed that door," says Hart, who doesn't plan on attending WrestleMania 22, choosing instead to fly out of Chicago before the show begins on Sunday. "I don't want to be remembered for being a commissioner or a ring announcer or a guest referee. I want to be remembered for being a great wrestler. That's all I ever really wanted, and that's what the Hall of Fame is about."
(unless hes leading us on...but thats wishful thinkin...)