Thousands of men and women have walked through the curtains of the WWE over its 50+ year history, but only a handful of those men and women have walked out saying they made a difference.
Bret “Hitman” Hart made perhaps one of the biggest impacts in the WWE during his wrestling career, and while his tenure with the company may have ended bitterly due to the events that took place in Montreal back in 1997, you can’t deny the sheer brilliance that Bret left in that ring each and every night.
This past Saturday night at the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick (which isn’t too far from Belfast), I got to experience something truly wonderful. An evening with Bret Hart, where the Excellence of Execution took the time to sit down with a large group of fans and share his insights into the world of professional wrestling – be it dealing with the past, present or future of the industry.
The fine folks at PSI Events have struck oil once again, with their tour of the United Kingdom where lucky fans got the opportunity to meet one of the most influential talents in the history of our beloved business. It was much like the way they presented us with a spectacular ‘Evening with Jim Ross’ last August, which I also had the privilege of attending and reviewing for the loyal readers here at SLTD Wrestling.
So, after spending several hours alongside fellow fans and the Hitman himself last Saturday, and after finally gathering my thoughts and putting proverbial pen to paper, today, I’m presenting my personal response and opinions on what happened that night – An Evening with Bret Hart.
Let’s start by saying we only arrived at the hotel 30 minutes before the Meet & Greet began, so I guess we got pretty lucky. I was travelling from Dublin with my mother, who was also eager to meet Bret. I checked in, and we then went into the meeting room for 5pm.
I bought an 8×10 and a programme, and we exchanged our tickets for wristbands before heading in and queuing up for the Meet & Greet. Bret got in around 10 past 5, and the line started moving pretty swiftly.
In contrast to Jim Ross’ show (although it may have been different in other venues), seats weren’t assigned. It was basically just sit where you want after you meet Bret, which was fine by me, as I ended up getting a great seat on the aisle with a perfect view of the stage. We were probably in the line for about 30-40 minutes before we got to the front.
I asked Bret to sign my WrestleMania 28 programme (which now has 14 signatures, with Bret being the 4th WWE Hall of Famer to sign it) and my copy of his autobiography. He asked me what I made of his book, and appreciated the fact that we’d travelled from Dublin to see him.
I can never get used to that feeling of meeting someone who has made such a tremendous impact on the WWE and the wrestling industry as a whole. I’ve met guys like Jim Ross, Kane, Mick Foley, William Regal, Lita and Daniel Bryan, and meeting Bret Hart was yet another completely unique and amazing experience. One that I’ll never forget.
We waited for the Meet & Greet to end, and when it did, Bret took off for a well-deserved break as the rest of the fans started piling in. There was a very decent turnout, with at least a few hundred fans in attendance. Naturally, almost everyone was from Northern Ireland, but I did hear another Dubliner or two in there with me!
I’m not going to go into too much detail about the stories he told, because I’d never be able to do them justice, but I’ll try to touch on some of the topics Bret discussed during the evening.
The host of the event (and editor of Fighting Spirit Magazine), Brian Elliott, started off by asking Bret about his health. He said he’d had both of his knees replaced, most recently last year, and said he’s in good condition right now. He joked about people asking him questions about jumping off the ropes and landing on his knees, and whether or not it hurt. “Yeah, it hurts!”
One man asked Bret’s opinion on WWE’s decision to “erase the memory” of Chris Benoit since his tragic passing in 2007.
Bret had essentially the same opinion as I have on it. He can understand why the WWE wouldn’t want to commemorate and praise him on-air when there’s so much controversy behind him, but chooses to remember Chris the way he knew him personally, and as a competitor. He mentioned how you can go back and see some of Benoit’s work on the WWE Network, which he felt was a good thing to include.
There was definitely a focus on WCW and what the dynamic was like when Bret left WWE to go there. Bret discussed how the guys in WCW may have been unsure about giving him a top spot, because they might’ve considered him a flight risk after his WWE departure, and didn’t want to make any risky decisions to put the integrity of their business in jeopardy.
He also discussed, in a very humorous manner, Eric Bischoff’s reluctance to use just about any of Bret’s ideas regarding the main-event and his own position in WCW. Apparently Bischoff always shrugged off whatever he said for the dumbest reasons, like there being a leak in the ceiling or something. I think we were all in hysterics at the amount of times Bret used the words “stupid” and “idiot” to describe Bischoff.
One example of Bischoff’s hesitance to accept one of Hart’s suggestions was regarding the infamous steel plate segment on WCW Nitro in Toronto in 1999, where Bret Hart wore some sort of steel plate around his abdomen to protect himself from Goldberg’s Spear. It was an awesome idea, and Eric Bischoff reacted to hearing it in the same way he usually would, shaking his head and making a face, saying “Goldberg would never go for it”, even though Bret had already talked it over with Bill and he loved the idea.
It was Bret’s understanding that so many ideas were turned down by Bischoff because Hulk Hogan was actually the man pulling the strings, but even upon confronting Hogan about Bischoff’s dumb, illogical booking, he saw that it probably was just Bischoff being a complete dumbass. I guess it’s official.
Bret spoke a lot about the current WWE product, praising guys like Cesaro and Daniel Bryan for being able to do things he’s never seen before in his illustrious career.
The WWE’s developmental territory, NXT came into question, with Bret noting the fact that they’ve got some of the most incredible equipment in the WWE Performance Centre, to shape guys up for being a part of the main roster.
Bret even put over the Divas division and said that, despite the general opinion of many fans, the women in the WWE are actually on a greater level than ever before. I could see a few eyebrows raised amongst fans in attendance, including a woman who turned to the person beside her with a look of absolute confusion on her face.
He said they have great wrestlers in Natalya and AJ Lee, and even commented on the fact that Brie Bella has vastly improved her game since around the summer of 2013. I was pretty happy to hear him say that, because as much as people (myself included) have given out about the Bella Twins, you can’t deny the fact that they’ve upped their game since they returned to the WWE.
It’s not just Brie, either. I know I’ve expressed my disdain for Nikki Bella a lot on this site, but she’s been really impressive over the last few months since her leg injury too. I feel like they’ve saved themselves from just being models instead of WWE wrestlers. They’re far from the best, but at least they’re improving, right? Right…
Bret commented upon the fact that the Divas of today are both beautiful and talented in the ring as opposed to many of the well-known female wrestlers from days gone by, saying “nobody ever got a boner watchin’ Moolah”, which I couldn’t help but laugh at. I know it’s bad, but still.
He spoke a lot about the tag-team division, and the way the WWE has dropped the ball with it in recent years. He mentioned that Vince McMahon has always had a hatred for tag-team wrestling, but said that in his experience, he’s seen that a good tag-team match can be the highlight of the show in some cases.
He gave kudos to Triple H, who’s been trying hard to get tag-teams back in the spotlight since he started climbing the corporate ladder.
According to Bret, the tag-team division could be completely saved within a few months, and looking at teams like the Usos, the Real Americans, Rybaxel, The Shield, the Wyatt Family and even The Ascension down in NXT, I completely agree that the talent is there. All the WWE need to do is make the effort. He recalled teaming with Jim Neidhart as the Hart Foundation, and said that he didn’t really care about his singles push being postponed so many times because he always had a good time teaming with The Anvil.
Bret discussed what is highly regarded as one of his greatest matches of all-time – against the British Bulldog at Wembley Stadium in 1992. He said that the two options were to do it either in Washington, D.C., or at Wembley, and obviously the latter was the more popular choice given the fact that Davey Boy was from England.
Bret noted that one way to get the match booked was to introduce the concept of the Ladder Match to Vince McMahon, but it kind of backfired. Vince made him and Shawn have a Ladder Match on Raw that night, to show him how it worked. Bret was a little bit pissed off when he didn’t get any credit for introducing the concept to Vinnie, and then seeing it used for Razor Ramon’s match with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X.
Bret discussed his feud with his brother Owen and how they didn’t speak to each other for the length of it so people would believe that there was legitimate animosity between them, but made Vince promise that the feud would get closure so that he and Owen could show the fans that they were really close.
He said that his chemistry with his brother was unbelievable, and that Owen, Dynamite Kid and Curt Hennig gave him some of his best matches. He said that, given the opportunity, he would love to have one last match with his brother and/or Mr Perfect, who had a tremendous amount of respect for Bret.
I could go on for ages about the amount of subject matter discussed at the Q&A last Saturday night, but I think I’ll wrap up here. I’d highly recommend you read Bret’s story in his own words with his autobiography, ‘Hitman’. The book gets slammed a lot (no pun intended) for its negative outlook on a large portion of the wrestling business – namely Vince, Shawn and Triple H – but it’s a fantastic read.
There’s great insight into Bret’s days in his father’s promotion, Stampede Wrestling, and Bret’s experiences travelling the world, sampling different styles of wrestling in places like Japan.
There’s also great insight into what it was like to grow up in the Hart Family, training in the infamous Dungeon. I’d suggest picking it up, because it’s a very interesting story. Like I said, I could go on, but a lot of what I could tell you is in the book, so go ahead and read it!
I’ll wrap up by thanking Bret Hart and PSI Events for presenting so many fans around the UK with an opportunity to meet him and hear stories from one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time. The guys have booked Shawn Michaels for a short tour at the end of April too, which is just amazing.
I hope they manage to hit the Republic of Ireland next time they decide to do a show, because I think I can speak for all of the wrestling fans here when I say there’d be a great turnout! Whether it’s Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Hulk Hogan or even Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts, I don’t care! I’d love to see PSI Events roll into Dublin to put on a show.
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Thanks for reading!
Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
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