The land of wrestling podcasts has recently taken over my life. The craze started not too long ago and needless to say, they help when you are washing the dishes, washing the car, or doing laundry. This is beside the point however; I want to cover today a recent podcast done by Bruce Prichard of something to wrestle with fame. The topic for this recent podcast was Bret Hart. If you don’t worry who that is, do not be alarmed you will by the end of this post. My memories of that time are quite extraordinary and full of joy. First, I’ll go through some major points that Bruce Prichard covered and then I’ll give some of my perspective.
The podcast does a very good job of painting Bret at this time as someone who could have an excellent match with anyone during that era. He worked with a who’s who of wrestlers. His matches included excellent storytelling, great selling, good flow, and a way of sucking you in so you could believe it. One of those matches was Bret Hart vs Steve Austin from WrestleMania 13. The match did a good job of telling the classic story of the cocky upstart who is being a rebel vs the proud hero who stands by his morals. Hart of course, was the hero who stood by his morals. The fans at the time were clamoring for a change and wanted something new. In storyline, the idea was to do a double turn and have one guy go ‘good’ and another go ‘bad’. Bret at this time was portrayed as being good and Austin as bad. The fans saw how much Austin clawed and scratched to try and win but to no avail. The fans by the end of the match knew that Austin had given it his all in the match and Bret was just being a bully by beating down on a limp body. That is why that match is (by those days), considered a classic. It works because it was believable and it gives credit to the performers that were out there. The match was bloody, full of hard hitting action, and kept you on the edge of your seat. More on these excellent feuds later on. One of my favorite pieces of the podcast included the insights into how the Montreal Screw job came about. The incident famously known as the Montreal Screw job was orchestrated in 1997 as a way to get the belt off Bret Hart so he wouldn’t walk away from the company with the belt.
The scenario was in place so that Shawn Michaels (the incumbent champion) and Bret Hart could have a finish even though one person was not clued in. Essentially, the original plan was for the match to end in a disqualification and there would be members of the Hart Foundation (Bret’s group and faction) that would run in and have the match end in controversial fashion. However, at the end of the match Shawn put Bret Hart in his own hold (the sharpshooter, which is where Bret would put his left leg in between his opponents’ two legs and turn the person around and sit on the person’s back until they gave up). The finish of the match saw Bret not give up and the referee rang for the bell. Needless to say, Bret was very upset at the end of this and realized he had been double crossed. After this, he left upset and even had the guts to punch his former boss, Vince McMahon. There has been quite a bit said as to the different scenarios that would have come into place if this situation would not have happened. I also really enjoyed the 1996 portion of this podcast because you also got an insight into Bret taking a leave of absence for his TV shows and to take a break. I also heard the first time that he got a call to come back in 1996 and he flat out said no. It was almost as if Bret needed time to recharge his batteries at time to be with his families. I also learned from this portion of this podcast that Bret was a very smart man when it came to negotiating for his contract and for what he felt was right. At this time, it was rumored that Bret would jump to the rival company, WCW.
He would have been one of the members of the newly formed New World Order. The spot that was originally meant for Hart went to one Hulk Hogan. It’s funny because if that would have happened he would not have as a successful run as he did. Bret however, knew that he still had an opportunity to work with one of the new stars in the WWF in Steve Austin. I remember at this time also that the podcast mentioned on how Bret was always keen on making his opponents look good and how he worked hard to make sure that everything made sense. One of these times where this was true was where Bret did a USA vs Canada angle and he was very successful at having the USA fans hate him. I have gone off the rails a bit and I am going to just cover what I remember from this time period of 1996-1997. It may be bit scattered but for me it is how I remember it. Anyway, getting back to the USA vs Canada angle. I had a sense at the time that what Bret was doing was fairly interesting because he had fans on one side of the border hating his guts. In another country, he had fans still cheering him as their hero. I still vividly remember Bret saying ‘we don’t shoot each other on the streets and we still care for our sick’. Ironically enough, this was done in Canada. Meanwhile, in the USA the fans still hated his guts for being pompous about pimping his home country. It would be as if I went around from country to country and I would be liked or respected only in one or a few. I also remember the summer of 1997 was awesome because this was where Bret Hart famed one of my favorite wrestling stables in the Hart Foundation. Bret Hart essentially went ahead and gathered his family members to start this group. It was composed of four great wrestlers (actually three) in Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith, and Brian Pillman. The other member was Jim Neidhart. All five men ran roughshod over the federation. The pinnacle of the group came when they ran up against Steve Austin’s team of himself, Goldust, Ken Shamrock, and the Legion of Doom. I still remember this match as being emotional for me because my hero had come back from injury in 1997 after having that great run with Steve Austin. Just to backtrack a bit, Bret Hart had finished his series of matches with Steve Austin (including the classic at WrestleMania 13) and he had run an angle on TV where he was out injured due to some complications with his knee.
As he was coming back, I remember this promo Hart was cutting with Shawn Michaels in May of 1997 where Hart was calling Shawn all kinds of names and questioning his manhood. At the time, I was not smart to what was happening and realized that the TV time was running out. As the show was going off the air, I realized that the show did not officially end. Little did I know (according to the podcast with Prichard), Bret forgot the cue and he kept talking. All these later, I still felt that was how the show was supposed to end. Anyway, back to the match where they went up against Steve Austin’s team. The event took place in Canada in Calgary. The crowd that night was electric for the show known as Canadian Stampede. As the match was starting, I was in awe that all these people jammed into one arena to see their fellow countrymen do battle. The Foundation ended up winning after about 20-25 minutes of some hard hitting action. The time during my life at that time was also when my family and I would go to Mexico on vacation. As the time was rapidly approaching for us to leave, Summer slam 1997 was also happening. I remember watching Bret Hart’s championship match against the Undertaker at my mom’s work. Some of these times are priceless as I remember being a little kid and being excited for what was to come next. I think that was one of the magical things about Bret Hart’s 1996-1997 run. I remember after each Bret match, promo, or appearance I would ask myself what was next for the Hitman. One of those that I could remember was when before he left for his hiatus in 1996, he had a one-hour match with Shawn Michaels. The match was famous for going one hour without pinfalls or submissions. I also remember that the match went sudden death and about a minute in, Shawn Michaels was able to get the win with his superkick. After the match, Bret took his time getting back and the cameras followed him back to get his reaction and needless to say he was visibly upset. I know from this incident, I knew from there he was someone who could hook my interest from the beginning of a match or from the end of the match because he made you believe it was real. One of those times where I first got a peak behind the curtain was when the film “Wrestling with Shadows” was released.
The film showed us the intricacies of wrestling and how deep his belief went into wrestling. You also saw how much he cared about his family. His immediate family he cared about because you saw that what he grew up was almost like a sport that you had to take into account. If you not have seen the movie, I would highly recommend the film because you see the ins and outs of what it is like to be a wrestler and how one of the best wrestlers ever got to where he was. I’ll leave everything with this as one of my favorite memories of that run in 1996-1997. I remember when Bret had come back in 1996 and Bret came back and said how loyal he was to the WWF and how he wasn’t going anywhere. I was so happy at that time because for one he said he was staying and he also for the first time accepted Steve Austin’s challenge for a match at Survivor Series 1996. The idea for me at that time was that Bret would always be a WWF guy. In 2002, after Bret had officially retired full time from wrestling I wrote a paper about his time in wrestling. I remember I got a decent grade on the paper actually. I also was so happy when Bret Hart returned in 2010 to the now known WWE. He had a memorable run in 1996-97 but I believe here it warmed my heart that he let old wounds heal after the Montreal Screwjob and he was able to show the new generation of fans his skills.
Well, there you have it. I just wrote some great memories and some of my favorite times of my favorite wrestler, Bret Hart. Over the next two weeks I will be traveling on some weekends to Los Angeles and then after that I will be having some surgery to heal up some kidney stones. What I want to do for my next blog is include some little journal entries on what these trips were like and I’ll probably write them in my tiny moleskin that I was recently given as a gift. Till next time, everybody be on the lookout!
Just Another Day... 