The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever willl be…
One of the nice things for me about being on vacation is that I do things that I enjoy but seem to never do during my normal day to day routine. One of these things is reading books. It’s not that I don’t like books but I normally find something instantly more gratifying to do with my time (usually video games) then spend the time to get invested with a book.
So with most of my technology purposefully away from me last week I was able to finish (among other things) a book I had started after I got it last Christmas. The book is “Hitman: My life in the cartoon world of wrestling” by Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart.
For those who don’t know Bret is a former pro wrestler and real Canadian hero in my opinion. His father was a old school wrestling legend who ran Stampede wresting out of Calgary for many years and over time most of his eleven siblings would be involved in some way or another. Stampede was eventually bought by the WWE (WWF at the time) which continues to be the main face of pro wresting today.
In an entertainment business full of liars, bullshitters, bullies, bodybuilders who couldn’t wrestle their way out of a paper bag and where the lines of reality and fiction are often blurred Bret was constantly classy and stood up for when the business was about the comradery of the boys in the dressing room and giving the fans a great show in the ring while not insulting their intelligence. Before he was a superstar wresting was just starting to get into the main stream with Hulk Hogan leading the charge. Unfortunately Hulk’s clean image of telling kids to eat their vitamins and say their prayers was killed (along with his super hero sized arms) when it was shown he took steroids to get his body to that size. By the time Bret hit his stride main stream wrestling was becoming less of a characterture and fans were beginning to appreciate the in the ring skill that was being displayed.
This was good as while not the greatest at giving interviews Bret was the best working in the ring (many including me would say of all time) and could tell breathtaking stories with incredible skill that could bring you to your feet cheering or make you fall to the ground in tears. Many of you may think I’m crazy for the last statement thinking that pro wresting is just people doing crazy stunts with fixed endings; and while today this is closer than ever to being true there was a time when the matches took priority over the spectacle and there were amazing stories to be told. Unfortunately as the business grew bigger and more profitable it lost its roots and the things you like to romantically link to sports such as commitment, sportsmanship, sacrifice, and being role models were left behind and replaced with backstabbing, sex and shock jock TV.
I would be lying if I said that at the time I wasn’t excited by the turn in wresting. As I was moving into my teenage years wrestling was moving from family oriented fun that I would watch with my Dad, Brother and Uncle to something more ‘gritty’ and ‘real’ with bra and panties matches, more over the top stunts and anti heroes telling everyone off being who the crowds cheered for and it seem to fit the entertainment bill perfectly. What I didn’t understand then was that most of the skill and deeper in the ring aspects of wresting that would made it more interesting then a brawl in an episode of COPS were slowing being moved out in favour of sometimes good, sometimes bad promos and people hitting each other over the head with trash cans.
While I said earlier that Bret wasn’t the greatest at interviews, he improved at lot and this ended up being what made him the most enduring to me and I would assume a lot of other fans. His interviews were almost never the perfect, heavily edited, over the top promos that many wrestlers of the day used. Even when he had a scripted interview there would always seem to be weird pauses and words that could have been better chosen but it all added to the honestly of his character as he was always talking from the heart and never just blankly reading a script. After a long and hard road I was elated to see him win his second WWF heavyweight title at Wrestlemania X (although the belts are thrown around a lot these days, back at that time winning it meant that you were the top guy in the company and were looked to for leading the dressing rooms and to be the one who drew fans to the shows so everyone could make their money). He would later to go on to win it 3 mores times, which once again at the time was almost unheard of.
It was a shame that one of the nicest, hardest working and most talented guys in the business also was on the receiving end of the most infamous screw jobs ever perpetrated by a man who had made millions of of his blood and sweat. The Montreal screw job as it has been come to know as was where the old school lines about respect in the business were shattered forever and signified a change that I would not comprehend until years later. Bret was about to leave for the rival WCW promotion which was at the time beating the WWF and throwing huge contracts around to get people to work for them. After the WWF re-nagged on his contract (this is somewhat over simplifying things) Bret decided to sign with WCW in a decision I never understood as a fan at the time but can see now that he was looking out for his best interest long term and that of his family, and thought this was the best way to do it in an industry where nothing is certain.
Bret lost the title that night in the most embarrassing way possible with his opponent using Bret’s own finisher and the ref calling the match without even a hint that Bret was going to give up. The fans were livid as it was a literal screw job not just one from the storyline and in the aftermath Vince McMahon (The WWF chairman and architect of the screw job) got knocked out cold in the dressing room by a single punch from the Bret.
Wrestling is full of tragedies, I couldn’t begin to count the number of people I read about in the book who died well before their time of drug overdoses, steroid abuse, pain pills, alcohol, injuries from working and other things associated with the lifestyle and there are dozens more who are mere shells of themselves after all the abuse. Unfortunately Bret was no exception and was a severely concussed by good natured, but far too green Bill Goldburg which eventually lead to him having a stroke. While Bret was able to recover and is continuing to live outside the business there are so many others that didn’t make it even my limited time being a fan including Eddie Guerrero, Owen Hart (Bret’s brother who died doing an ill conceived stunt from the rafters) and Christ Beniot (even though everything around his death was horrible I will continue to believe he was a good guy who’s brain was literally destroyed by what he put himself through to wrestle).
This blog post is kinda long and has more history and less opinion in it but I wanted to say a few (ok maybe more than a few) words about something that at one point in time was something I enjoyed but can never really go back to again. I know I say this a lot, but I’m pretty sure you will never get around to this corner of the internet Bret but even so I wanted to say something to you as a fan. You were always my hero from the first day I heard the ring announcer have to added Canada into your home town so people would know where it was. Your honestly, commitment and talent rang true even to a nine year old kid who wasn’t sure how real wrestling was. At the time it was great to cheer for someone who had taken the long road to get there and was finally getting what he deserved. After reading the book it was great to get to know more about you and I was cheering again even though I already knew most of the story. Although your image is not as squeaky clean as it was when I looked up to you as a boy you are more than worthy both then and now to be a role model and a hero, you are still the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.