Bret Hart on Off The Record (TSN) right now!

[Invictus 0]

If no one else does it, I'll try to recap.

[Guest The Electrifyer]

I'm watching it right now. This is the first of a two part series, BTW.

[Guest bob_barron]

I'll recap starting after the break if you guys want

[Guest BifEverchad]

Bret looks great. Not as well as he was, but for someone who battled a stroke and came back to almost 100%, he looks great. His hair is shorter, and is speaking a little softer somewhat, but Bret was never a loud talker anyways.

 

the first segment was mainly Lansberg (the host) thanking Bret for doing teh show, and asking him about his stroke and his recovery process.

 

Commercial Break

[Invictus 0]

Landsberg compliments Bret on how good he looks, he has relatively short hair.

 

When Bret first had his stroke, he couldn't feel anything other than in the tips of his toes and fingers. He almost died, something most people don't realize.

 

The day he had the stoke he was invited to the G8 summit by a U.N. representative, so he decided to ride his bike downtown to check out the G8 scene. He had the stroke while riding his bike there.

 

He talks about that his muscle mass hindered him after his stroke because it's more weight to drag around when recuperating, but he got stronger and it was easier.

 

Commercial break.

[Invictus 0]

Bob, you can take it from here if you want.

[Guest bob_barron]

Okay- here we go.

 

Landsberg said there was a time when Bret realised he could live life. Bret said he went through different phases. He tried not to get bitter but he was really mad and bitter and down. He talked about staring at the visor in the car and how he couldnt wink Once he started getting little things back like being able to wink he felt a lot better.

 

How does he look at life differently now? Bret said he looks at what's really important to you and a lot of his hard feelings towards people didnt mean as much.

 

Landsberg said you find out how people think about you. Bret said his family was there for him- his wife Julie was tremendous and his kids were all great. Walter Gretzky made contact with him the first few days he was in the hospital and it did a lot for him. Rowdy Piper, Benoit, Jericho, Edge all called him- as did Taker. A lot of old friends and Canadian wrestlers called him. A lot of wrestlers he thought were afraid to call him because it would get him in trouble. He didnt hear from too many wrestlers after Owen's death.

 

Landsberg asked if his stroke helped bond his family but Bret said it didn't. Bret talked about the disloyalty to Owen by some members of his family. He didn't want Diana or Ellie to visit him since they were too busy to getting jobs for their husbands instead of caring about Owen.

 

Break.

[Guest bob_barron]

And we're back.

 

Landsberg mentioned his on-again, off again relationship with Vince. Bret said he doesnt hate Vince and has moved on. He doesn't forgive what he did and said it was never about business. He said it was about being dishonest and unfair and he was never happy with what they did. When he had the stroke Vince called him and it caught Bret off guard. He thought it was a nice gesture and they talked for a bit. Bret was doing a coffee table book and they didnt have any pictures for his book and Vince promised him he could use any footage he wanted for his book. Bret said he asked the same thing at Owen's funeral but Vince reneged then.

 

He still doesnt know what happen to Owen and no one ever told him what happened. He said it was in best interest for Bret to take Vince's olive branch. He didnt want his nephews to feel like they couldn't go to Vince because of what happened.

 

Bret said he steers his kids away from wrestling but he'd rather them get into wrestling then doing drywall. There's a lot of good and bad things that then come out of wrestling.

[Guest bob_barron]

We're back.

 

Landsberg called this a truly remarkable experience and he thanked Bret for putting OTR on the map.

 

Landsberg brought up his face to face meeting with Vince. Bret said his sisters painted a picture like Bret was out to get him and that he was driving the lawsuit. Bret said it's stupid to think he hard feelings for Montreal over anything else. Vince gave him a big hug and said Montreal was really bad judgement on his part. Bret thought it was time to let Vince know that he isn't still mad at him. Bret wants peace and he doesn't want to carry around the feelings.

 

They talked about doing a DVD of his greatest matches. Bret said it is highly unlikely of him ever coming back.

 

They brought up Curt Hennig. Bret said it was really upsetting and he was one of his five best friends. They had such a great chemistry and he said the one guy he would want to have a match with Curt.

 

He talked about Summerslam 91 and how Curt hurt his back pretty bad and how most guys wouldnt wrestle with the pain he had.

 

End of show

[Guest HartFan86]

Thanks Bob.

 

Fuck...I wish I lived in Canada. WHY ISN'T MAINE CLOSE ENOUGH, DAMNIT.

[Guest bob_barron]

No problem Hartfan.

 

I'll try to recap it next week if I get home in time.

 

Invictus-

I'm thinking of sending the recap to 411- is it okay if I use what you wrote for the first act?

[Invictus 0]

Sure Bob, I don't mind.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

Thanks for the commentary.

Good to see Bret is doing good.

[Guest dpac]

thanks for the recap

I know Bret does not want to be part of any angles or anything like that, but i would love to see him in the ring one last time for a good bye to the fans

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

It's good to hear Bret himself say he's not mad at Vince anymore.

 

Hey they even hugged!

[Guest Lightning Flik]

It was quite a treat seeing my fav wrestler once again. I'm happy that Bret's doing alright. For someone to have almost been killed by a stroke and be half paralyzed from it and recovered to almost 100% health, I'm amazed and astounded.

 

Also he is still was/is a class act all around, and perhaps even more so with him & Vince buried the hatchet.

 

Although, most importantly, I'm glad that Bret "The Hitman" Hart is alive and well. Can't wait for the second half of the interview.

 

P.S.

Great recap guys. Very well done.

[Guest art_vandelay]

by Jeff Marek

 

** I hope everyone enjoyed the first TSN Off The Record show with Bret Hart tonight. I’ve been helping to write the wrestling shows for the program since day one and without a doubt I think I’m (along with the entire OTR Staff) the most proud of todays and next weeks shows. It was good to see Bret in such good health and spirits considering all that he’s been through, especially the stroke. If I was forced to rate each show against each other I’d say the first one was better but it really is an apples and oranges situation considering tonight’s show was all about the stroke, the recovery, his personal feelings with Vince and his thoughts about Curt Hennig while next weeks show is more specific to the wrestling industry. On next Tuesday’s program you’ll see Bret react to Hulk Hogan’s comments about him on OTR in December (where he reaffirmed that everything he wrote about Bret in his book was true…for the record, it wasn’t even close), he told the story about how Hogan was supposed to drop the WWF title to him but refused, share his thoughts about what he still thinks of Shawn Michaels (surprise, surprise it’s not much), how he remembers HHH when he was still in the company (called him a kiss ass), praises Steve Austin (and claims that Owen’s feelings about Steve were a little misguided), say’s how he knew the Rock was one day going to be “The Franchise”, talks about who (if he could choose anyone) he would like to do one last match against (said it would have been Hennig but since he’s passed he said Benoit) and much more. We’ll air clips from next weeks Bret Hart one-on-one on The L.A.W this Sunday.

[Guest jessecartieri]

It's good to hear Bret himself say he's not mad at Vince anymore.

 

Hey they even hugged!

Way to sell your soul, it's not like he didn't ruin your life and killed your relatives

[The Dames 0]

Hey, I don't agree with what Vince did, but it's about time that Bret put it behind him. It's not like he signed with WWE and proceeded to use his brother's death as an angle.

 

Dames

[Guest jessecartieri]

Hey, I don't agree with what Vince did, but it's about time that Bret put it behind him. It's not like he signed with WWE and proceeded to use his brother's death as an angle.

 

Dames

Perhaps. But I am beginning to miss the Bret who knew that Vince and the WWF was destroying the business as he knew it. Ted DiBiase in last week's shoot was right, it is all rubbish.

[Guest Repo Man jr]

They got the show up at the site now - http://www.tsn.ca/shows/otr/