Bret Hart column

[JoeDirt 0]

Keeping it real

Rivalry with Stone Cold wasn't rehearsed

By BRET HART

 

This past week, I've been completing an upcoming TV special about a one-time NHLer who used to play for the Rochester Americans. I was riding in the production van when it pulled up at the Rochester War Memorial Auditorium and I was instantly struck by memories of many great matches I had there, many of them involving Stone Cold Steve Austin.

 

While storylines suggested Steve and I had an intense, bitter rivalry, we were always close friends who had a deep mutual respect.

 

I sat down on the front steps of the Rochester War Memorial and gave Steve a call.

 

Turns out, he has a part in the remake of The Longest Yard and was talking to me from the set in L.A. When I told him where I was calling from, he chuckled almost deviously and we enjoyed swapping old war stories.

 

I asked Steve if he has any plans to return to the ring and he said he's been feeling it in his knees and neck lately. And he's not sure if it'd be worth risking injuring himself at this point in his career. But never say never in wrestling.

 

We joked about whose knees are worse -- mine or his -- and recalled that when I needed to have knee surgery for real, we had a story angle in which Steve was all fired up after losing to me at Wrestlemania XIII. He viciously attacked my knee with a chair on Raw the next night in Binghamton, N.Y., so I could go home to have my knee taken care of.

 

We talked about the present state of the business and we both had similiar sentiments: Realism is severely lacking and, for me, it's the realism

 

I always loved about the business.

 

Our matches and interviews were never overly rehearsed and no script writer could have invented a Stone Cold or a Hitman match as well as Steve Williams and I did.

 

Wrestling shouldn't be reduced to a formula written by someone else to be followed by wrestlers because then the result will never come across as genuine. Pro wrestling should be an art form so wrestlers can tell stories in the ring again.

 

Just before we got off the phone, Steve Austin invited me down to visit him in Texas to go wild boar hunting. Something tells me that will be quite a tale.

[iliketurtles 0]

"Keeping it real" is no doubt the best title for this column...pretty cool stuff that they can maintain a "friendship" after all these years.

 

How cool would it be to see Steve Austin and Bret Hart hunting? That's crazy stuff.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

This column makes me think at one point:

 

What would WWE be like if, without being restricted by McMahon and while also not appearing on TV, Austin and Hart were allowed to book the shows.

 

Might be something interesting to see, if you ask me.

[iliketurtles 0]

McMahon was going to make Hart the head booker before everything starting happening with Shawn. Triple H knows his stuff and is the position to do something about it, but he's not Steve Austin or Bret Hart when it comes to wrestling knowledge and I think he'd even admit that.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Throw Foley into the mix, since I'm of the thought that nobody could really draw out such raw emotion as Foley could.

 

My dream booking team of ex-wrestlers/managers are Mick Foley, Raven, and Paul Heyman.

[Guest GreatOne]

Technically the night Austin went batshit on Bret's knee was the night after Revenge Of The Taker, which also featured the ambulance moment.

[Guest Loss]

Austin had his most success in 1998, and the writers tried to move forward with Austin stopping them every step of the way. If he had his way, he'd be feuding with Vince McMahon on TV right now and facing Undertaker on the next PPV.

 

Austin shouldn't book.

 

Foley laid out a cliched as Hell feud with Orton that failed to rock the world at all. There was nothing wrong with it, but his idea of making someone strong is to make giving the rub mean virtually nothing. Does beating Mick Foley actually mean anything, especially when he's a retired wrestler who hasn't had a match in four years and hasn't won a match in even longer? I doubt it. There was never even an attempt at an explanation to logically allow him to come back after losing a match where he had agreed to retire. So many plot holes, and he outshined Orton so much on the mic that I'm not convined the feud did Randy any favors.

 

Foley shouldn't book.

 

Bret should be the head booker for the company right now. He largely laid out both the feud with Owen Hart and the feud with Steve Austin, both of which featured great booking and great wrestling.

 

I'd take a creative team of Bret Hart, Bret Hart and Bret Hart any day.

[strummer 0]

Any confirmation on why Austin left in 2002? Like Loss said, some reporters were saying that Austin wanted to feud with Vince and Undertaker. But then there were other rumors that he wanted to work with Guerrero and Benoit. Austin shouldn't have the book, because he would just want to rehash Austin/McMahon.

[Guest Loss]

I chat with a guy online who is an indy wrestler and has friends in the company, both as wrestlers and on the writing staff. From what I understand, here's how Austin saw his fellow wrestlers:

 

Taker - An easy program with ready-made history, so why not return to it? It's guaranteed to get a response from the fans and features two big names.

 

Benoit - A great worker that deserves his due, but Austin is by nature hesitant to let anyone else get too much on him.

 

Angle - Enjoyed working with him and respects him as a worker, but doesn't think Angle has the potential to be a superstar as much as he originally thought.

 

Jericho - Doesn't like his working style because he thinks he's too flippy floppy, but thinks he has great charisma and star quality, and also likes him on a personal level. Refused to do a clean job for him at Vengeance 2001.

 

Booker - Never saw him on his level and didn't enjoy working with him.

 

HHH - Likes working with him because of his style, but doesn't trust him in storylines.

 

Guerrero - At the time, Austin thought he was the best worker in the company and wanted to do a program with him, but he wanted it under his terms.

 

The writers wanted him to actually let Eddy control most of the offense in their matches and not have Austin get revenge immediately like he always did in every other feud at the time. The writers wanted Debra to turn on Austin and side with Eddy at KOTR. The plan for the night Austin walked out was for Austin/Brock as the main event with Eddy as special ref costing Austin the match. Austin would chase Eddy out of the arena, but would be jumped once he got to the parking lot by Flair, Arn and Benoit. He'd fight them off just in time to almost get to Eddy, but have Eddy speed away in his rental car. Austin didn't like this scenario at all, nor was he happy with the ending to the RAW where Benoit turned heel, as he thought he was getting his ass kicked too much. Austin would have eventually gotten his revenge on the group, but it would have been one-by-one ... Flair, then Eddy, then finally Benoit in a one-on-one meeting, most likely at Wrestlemania. Another plan was to do Austin/RVD v Benoit/Eddy at KOTR, but Austin thought he would be hurt by teaming with a midcarder and didn't like doing tags anyway.

 

I don't know if all that is totally accurate. But that's what I've been told. Let that disclaimer stand.

[zyn081 0]

I think thats one of the nicest reads in a long time. Wrestling should be as real as possible and about the stories. I watched the Steamboat shoot again this week and when asked about his favourite match of all time, he said that his 2/3 falls with Ric Flair. He said the only spots booked were the falls. the rest was on the fly.

 

The main question that articles raises if is Austin was planning a return, were would he go to? WWE again? Who would he feud with? Im not too keen on that idea unfortunately.

 

Austin was always afraid of Brock shooting on him. Shame we couldnt have seen Flair as his lacky. Please give us a face turn run for the Nature Boy. His promos are off the hook, last RAW. Mick Foley, a human stuntman yes, a legend never!. I wouldnt go that far, but just hearing it was priceless.

 

As regards Bret in charge of booking, we could only hope and dream. Or as GM (but strangely enough I like Teddy Long). Cant see that though. Hes turned Vince down twice, once to ref HHH-Y2Y at WMX18 and ref this years WM ME. Shame Hogan wasnt there either. It was nice to Hogan, Foley and Austin recollect on the "5th Ann SD". I think a McMahon-Hart angle is the last great one left. They have unfinished business.

[iliketurtles 0]

Intresting stuff there, Loss. I'm more intrested in the backstage stuff like what possible storylines there were thinking of taking place one day as opposed to that other thread with all the gossip on wrestlers. You should have your buddy make one and talk about stuff...or even you could post it.

 

I think the main reason Austin left was because of jobbing to Lesnar when Austin wanted to do a bigger program with him in the future. It would of been awesome to have done Eddie/Austin and Benoit/Austin programs for the rest of 2002 instead of the shit Raw turned into.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Bret should be the head booker for the company right now. He largely laid out both the feud with Owen Hart and the feud with Steve Austin, both of which featured great booking and great wrestling.

 

I'd take a creative team of Bret Hart, Bret Hart and Bret Hart any day.

Hart as booker? Nobody would be discussing anything on the internet because there'd be nothing to complain about. Man, I remember being excited back in the day when I heard that he could possably be booking someday.

[geniusMoment 0]

Bret as booker would be good as long as he did not try to be "family friendly" again. In his writings he seems to miss seeing all of the kids at the shows and I do not want to watch "family WWF" again. I am not saying he would bring back the stupid gimmicks, but I am worried that he would take out all of the edge that helped make the product popular, or at least the tiny bit they have left.

Also, put someone on the team with Bret with a sense of what is popular with the target demo of 18-34, and not some geeky comic book writer.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Bret as booker would be good as long as he did not try to be "family friendly" again. In his writings he seems to miss seeing all of the kids at the shows and I do not want to watch "family WWF" again. I am not saying he would bring back the stupid gimmicks, but I am worried that he would take out all of the edge that helped make the product popular, or at least the tiny bit they have left.

Also, put someone on the team with Bret with a sense of what is popular with the target demo of 18-34, and not some geeky comic book writer.

Remember Bret is big time fan of Stampede back in the day and that was what hardcore wrestlng (minus some of the angles) was all about. Stampede in Bret's days was way more "aldutish" (I love making new words) than the WWF or WWE ever was.

[Guest Loss]

WWE never produced a mature product or catered to adults. Having a bunch of grown men yell "Suck It!" and all the sophomoric humor of guys like Mick Foley was just a way to draw in kids whose families weren't paying attention to what they were watching. I have my problems with the ethics of such an approach, but it was admittedly effective.

 

Stuff like the Kiss My Ass Club wasn't really all that edgy or mature ... it was pretty childish in fact.

[iliketurtles 0]

Just watch Bret's feud with Austin. I wouldn't really say their I Quit match was family friendly. And Stampede wasn't always family friendly, as wildpegasus said.

 

I think there's a possibility of it still happening...but I don't see it with Shawn Michaels still around, and HHH in charge, but you really never know.

[geniusMoment 0]

Its weird, but in his movie bret seemed very hesitant toward the idea of turning heel and going in a more realistic direction, with both HBK and Austin. Now, when he looks back on his career I have heard him mention his times with the Hart Foundation in 97 as the best time in his career.

 

As for when I said adult, it was just a bad word choice on my part. But, either way I do not want WWE to become like 95-pre russo 99, where the word ass is bad because they are worried about bringing 8-12 year olds to the shows so wrestlers can be a "hero" to children again.

 

Once again, I am not saying Bret would do things like that, its just a minor concern I would have if he were to be in total control. However, with that said I would still take Bret as a booker over anyone on the current staff, except Heyman.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Bret + Heyman = Gold.

[iliketurtles 0]

Its weird, but in his movie bret seemed very hesitant toward the idea of turning heel and going in a more realistic direction, with both HBK and Austin. Now, when he looks back on his career I have heard him mention his times with the Hart Foundation in 97 as the best time in his career.

I think it's because look all the guys who are still alive from that group in 2004.

 

And Heyman/Bret would be insane booking.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Just before we got off the phone, Steve Austin invited me down to visit him in Texas to go wild boar hunting. Something tells me that will be quite a tale.

 

I hope there's a documentary crew there, that would so much fun to watch what might happen.

 

Edit: In response to the below post, I don't believe people eat bears, but I do believe Bret loves bacon!

[Guest wildpegasus]

Just before we got off the phone, Steve Austin invited me down to visit him in Texas to go wild boar hunting. Something tells me that will be quite a tale.

 

I hope there's a documentary crew there, that would so much fun to watch what might happen.

That reminds me of this column

 

SUBMITTED TO THE CALGARY SUN WHO CHOSE NOT TO PRINT THIS ANTI-HUNTING COLUMN

 

 

There is a responsibility that comes with celebrity and I consider it a

privilege to use whatever influence I have to raise awareness of just causes.

I often have a lot of fun with these columns and have written about

everything from Mexican dog wrestling to Stampede memories, but this week I want to

speak out about something serious.

In the pseudo conflicts orchestrated in pro wrestling guys in their

underwear tell mythic tales of heroes and villains using only their bodies and a

ring. There are no camera angles, retakes or stunt men. I have always had a

great deal of respect for the art in that. It’s one on one.

The same goes for amateur wrestling and boxing, where combatants face off

on equal footing, may the best man win, one on one. The sense of pride and

accomplishment in a fairly earned victory fuels champions and fosters role

models.

I fail to see the glory in taking a high powered rifle with a

targeting scope and blowing away a grizzly bear - often leaving orphan cubs behind to

starve, get hit by cars - or to be exterminated themselves by some other jerk

so he can mount their little baby heads on his wall.

The only thing animal trophies are a testament to is ignorance.

In my view.....

 

To finish go to Bret's site:

 

http://www.brethart.com/columns/july24-04.asp