Bret Hart News

Ten years after he last stepped inside a WWE ring, Bret Hart has sat down and spoken with WWE.com. Here are some things Hart had to say regarding the Montreal screw job incident:

Wishing that the incident never happened: "I wish things had never changed and that I was still [in WWE],” he said. “I look back on that incident as a bad decision by Vince McMahon and WWE. I think we all can look back and know that there was a better way to do things...

It's a shame that things happened the way they did, but in the end, I think people have always respected me for being someone who always stood behind his beliefs, and stood up for himself."

Not forgiving people that played a part in the 'Montreal Screwjob': "There were a lot of elements that worked during that period; a lot of political jealousies and rivalries... I don’t forgive anybody involved in that – from Gerald Brisco to Michaels to Triple H to Vince. But at the same time, I realize that life’s too short to carry around hard feelings on an everyday basis."

On McMahon having no other choice but to do what he did: "I take issue with anyone who ever suggests that there was no other choice. But, Vince was under a fair bit of pressure financially back then. I can feel for him a little. I think [McMahon] has told me himself – and I believe him – that he wishes things had been done differently and has regrets about it. It should’ve never happened, but it did happen... and I have moved on."

Fans believing in him more than Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior: "The fans really believed in me, more so than the Hogans and the Warriors. I think I was the most basic wrestler; I wasn’t the big guy, the most flamboyant and certainly not the most charismatic; but I was the most real. My wrestling was real, my personality was real and my interaction with the fans was real."

Read the full interview here.

In his new book, Hitman: My Real Life In The Cartoon World Of Wrestling, Bret Hart makes the following statement regarding his drug use in WWE:

When I was working for my Dad, I didn't have to poison my body, I didn't need it. But when I got to the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), everyone was doing it. And Dynamite and Davey Boy were making three to four times the money I was. If I didn't take them, I wouldn't have a career. 

CNN has posted a full transcript of the interview Larry King held last night with John Cena, Chris Jericho and Bret Hart regarding the death of Chris Benoit. Here is the broadcast's opening:

Good evening.

The wrestling world and its fans still reeling from last month's suicide and double murder involving WWE champion and star Chris Benoit. His friends, colleagues and law enforcement are trying to figure out exactly what happened at his Georgia home the weekend of June 22nd.

Benoit apparently strangled his wife Nancy and suffocated their 7-year-old son Daniel and then hanged himself.

We begin with John Cena, the WWE champion and superstar. He knew Chris Benoit professionally.

Bret "Hitman" Hart is in Calgary, Canada. He is the former pro wrestling star, who knew Chris Benoit for several years. In fact, Chris started with Bret's father -- his wrestling company -- in Canada. And in 1999, you remember, Bret's brother Owen died tragically, falling to his death in Kansas City during a stunt for a Pay-Per-View wrestling event.

And here in Los Angeles, Chris Jericho, a very close friend of Chris Benoit, former WWE star. He held six different titles and he's author of "A Lion's Tale: Around the World In Spandex."

John, what did you make of this? How did you hear of it?

JOHN CENA, WWE CHAMPION & SUPERSTAR, WORKED WITH CHRIS BENOIT: Mr. King, we were --

KING: Larry.

CENA: Larry, we were actually in Corpus Christi, Texas getting ready to do our regular Monday night "Raw" broadcast and it really just really caught everyone by surprise. We heard of it about two hours before we went on the air. And it was such sudden and disastrous news that the right thing to do was to cancel the show. And it really, really hit everybody like a ton of bricks.

KING: To your knowledge, was anything troubling him?

CENA: No, absolutely not. And I think, if you ask anybody who knew Chris -- I strictly knew him professionally. But the guy was iron clad. He was real quiet. He kept to himself. He had ultimate respect for his workplace. He was a model employee. I have no idea where any of this came from.

KING: And you're in a violent sport, but I understand he was not a violent person.

CENA: No. He was a great guy. He was a great guy to be around. And that's -- that's the, ultimately, the strangest thing about this whole thing. No one saw this coming.

KING: Chris, you were a friend as well as a colleague, right?

Click here to read the full interview...

Bret Hart was a guest last night on Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren.

Pro Wrestling Torch reports that Hart said he knew Benoit as a fan of pro wrestling when he was just 10-12 years old attending matches. He said his father brought him back to meet he and some other wrestlers. He said he was a kid who was obsessed with wrestling and wanted to meet his hero, the Dynamite Kid. He said he knew from a very early age Chris would become a wrestler.

"He was great. He was one of the best," he said. "He was a guy who was loved by everybody in the dressing room. Even the really tough guys in the dressing room respected Chris Benoit. he was a guy who reached down and helped the young guys starting out. He had a lot of respect for the guys who worked really hard. In the dressing room, he would have been a leader who really hard and set the example for everyone else.

Everyone in the wrestling business is reeling from this. Nobody would have expected this to come from Chris Benoit. He was an easy-going lovable guy. I don't remember him being moody or bad-tempered or violent in any way at all. He was a guy who was a very caring, supportive guy. He supported me in a lot of situations. It's a shock to everybody."

Greta asked about Bret's talks with Benoit's living kids from the previous marriage: "Well, they're hanging in there. They're a tough family and a strong family. I don't think anyone saw this coming. They're as confused by this as everyone else. He's trying to stay strong. I already spoke to Chris's sister. They devastated by it, but they'll get through it."

Greta asked if Chris used steroids: "I'm sure he used them through his career. I never saw him personally take them. My understanding, and I have no reason to blur the truth, I think when Eddie Guerrero died a year and a half ago, WWE put in a really strict drug testing policy and they've been trying to stamp out steroids. I know from talking to other wrestlers, a lot of them were really careful not to have anything in their system. It seemed to be a real serious test.

So I'm of the conviction at this point that steroids, if they were in his house, they were for something he had stockpiled or was planning on using. If they tested him a few months ago and he was clean, I suspect that he was obliging the tests and following the rules."

Greta asked if there was something wrong with Daniel: "I never knew of anything to be wrong with him at all. I was real surprised to hear he had autism and this stuff about him being a dwarf. I never saw him as a dwarf and I never heard Chris ever mention it to me." Greta asked if he saw the child and thought he looked small. Bret said: "He may have looked a little small, but Chris looked a little small, too. Chris was not the biggest guy in the world, either. I wouldn't have noticed it enough to make a fair assessment of that."

PWInsider released press material for the upcoming Bret Hart autobiography titled "My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", which will be released on October 16:

“Bret Hart is the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be.”
- Ric Flair

“Bret Hart still makes me believe that wrestling is good.”
- Hulk Hogan

“A legend!”
- The Rock

In his own words, this is Bret Hart’s honest, perceptive, startling account of his life in and out of the pro wrestling ring.

The sixth-born son of the pro wrestling dynasty founded by Stu Hart and his elegant wife, Helen, Bret Hart is a Canadian icon. As a teenager, he could have been an amateur wrestling Olympic contender, but instead he turned to the family business, climbing into the ring for his dad’s western circuit, Stampede Wrestling.

From his early twenties until he retired at 43, Hart kept an audio diary, recording stories of the wrestling life, the relentless travel, the practical jokes, the sex and drugs, and the real rivalries (as opposed to the staged ones). The result is an intimate, no-holds-barred account that will keep readers, not just wrestling fans, riveted.

Hart achieved superstardom in pink tights, and won multiple wrestling belts in multiple territories, for both the WWF (now the WWE) and WCW. But he also paid the price in betrayals (most famously by Vince McMahon, a man he had served loyally); in tragic deaths, including the loss of his brother Owen, who died when a stunt went terribly wrong; and in his own massive stroke, most likely resulting from a concussion he received in the ring, and from which, with the spirit of a true champion, he has battled back.

Widely considered by his peers as one of the business’s best technicians and workers, Hart describes pro wrestling as part dancing, part acting, and part dangerous physical pursuit. He is proud that in all his years in the ring he never seriously hurt a single wrestler, yet did his utmost to deliver to his fans an experience as credible as it was exciting.

He also records the incredible toll the business takes on its workhorses: he estimates that twenty or more of the wrestlers he was regularly matched with have died young, weakened by their own coping mechanisms, namely drugs, alcohol, and steroids. That toll included his own brother-in-law, Davey Boy Smith. No one has ever written about wrestling like Bret Hart. No one has ever lived a life like Bret Hart’s.

"For as long as I can remember, my world was filled with liars and bullsh**ters, losers and pretenders, but I also saw the good side of pro wrestling. To me there is something bordering on beautiful about a brotherhood of big tough men who pretended to hurt one another for a living instead of actually doing it. Any idiot can hurt someone."

Bret Hart was recently on WLR FM. Here's a recap of that interview:

The host then began talking about Bret's wrestling career around the world and asked the Hitman if he missed the lifesytle at all. Bret said "spending time with the boys" was the main thing he missed.

Does he have any yearning to return to a ring? Bret said he sometimes gets "itchy feet watching guys like Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit."

How does he feel about Kurt Angle joining TNA? Hart thought it was a great move by TNA because there is "no finer wrestler in the world than Kurt." He then said if he had one last match left in him, it would be with Angle.

Would Brett ever consider working for TNA wrestling? Sure, if it were "constructive and good for the direction of the company." But he also said that "if you mean a match ... I wouldn't think so."

How does Brett feel about the current WWE product? He admits he doesn't watch WWE programming any more, but said he appreciates the style of TNA's wrestling more than WWE's current style.

Bret then statedhis feeling towards Vince McMahon have "thawed somewhat" over the years and said that going through something like he went through (a stroke) makes you realize what is important.

When will the Bret Hart autobiography come out? Hopefully, around Febraruy of 2007.