I’m not big into reading autobiographies but there were certain events in Bret Harts wrestling life that I was interested in finding out about, and as I was lent the book by my friend Andres, I thought that I might as well read it and find out what happened backstage and out of the public eye.
Bret does of course start from his beginning, talking about his family, the very strong male influence his father and his wrestling business had on him and his brothers. From the ‘Hart dungeon’ that was famous enough to be mentioned on WCW and WWE to all the financial booms and busts that came with running a small local wrestling business. This was all interesting. Not very interesting, just enough to show how his mindset was as he grew up, how ‘old school’ his training was, and how he developed his outlook on life, women, family, brothers and work. He came from a poor large family who ran a wrestling business. There were some times when they earned lots and they generally spent it. I have a feeling there were probably more poor investments by his father than he lets on in the book, and maybe more than Bret knew about. He hung out working the family businesses more than school, and he suggests that he was the more ‘put on’ brother/sibling or the family. Not being the eldest child myself I do understand that, but I’m guessing his brothers and sisters might well have a different view on some of his earlier childhood grievances. There is lots on his sisters and brothers which he goes into more detail in as he gets older and more famous. It’s not a good healthy family relationship, and my fights with my sister pale in comparison. His family falling outs take it to a whole new ‘Jerry Springer’ level. Not talking, fighting, lawsuits and lawyers are all more part of his relationships with his sisters and brothers than any other family I’ve ever heard of. However they all seem to come together at certain main family events. Those that haven’t died that is.
The Hart dungeon is talked about along with pictures of the man made holes in the ceiling. The many people who passed through it, learning and being beaten up by Bret’s father. Some names I knew, others were before my time and would probably mean more to older wrestling fans than me. All I can say about the Hart Dungeon is that I’m very glad I wasn’t born into that family, or came anywhere near it. Social services and/or the police would have been involved if it was around now, although I’m not sure if that would be a good thing. The people who passed through didn’t seem to complain, and people seemed to willingly turn up wanting to train there. Granted they might have all been mad, but it was their life, and it suited them more than me.
It was when Bret got into his time in the WWF and his tours of Japan that I started to get more interested in what he was writing about. He skipped past a few times wrestling in Mexico and how dangerous it all was, and focused more on his time in Japan. This was when he started to mention people remembered watching on TV in my youth. He discusses how it was all down to him that his younger brother Owen got a job within WWF, how Davey Smith, the Dynamite kid and Jim Neidhart all got on, or rather didn’t. There were obviously family issues and major jealousy that went on during the career of all these brother-in-laws. When they got on the shows were great, but there were too many problems for it to last.
There were three bits of wrestling history that I wanted Bret to go into detail on in this book, the alleged rampant drug consumption of that period, what happened to his baby brother Owen, and the famous ‘Montreal screw job’. The first of these things Bret brings up is drug abuse. He fully admits the majority of wrestlers were consuming large quantities of everything, including himself, and especially Davey Boy Smith. He mentions how he would pop a handful of pills regularly himself just to ease the pain of overworking, and general bumps and bruises. He sweeps past the legal problems that Vince McMahan, and WWF doctors faced with the involvement of the police investigation and it becomes more of a back story as to why the WWF folded on certain agreements they are forced into. However he stops short of ever stating who took what and was supplied by whom (other than one doctor was who charged by the police, but there was no way only one doctor supplied every wrestler in the WWF), and how much he himself took, and relied on. With a few wrestlers who are now dead like Davey Smith, Bret does go into details and how worried he was, and I did find it very funny how he implied that Chyna was a steroid freak (like that was a well kept secret) but for everything else it becomes very obvious that somewhere along the writing of the book, lawyers got hold of a copy and ‘advised’ on how vague some details should be. Smith’s problems have been well documented and discussed before, and whilst Bret does go into how they affected the family, his sister, and wrestling contacts that Bret had, it wasn’t enough for what I expected. After Bret’s falling out with WWF/WWE and all the talk about spilling the beans, I wanted more. I expected more, and whilst it wasn’t a whitewash, I know that there was more that happened which Bret didn’t go into.
I was surprised at how little he goes into Owen’s death. He does talk about it very well, and it was hard for him, both Owen’s death and all the family arguing, and legal fighting between Owens’ wife and Bret’s family (especially his sister), and the WWF. Again this was probably cut short in the book to avoid lawsuits, but Bret seems to be very much a ‘family’ man (although I don’t mean faithful to his wife though) and the loss of people he knew hits him hard, and writing about Owen probably hurt more than the rest of the book. That is of course just the feeling that I get from the book.
I do feel sorry for Bret when it comes to the Montreal screw job, but not in the way he wants, I pity him, because I have no sympathy for his plight, and object to him playing the martyr. He had quit the WWF to move to the WCW at a time when the WCW was not only competing, but beating the WWF on TV viewing. Both companies had a hostile relationship with each other, poaching stars, bad mouthing and even making public wrestling results from the other before they had been shown on TV. Granted Bret had been with the WWF for years and years and was according to him well liked, but to think that you can quit a company, and take the World Championship Belt with you to the competitors is just plain stupid. Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid was probably used by Vince to take the belt from him in an underhand manner, but Bret really had to either be very naive, stupid, or massively egocentric to think that he had a right to take that belt with him. WWF, just like all the other wrestling firms is a business which exists to make money. Allowing your competitors to take your belt and ridicule you live on television was never going to happen, and shouldn’t be allowed to happen; at least not by a company that wishes to last. Bret was wrong on this, very wrong, and I won’t take his side, and instead I put all the blame on him, not on the others whom he forced into acting the way they did. It isn’t very often that I would take Vince’s side in an argument over ethics, but in this case I will, and the fact that it is this one event that Vince credits for creating his evil television persona that has earned him millions I find amusing and a perfect example of karma coming back to bite Bret on the arse.
There is a reason why I don’t normally read autobiographies and it is because I normally finish them knowing less about the real events than I did before I read the book. It was funny reading about the power play and games between Hogan, Flair, Nash, HHH and many others, but I wasn’t looking for a comic to laugh along with. The only part of this book that I think Bret has been honest with is his volatile relationship with his siblings, and even that leaves me wanting to meet his family and ask for their opinion. Bret comes across as a womaniser, who probably shouldn’t have got married, as a saint, the leader of the pack which he wasn’t and a saint. I know I said that twice, but there is no way that he was as much of a victim in his personal life as he tries to make out, although he does come across with having good intentions during his turbulent life.
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