Andrew Lutzke
This is a fan question and answer segment from an NWA fan convention.
Taped around 2007ish
Hart says he and Jim were best buddies and never argued even though they have been around each other for 30 years.
Neidhart and Hitman poke fun at Jim’s drinking.
Jim wasn’t upset that the Hart Foundation was split in 91 since tag teams can’t last forever and both men had worked as singles successfully in the past.
Owen Hart had hoped he and Jim could have stuck as the “New Foundation” for much longer than it actually lasted.
Jim Ross earns his money by making the current chicken shit in the ring into chicken salad.
The WWF road schedule was brutal in the 80’s. The guys would work up to 5-7 days in a row (on the low end) and sometimes four times a weekend.
The drug culture formed as a result of the need to rest and recoup fast from the beatings and travel.
Bret Hart doesn’t want to try and work anymore matches since his stroke has him wrecked physically and comeback matches would ruin his legacy. He does miss working though.
Hart’s Hall of Fame speech went well, but now he wishes he could redo it with some tweaks.
Burt Reynolds was a wrestling fan and treated everyone great at Wrestlemania 10. Aretha Franklin snubbed the guys when they tried to talk to her at Wrestlemania 3.
Bret liked wrestling when he was 20 because he got to travel, stay in shape and meet girls.
Harry Smith was a wrestling expert by the age of 8.
The girls were crazy for the Hart Foundation even as heels.
Their favorite opponents were the British Bulldogs.
Bret had 11 days to hand pick his best matches for a DVD which he felt was a bit too brief for his taste.
The walls in the Dungeon were made of cedar. Not only were they hard, but were soaked in blood and sweat. Hart says the mat on the floor went unwashed for 50 years.
The size difference between the men in the Hart Foundation allowed them to work with teams of all sizes believably.
The modern wrestling shows have too much talking.
Hart’s a big fan of Kurt Angle.
Bret is considering opening up a wrestling school but he splits his time overseas and Canada and that might be tough.
All the guys today look the same and wrestle the same, which makes for a boring presentation.
They both decline to discuss the Montreal Screwjob.
Roddy Piper and Macho Man are two of the guys that Hart wishes he had worked with far more often.
The WWE stopped doing business with Hart for a bit when they found out that he signed a book deal with a third party publisher.
Guys shouldn’t work the same match nightly as that’s a breach of kayfabe. Using a few signature moves makes sense because you’d use your best moves to try and end a match.
Flair’s psychology was too all over the place for Hart’s taste.
Owen Hart would have fun ribs, the Bulldogs would wreck people’s clothes and other property.
Hart has forgiven Earl Hebner and realizes he only did what he did in order to keep his job. He does wish Earl had given him a heads up though.
Bret describes in detail how he uppercutted Vince McMahon after the Screwjob went down.
Vince was cut throat from the very beginning, so Bret wasn’t too shocked by what happened. He was more hurt by HHH and Shawn being a part of it since they broke the wrestler’s code.
Dino Bravo called a match against Hart once and Bret credits it as the worst match he ever took part in.
A lot of moves were taken from generations past, and the current day wrestlers should always remember to study.
Hart explains how cool it was to be able to travel all over the world and do the thing he loved.
Since the business was in the slums in the mid-90s Hart got to wear the World title and actually tour much of the world while doing it, which he felt added something to the whole package.
Jimmy Hart didn’t drink much and didn’t party. He loved doing the public relations aspects of the business and that helped raise the profile of the men he managed.
The new title belt designs in recent years have helped hurt the perceived value of the title. The spinner belt is atrocious.
Andre was so strong that even a playful slap on the back could leave a painful welt.
The biggest regret in Bret’s career was the Montreal Screwjob, had that not happened he would have been in the WWF yet 2 years later and Owen wouldn’t have died.
McMahon told Hart that the WWF was going to downsize in 1998 and only run in the Northeast. In a matter of months he planned on cutting half the roster which would hurt anyone’s negotiations with WCW since they wouldn’t have the WWF to leverage against. Bret was told all these so he would agree to leave the WWF and his big contract behind.
WCW was a mess and Hart had a hard time even getting a contract because messages weren’t relayed up the chain of command.
Shawn had refused to lose to Hart, so Hart refused to lose to Shawn, which is what led to the Montreal mess. (For a subject they didn’t want to talk about, they sure have spent a bunch of time talking about it)
Hart was butt hurt over Hogan not putting him over in 1993. Later on in WCW things smoothed over until the mid-2000s when Hart saw interviews Hogan taped that buried him and that got Hart all pissed off again. When Hart was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame Hogan tried to talk to Hart and Bret didn’t even look at him. Hogan stood there awkwardly until Hart walked away with Steve Austin.
The Ultimate Warrior, Hogan, and Macho Man all had private dressing rooms and limos provided when they were World champ, Hart put an end to that in 1992 when he won the belt.
Archie Gouldie terrified Hart as a kid because he would cut promos about tearing the Hart house down and then piledriving his mom on the driveway. A few days later Gouldie would come to the house to pick up his check and Hart thought he was there to finish the deed.
Owen never told Steve Austin he was sorry for injuring him at Summerslam 97. Austin was still pissed at Owen when Hart died and it made Austin feel even worse as he wasn’t able to make amends with Owen one way or another from the accident.
Final thoughts: Although much of the content was rehashed from other interviews, this DVD was still a fun two hours. I felt bad for Jim Neidhart as he didn’t get a chance to say too much in between Hart’s long-winded responses and the fans generally focusing on Hart for questions.
