Andrew Lutzke
Inside Edition ran a piece on steroids in January and Hulk Hogan was right in the middle of the “scandal”. Bret thinks Hogan should have just told the truth about his roid use and the media would have been sated.
Hart was never worried about being drug tested himself.
Hogan vs. Ric Flair drew well below expectations around the horn – Hart blames the fact that both men were locked into their routines and it led to an in ring styles clash. (That wouldn’t explain it not drawing however.)
Bret’s matches with Flair stunk and Hart thinks Flair was dogging it intentionally to hurt Hart’s drawing power. Vince was convinced Flair was just stuck in his ways.
Ric would call the matches in the ring, but Hart liked to have a game plan.
The Rockers were split up. They had been partners for 6 years and it was time for a gimmick change. Hart suggests Shawn was sick of babysitting Marty. Jim Neidhart was a partier too and the Hitman can understand Michaels’ mentality there.
Hart feels Shawn was tentative in his early heel years, but by 1997 he was a confident, capable worker.
The Mountie beat Hart for the IC title prior to the Royal Rumble. Concerns were raised that this was the end of Hart’s push. Vince had stopped promised pushes in the past, so this raised red flags in Bret’s head.
WCW was in talks with Hart around this same time. Bret wanted a back up plan in case the WWF stopped his push.
Jim Barnett ultimately told Hart that WCW wasn’t going to be able to pay what Hart was seeking – he was attempting to earn the same contract as other top paid WCW mid-card acts.
Ric Flair went for an hour in the Royal Rumble and snagged the World title. Hart is baffled that fans believe Flair is the greatest of all time. Bret feels Ric’s charisma over shadowed his dated workrate.
Hogan was a 9 out of 10 promo and body but a 1 out of 10 worker. Hart feels he himself had an average look, cut an average promo and was a 10 out of 10 in ring worker.
Hart was always a fan of wrestling over intangibles when it came to workers he enjoyed watching. He’d prefer Billy Robinson and Harley Race instead of the Billy Graham’s of the world.
Flair always worked really hard in the ring, but he was trying to carry the company in the wake of Hogan leaving and it just didn’t work. Hart feels the fans could tell Flair just repeated his spots and were sort of turned off.
By 1992, Vince burying kayfabe no longer affected Bret.
Kerry Von Erich was arrested yet again in early 1992. Hart claims to have never seen Von Erich “messed up” in the WWF. (My WWE Network viewings of 1991 house shows say otherwise). Kerry was a sweet guy and went out of his way to talk to sick kids.
Jim Neidhart was fired for “unprofessional conduct” in February. Bret recalls Jim declined to take a drug test and that was why he was released. Neidhart was pissed and chucked a TV monitor at Chief Jay Strongbow (a locker room narc).
An Owen/Bret tag team was never in the cards during this period, despite Owen’s partner Neidhart being fired.
Bret puts over the Undertaker’s workrate and says Taker loved working with Hart because Hart could wrestle as well as anyone and he’d let Taker prove himself as an in-ring talent.
In March, Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin are fired for sexual misconduct after some false allegations were raised by a shyster looking to cash in. There was smoke to the fire though and Garvin and ring announcer Mel Phillips were both deviants in some regard towards the ring boys and others. Hart never saw it personally.
In April, a former WWF female ref claimed on national TV that Vince raped her. Hart thinks Vince didn’t do it because the lady wasn’t too attractive. Then he talks about the ugly women and “skanks” that Arnold Schwartzenegger and Tiger Woods have been linked with and questions why these rich, successful men would screw these lowly women. (This segment was unintentionally and uncomfortably hilarious).
Vince creates the “World Bodybuilding Federation”. Hart saw no appeal to body builders as he feels they are shallow. They aren’t athletes and it requires no skills. The WBF “stars” were given first class travel arrangements and big, guaranteed contracts. The wrestlers received no such perks and it raised great unrest from the wrestlers.
ICOPRO didn’t taste good and the WWF guys all had their own weight supplements. Hart got free supplies of it and couldn’t even give the stuff away.
At Wrestlemania 8, Roddy Piper put over Bret clean for the IC title. Hart wasn’t sure that Vince wouldn’t change his mind at the last second and not give the Hitman the rub and the title.
Piper laid out the whole match and Hart was totally down with the plan. Piper and Hart acted out a “pull apart brawl” in the locker room after the match to try and show the boys and the office that they had real heat with each other. (Bret doesn’t clarify why they wanted this line of thinking to be out there.)
Bret bladed during the match and that was forbidden at the time in the WWF. The Hitman was able to play it off as a legit cut though and avoided a fine. Flair went out later that night and bladed and was fined. Bret explains that Flair made it obvious and Hart was sneaky with his blade job.
Jake “the Snake” Roberts quit the WWF that same day. Hart was scheduled to work with Roberts over the summer.
Ric Flair cut a promo to kick off his program with the Macho Man. He was to get over the claim that he had a relationship with Elizabeth before Randy had her. The WWF made him tape the promo 17 times before they were satisfied.
Hogan was leaving to make movies, so Bret drew him a giant picture of all the wrestlers and had the locker room sign it. Hart honestly didn’t expect Hogan back.
Randy and Liz breaking up in April made a lot of guys sad, as they had known them for years. The boys figured a couple being together 24/7 ultimately drove them apart – Savage’s constant jealously didn’t help matters.
Sid Vicious quit the WWF in April. Sid was easily wound up by the guys ribbing him. He was a good guy overall though.
Owen was teamed up with Koko B. Ware as “High Energy”. Owen was stunned that he was given a job guy as a partner. Owen was really annoyed with Neidhart for getting fired after this turn of events.
In May, Papa Shango cursed the Ultimate Warrior and caused him to convulse and puke. Hart hated the business exposing Wrestlecrap.
Bret liked the Shango gimmick and felt he was a good worker. Pat Patterson hated the gimmick and helped kill his push.
Nailz debuted and beat down the Big Bossman. Hart liked his look, name and gimmick.
Nailz was a quiet guy and the locker room believed he was a real life bad ass.
The WBF held another PPV and it bombed. The Fed would fold soon after. Bret resents the millions spent on Vince’s wet dream.
Rocco the Dummy is given to the Road Warriors as a mascot. Hawk went nuts at the idea and it almost directly led to him quitting soon after.
The wrestlers in the locker room were kind of in awe of the persona that Paul Ellering carried himself with.
In July, Bob Backlund attempts a comeback at 43 years old. Bret found it cool to see Bob and Flair locking up a few months later, since both had been world champs a full 10 years earlier.
Bret and Shawn had the first WWF ladder match in a dark match. Hart brought the gimmick idea up to Vince and so this was a test run. Hart is still upset that Shawn later used it at Wrestlemania 10 before Bret could use it on the mainstream level.
Razor Ramon debuted in August. The Hitman felt Scott Hall was still green (he was a 8 year vet by this point). Curt Hennig is credited with giving Hall the name and helping him in his early WWF days. They were buddies from their 1985 AWA run.
The Hitman puts himself over as being the biggest draw in England and Germany during this time. Losing to The Bulldog at Summerslam in England only added to this overness as the fans now felt sympathy toward him.
Vince becoming invested in you was the best way to ensure your spot was safe. Until then, you feel like you were walking on eggshells.
The agents had a lot of pull with Vince. Hart puts over Tony Garea and Rene Goulet as excellent in that role. George Steele was an asshole – Steele went from a cocaine-snorting worker to a stooge in a matter of months.
Randy Savage and Owen Hart stole Steele’s briefcase full of his medical supplies, plane tickets, his passport etc and threw it off a bridge to get back at “The Animal” for his tattle-tale behavior.
In late October, Bret is selected to beat Flair for the world title. Hart had just come back from flying to Italy where he spent a few days with one of his floozies. (He told his wife he was “on tour”.)
Chief Jay Strongbow put in a vote for Hart being given the title.
Vince played with the Hitman’s head a bit and at first hinted to Hart that he was going to be released before telling him he was about to become world champ.
The WWF released the title change on home video, and never showed it on TV in full.
Hart puts over Vince for giving him the ball and says Vince would always watch the matches, so he understood the craft.
All Samoans seem to be good athletes. Yokozuna weighed 600 pounds and never hurt Bret with any of his big moves. Bam Bam Bigelow is also put over for being a great big man worker.
Kamala was a massive man and his gimmick limited his moveset. Kamala was willing to sell for the smaller talents and Hart loved to work with him.
Doink the Clown debuted in October. Hart felt it was a genius gimmick and Matt Bourne was perfect for the role. The British Bulldog was scheduled to work with Doink, but hated the idea of working with a clown.
Losing Hogan, the scandals, the mass talent cuts of the roid monkeys and other factors all led to the WWF experiencing a down turn in business. Hart feels the fans that remained were the hardcore base of fans and all the fans that were sucked into the bluster and flashiness of the Hogan era were now gone.
Yokozuna was angry at Hart for certain comments Bret would toss into promos about his weight. The Hitman explained to him that his character just lost the World title to him and wouldn’t be saying generic threats.
Bret claims that Vince told him that The Ultimate Warrior would be putting him over at the Royal Rumble. Warrior was fired for roids before that could come to pass. (I don’t see the Warrior going for that.)
Bret and Shawn were scheduled in a hastily promoted world title match for Survivor Series. When the match was booked, neither man was a champ – by the time the match came to pass, Shawn had won the IC title and Bret was world champ.
Michaels told Hart that he’d been having a soft schedule in recent weeks and would not be able to go hard with Bret during the match.
Jerry Lawler was signed late in the year. He had heat with a lot of the WWF guys for bad pay offs and burying the guys on Memphis TV. The boys paid Lawler back by shitting in his crown. Apparently human and dog doo-doo were both used.
Vince asked Hart to work for Memphis wrestling on his day off. The Hitman tried to refuse because Vince had previously not allowed Hart to work for Stampede and other promoters and Bret tried to take a principled stand. He lost to the boss.
Nailz attacked Vince McMahon over a pay off during a TV taping in Green Bay. Hart was outside the door when it happened and could hear Nailz screeching loudly about “being sick of the lies” and other things. Then came a loud bang and a gurgling sound. Blackjack Lanza and other agents saved Vince. Nailz then told the cops that McMahon tried to molest him.
Simon Cowell of “American Idol” fame worked with Bret on the WWF music CD that was released in late 1992.
Final thoughts:
Hart’s personal grudges certainly seep into his 1992 worldview. Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair both endure Hart’s wrath and one has to believe that the basis for this heat might simply be that somebody thinks they were better than Bret, and Hart can’t comprehend such arguments. All in all, it was a watchable shoot, but it didn’t contain too much new information. Hart spoke for two hours in a monotone, soft voice – the only thing that made him inflect differently was a Owen rib story that clearly made Bret perk up.
