Alright, it’s been awhile, and I actually finished the book weeks ago, but the holidays, birthdays, and work overwhelmed me and I find today the first day I’ve been able to sit down and write my thoughts on Bret’s book. For part 1 of the review, go here
In reality, I actually had to cool down a bit before I was able to think objectively about the book. When I first finished reading it all I could think was, “WTF?” I was actually upset – not FOR Bret, but AT Bret. Let me explain a bit…
When I left off, Bret had just started wrestling for the WWE – or rather, the WWF. He had met some great legends, such as Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, and he had married (and cheated on…numerous times) his wife Julie.
The book goes on and Bret slowly (and I mean VERY slowly) moves up the ranks in the WWF. He complains quite a bit about some of the wrestlers but in general he seems to love his job. Slowly but surely he starts getting paid more and his outlook is generally good. He slams on Ric Flair quite a bit (at one point even talking about how they had a huge party and Vince himself pissed on Flair’s hotel bed…Flair never saw it) but even shortly after he started working there seems to think that he knew more than a lot of them. After all, he did most of the booking for his father’s wrestling promotion, so he feels that a lot of the matches are messed up in the WWE. Immediately after he started working for the WWF (in his mind, anyway), he says that his family started trying to call in favors. And, to hear him tell it, he did everything he could to get them positions in the WWF – positions that, according to Bret, they kept losing because they screwed up.
The story, really, kind of nauseated me. It was nice hearing about some of the great things they did, like when they prayed at the wall in India, and about how close he and Owen were – I call that Bret the “good” Bret. There is, however, the whiney Bret. The Bret that swears he gets screwed over all the time…the Bret that would probably exclaim, “nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms”, especially when it comes to his family. Unfortunately I saw much more of the whiney Bret than I did of the Good Bret.
Like how he consistently calls Julie in the story and then gets frustrated when he doesn’t understand why she’s upset with him – so he goes out and drowns his sorrow in some willing, soft woman. Yeah – THAT makes sense.
Another thing to look out for: the mysterious disappearing wrestlers. That probably wasn’t a good description, so let me tell you what I mean: there are a number of times where things happen that are against Bret, and there IS a witness…only those witnesses are no longer with us. For instance, there was a story about Davey Boy Smith, Bret’s brother-in-law. Bret talks about how Davey Boy had a problem with drugs and alcohol. According to Bret, one night the two were destined to have a huge match, but Davey Boy was messed up. Bret says, “don’t worry Davey, I’ll carry you”, and works his butt off to make the match look amazing. Davey later gets all the credit for the match, even though Bret is the one that “supposedly” was responsible for the match turning out great. There’s no one to dispute this, however, as Davey Boy passed away awhile ago. A few different times this occurs, with Bret saying something that happens, but the witnesses are no longer alive.
And now let’s move on to the Montreal Screwjob. Lots of people believe that the screwjob started a month before when Bret went off on Vince in Calgary. People that have researched the situation know, however, that the tirade Bret goes on was planned by Vince and Bret. The Screwjob, however, was not.
I’ll let you read about what happens on your own, but I need to tell you what I think: after reading everything that Bret has to say, and seeing how many times the man was promised things that were never delivered, I blame the Screwjob mainly on Bret! Try thinking about it like this: say you’re at a party and your drink is empty. You’re really thirsty and the host notices. He comes over to you and promises you a drink if you can just hold on a moment. You wait for an hour and finally your glass is filled….half way. Then, a few minutes later, it’s spilled by the same host, who then promises you another drink. Another hour later you get a drink…ect. Now, would you just keep standing there waiting for the drink, or would you eventually walk into the kitchen and get your own drink?
The story Bret tells is one of a man who was promised much but given little, yet he stays with the WWF even though WCW offers him an excellent salary, fewer days on the road, and even INSURANCE! Right before the Screwjob, Eric Bischoff had a contract made up for Bret – one he helped to create. Bret, however, says “loyal” to Vince and winds up sorry a few months later. Yes, being loyal is a virtue, but not when you are not being respected or taken care of the way you should be.
And neither Scott nor I can ever look at Shawn Michaels in the same light again. It has been suggested that Shawn and Hunter helped Vince to create the Screwjob. There’s no proof of that in the book, but there is proof of Shawn sitting in the locker room bawling like a baby…we have both lost any respect we had for Shawn Michaels.
Owen’s death was not as difficult to read about as I thought it would be. I expected it to be filled with emotion: anger, sadness, frustration, ect. It wasn’t. Like most things in the book, Bret turned it into an “everybody hates me” tirade. He talks about how Owen’s widow, Martha, asked the family not to speak to the media, but that his sisters did. According to Bret, the whole family thought that he was being too hard on Vince, yet he was the only one who was “following orders”, as always.
I truly don’t care for this book. It is a good peek into how hard of a life being a wrestler is, but it’s difficult to feel pity for Bret when he made the huge amount of money he made, chose his career, and let himself be screwed over time and time again. I found myself being more upset for Julie and the kids (he spent TWO Christmas’ with them during his wrestling career…two..) than I did for Bret. I pitied Owen’s widow and children more than I did Bret. Before this book, Bret’s career was shrouded in mystery to me. Now, however, Bret’s career is not a mystery – yet once again, I wish it was, as the reality is much more boring and cold.
It does not look like WWE will get the United States rights to Bret Hart’s autobiography. Published by Random House for the Canadian release, the book was number one amongst all books in Canada for two weeks and fell to number two in its third week out. The highly acclaimed book is the first ever wrestling book that will be nominated for a mainstream book award.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
WWE’s rocky relationship with Bret Hart has taken yet another bad turn. The two sides had been negotiating an agreement for the publishing rights to Bret Hart’s autobiography in the United States. Those negotiations have fallen through and Bret will be shopping the book elsewhere.
According to Dave Meltzer, Bret had a verbal agreement saying that the company would not change one word. When he was given the contract to sign, the terms were completely different than what was previously agreed upon. WWE demanded final say on anything they found objectionable. Bret was told that 400 of the book’s 533 pages would need to be changed, which was a deal breaker.
