Book Review: Bret Hart

There have been other reviews of Bret Hart's book available online. I'm
sure you've read others by now, but I didn't feel like I could do a
proper job of a review without thinking about and revisiting parts of
the book before doing so myself.

BRET HART: MY REAL LIFE IN THE CARTOON WORLD OF WRESTLING is a
fascinating autobiography. In fact, I'd put it up there with Mick
Foley's HAVE A NICE DAY as the best, most-important books written by
professional wrestlers for entirely different reasons.

Foley's, much like Chris Jericho's A LION'S TALE, both read more like
conversations you'd have if you had a buddy who had been around the
world in a pretty high-profile, fast-lane line of work. While both are
heavy on the story-telling and candor, both Foley and Jericho take their
readers on a ride that has a big payoff at the end: Foley wins the WWF
World Title and Jericho begins and ends his book with his debut for
Vince McMahon. Bret Hart's book essentially breaks his life down into
three parts: -before wrestling, during wrestling and after
wrestling--with unprecedented insight and candor because Bret made a
series of tape recordings of himself and the events of his life as he
went along. Instead of the rear-view mirror, you're getting a
first-hand remembrance of the details that shaped Bret into one of the
greatest wrestlers of his generation.

The first part of sets up what life was like for Bret and his siblings
Growing Up Hart. There seems to be a lot of turmoil and craziness in
Calgary, which makes sense for a family in the wrestling business. At
first, I must admit that I found myself wanting to get to the "better
parts" of the book (the wrestling stuff) but in retrospect, the first
third of the book is important as Bret sets his readers up with
background and foreshadowing while explaining the events of his life as
a young man. It is here that we learn his motivation as he matures. We
learn about the famous Dungeon and the rivalries between siblings that
sure explain a lot of the things that happen after Owen Hart falls to
his death in Kansas City and how some of the Hart kids try to manipulate
their parents and Vince McMahon in the aftermath.

Again, this book is about Bret Hart, and one thing is true: Bret Hart
can be seen as the world's biggest mark for Bret Hart. While
refreshingly candid, it does come from his particular slant...and it
should, being that he wrote it. Still, the line he walked between Bret
Hart the person and The Hitman as a character is still blurred in his
mind. He has his convictions regarding his character and you know what?
We could use a little more of that in wrestling today. Too many of
today's guys are acting--and acting poorly--rather than the characters
being a facet of their own personalities.

Of course, everyone wants to know Bret's take on the events in Montreal
over ten years ago. I'll admit that even I wanted to skip right to that
part of the book to see what he had to say about the infamous screw-job
in the match with Shawn Michaels. The truth of the matter is that the
events as laid out by Bret are not all that much different than what we
could see in Paul Jay's Hitman documentary, WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS. And
while accounts differ regarding who knew what and when in HBK's book and
from other reports such as The Wrestling Observer and Pro Wrestling
Torch, Bret's story hasn't changed. Time has, it seems, allowed him to
come to grips with this ultimate betrayal that ignited other events that
essentially ruined his family, but Hart comes off as in a better place
and not quite as bitter as I expected him to be even this long after the
fact. Perhaps the death of so many of his peers and the stroke he
suffered have widened his focus.

The business of wrestling breeds liars and cheats and while Bret Hart
does gloss over some of the drug use and steroid abuse he may have
witnessed in his career, he is remarkably frank regarding his own usage.
He also cops to having used steroids in the book while he had
steadfastly lied on such shows as Larry King Live in the aftermath of
the Benoit murders this past summer.

Two drug stories from the book stand out to me. One is that in his
early days in the WWF, Bret Hart felt that he had to do drugs
(specifically, cocaine) with Roddy Piper and his partner, Jim Neidhart,
amongst others, to be accepted as one of the boys and not just as
another promoter's son. To me it says that the peer pressure of being
in the traveling circus has to be much, much worse that just the peer
pressure you feel in high school.

The other major "drug story" that is remarkable is the disclosure that
before Bret's big match with his brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith at
Wembley Stadium, the Bulldog had been in Florida for weeks smoking crack
with Neidhart. Davey Boy showed up panicky and jittery, scared of this
big performance in his home country because he's he been out of it for
over a month. And yet, almost heroically, Bret was able to coax an
all-time classic match out of his brother-in-law while dropping the
Intercontinental Title to Smith at Summerslam in 1992.

Overall, like I said, this is an important book for wrestling fans to
read. Bret presents the business in what seems to be it's most real
light; complete with character flaws and all. He dishes on who he likes
and who he has little regard for and as he says in the opening, Bret
pulls no punches. He rips on HBK, Triple H, and Ric Flair. Oddly, the
one guy I thought he'd have venom for was Bill Goldberg, the man who
kicked him the head so hard that it pretty much ended The Hitman's
career. And yet, Hart doesn't complain about the stiff kick much at
all. He's more upset at what he perceived to be liberties taken by
Michaels at Wrestlemania 12 than he is receiving a severe concussion
that may have even caused a stroke later on in his life.

I'm not sure when BRET HART: MY REAL LIFE IN THE CARTOON WORLD OF
WRESTLING is going to be released in America but you can order it just
as I did through amazon.ca. It's not a quick read, by any stretch, but
you'll be glad you made it though the book when you're finished. You
also might find yourself respecting The Excellence of Execution for his
journey and newly-won peace of mind as well.