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.

Where was "Black Betty"?

Well, the Giants pooped in the punch bowl for sure yesterday and that
has me feeling prickly as a summer cactus. When I get fired up about
the inability of some of the higher-salaried people on the Giants
roster, I just try and relax and I remind myself that the Islanders are
9 and 4 so far this season. Yes!

This week begins a stretch where our boys are finally going to be
playing some games on the road...such as they are. I bet teams from the
Western Conference are jealous when they see stretches like this. The
Isles meet the Flyers tonight and the Penguins on Thursday. Then they
head to Jersey for the Devils on Saturday, the Rangers on Monday, and
the Canadiens on November 21. The day after Thanksgiving the Isles are
in Boston for a nooner and then host the Bruins the following night at
the Coliseum. Not a whole heck of a lot of traveling, for sure.

What can we say about the Devils game...other than the Games Ops peeps
didn't play "Black Betty"? I keed. No, it was another solid effort by
our boys in blue and orange. Somebody needs to call the fire department
because Miro Satan is on fire! Also, we need to keep Dancin' Stan
Hunter (love that nickname) in LI because his son Trent has been playing
very, very well since Dad came to visit. Billy Jaffe and Howie Rose
made the observation and I think it is true: we need to get Stan on the
road trip!

I especially liked the way our defensemen were heading to the net
Saturday night. Billy and Howie mentioned Andy Sutton's name many times
because Sutton was setting up shop right in front of Martin "Mr. 499"
Brodeur. Again, I keed. I love Brodeur and I think he is the best
goalie I've seen since Roy (I know how to take a stand on the real
issues, eh?) but everyone knows that the best way to beat any goalie is
to keep the puck near his feet. Sure, he is awesome in the butterfly
but packing the crease and playing it to his feet is the way to slide
'em past him. Of course, I say that and recognize that Miro's GWG was a
quick slam on a goal mouth pass from Trent Hunter that Brodeur had no
chance of stopping--especially because it was on a 5-on-3 PP advantage.
You know what I mean.

Over the weekend the Isles also welcomed back one Frederick Meyer IV as
well. Freddy had been with the Isles until getting cut when the team
needed to sign Bryan Berard. Of course, Berard has been out for a bit
and now ace in the hole Aaron Johnson is out for 6-8 weeks with a knee
injury so the backline is looking a bit depleted. Hey, the great thing
is that Meyer comes in fully aware of the systems and style of play so
he should be ready to go as soon as tonight against the Flyers.

Bill Guerin took a puck to the face against the Devils and although he
came back to play because he is a hockey player and that's what you do,
The Captain ended up missing the third period with the injury. Looked
to get him on the eyebrow area and he is reported to be re-examined
today before the Flyer game. I have a sneaking suspicion that if the
swelling is down and there's no damage to the eye itself that The
Captain will be in the lineup tonight.

Radek Martinek also was rocking a cut over his eye that needed a few
stitches the other night. He came back to play and was his usual steady
self. He reminds me a lot of Kenny Morrow in so many ways. I know that
is saying a lot but both guys were steady and played against the top
offensive players all the time without making any mistakes. Radek and
Brendan Witt compliment each other so well. You get the sense of
stability that Kenny Jonsson and Adrian Aucoin used to give us.

Lastly, I don't want to start an Oprah book club or anything, but people
have been asking me about the new books written by Bret Hart and Chris
Jericho. I've read both and I can tell you that each one is definitely
worth checking out. Jericho's book flows along like a buddy telling you
stories and when you're done, I think you can't help but like the guy
more and more. Bret's book is just like he seems to be: rather tortured
at times and serious. The guy has been through a lot and let's face
it--he's been on the doorstep of a lot of history. When he wasn't
knocking on the door of history, he was directly in the middle of
controversy. If you're looking for massive insight and disclosure about
Montreal 1997, there's not a lot new here. But if you want to learn
about the real Hart family and a lot about the early WWF, this is a good
one to read.

So there you go. Five stars for each book. Five stars for entirely
different reasons.