WHAT FLAIR SAID ABOUT BRET HART IN HIS BOOK
By: 1Wrestling.com
7/13/2004 6:48:35 PM
Bret Hart's comments directed at Ric Flair were a reaction to
remarks made in Flair's book, "To Be The Man".
Here's are the excerpts from the book that contains the comments
from Flair that set Hart off:
"Personally, I never saw dollar signs on Bret Hart. He was a good,
sound physical wrestler, but with limited charisma and interview
skills. He also could have been president of his own fan club. Bret
truly thought that he was the best technical wrestler who ever
lived, and he was stuck in a routine that he refused to break. When
he'd make his comeback, he'd rely on the same sequence of moves -
an atomic drop, a clothesline, a gut punch, a Russian leg sweep, a
backbreaker, a fist drop from the second rope, and finally his
finisher, the Sharpshooter - night after night, with no variation!
Every well-known wrestler has patented things that he does in his
matches, but you can still entertain your fans by putting things in
different spots or doing them in different ways. If I tried adding
things to Bret's comeback - like hitting him with a chop - he
couldn't stand it. It had to be in rotation."
"Don't get me wrong - Bret could have a tremendous match when it
really counted. But, day to day, I found him to be inflexible. And
in 1997, when Bret punched out Vince McMahon over a finish in
Montreal, I was apalled. At the time, Hart had just signed with
WCW. Since he happened to be the World Wrestling Federation
champion, he needed to drop the title. Vince wanted Bret to do it
at Survivor Series, but Hart wouldn't. As a so-called Canadian hero
- and I really don't think Bret has anything on Wayne Gretzky -
Bret refused to lose in Canada. That would be the equivalent of me
saying I'd never let anyone beat me in North Carolina. Give me a
break!"
"Obviously, Vince could see that Hart thought that he was bigger
than the World Wrestling Federation, and Vince did what was
necessary to protect his company. When Shawn Michaels put the
Hitman in a Sharpshooter, McMahon ordered the timekeeper to ring
the bell. The match was over, Vince said, and Shawn was the new
champion. When people argued that Vince had screwed Bret, McMahon
accurately replied, "Bret screwed Bret.""
"The facts are this: Hogan, for all he did, right and wrong, drew a
lot of money. Savage, for all he did, right and wrong, drew a lot
of money. Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair drew big money.
Bret Hart did not. Vince had other distractions at the time, but
when Bret beat me for the title, the company went to hell for a
while."
"Bret never regained the fame he'd had in the World Wrestling
Federation. Part of it had to do with terrible booking, the other
part with Bret's own deficiencies. What unnerved me most was the
way he used his brother's death (Owen Hart slipped out of his
harness and fell from the ceiling of Kansas City's Kemper Arena
during a World Wrestling Federation Pay-Per-View in 1999). Through
his column in the Calgary Sun, Bret relentlessly bashed Vince
McMahon. I sympathize with the emotion - and even the anger - he
felt over losing a brother, but I lost respect for him when he made
the case into a public spectacle. Why didn't he take up the matter
privately with Vince? It seemed to me that Bret cared more about
getting "screwed" in Montreal than he did about Owen's death, and
he used his brother's tragedy to grind his ax with Vince."
