By V ( v@hempseed.com )
13th June, '99
If you have been reading my column for even for a fairly small time, you know that Bret Hart is my favourite wrestler and the other Harts figure prominently a little down the list. So it's been with great sadness that I have seen this proud wrestling dynasty slip into terminal decline.
Until Survivor Series '97, the Hart and McMahon family enjoyed relations, engaging in a fruitful business realtionship. Five Harts had wrestled in the WWF at some point of time. The depth of Bret Hart's loyalty was clear when he refused a huge amount of money from WCW and instead rejoined the WWF in '96.
What really happened in the murky affairs of '97 may never be clear. But what is clear is that Bret Hart had outlived his welcome in the WWF. With Vince McMahon ready to release the WWF champion and WCW offering him a $3,000,000 a year contract, there were only three options for Bret- drop the title and fade into the background in the WWF, drop the title and jump to WCW or hang on to the title as long as he could and somehow remain in the WWF. Bret chose the second option, neither selfless nor selfish. He agreed to hand in the title after a SS victory over Shawn Michaels and leave the WWF. However, in one of the most infamous incidents in wrestling history, McMahon backstabbed the very man who had been so loyal to him only a year ago. Adding insult to injury were DX's midget Hitman skit and McMahon's 'Bret screwed Bret' speech.
Bret wasn't entirely guiltless- his shoot interviews against the WWF on the eve of SS and his beating up a 54 year-old man were hardly the trait of a 'hero'.
When his bothers-in-law joined Bret in WCW, little did the three know what was in store for them. Bret's career has been ruined by a callous WCW booking comittee, the Bulldog was uncerimoniously dumped after an alomost lethal spinal infection and the Anvil was fired after being jobbed to half the WCW roster.
What has saddened me the most has been Bret's personal decline and what became of the Anvil and the Bulldog. Bret is, saddeningly, a mirror image of his in-ring persona- old, paranoid, a man whose time is clearly up in this business. Jim Neidhart and David Smith were reduced to piggybacking on Bret's career. Three reamrkable careers down the drain.
Then there was Owen- a Hart who managed to survive and thrive, in spite of his Hart family values, in today's WWF without compromising his priciples. Ironically, it was the baby of the family who had to die first- before his siblings and even his aged parents.
As usual, here are some random thoughts:-
The attitude of the WCW announcers is dispicable. Not only do they completely ignore the match when the 'lowly' luchadors are involved, but they have the gal to laugh throughout this week's luchador hardcore match (which was truly one of the matches of the year).
Excalibur? Not even bookers can be that dumb. I won't believe it until I see it.
So Perroth has been signed by WCW!! The WWF couldn't do a lot with him and Cibernitico a few years back.
Why doesn't Tuner fire Bischoff. I thought Billionaire Ted had a lot of business acumen? He's no fool but he hasn't fired Bischoff. Conspiracy theories are running wild in my mind now.
My computer has a concussion worse than Shawn Michaels'. Beware of the Chernobyl virus.
That's all for today. Send in your comments and queries to v@hempseed.com and I'll do my best to reply.