All language subtitles for Biography WWE Legends S01 E08 (Biography.Wwe.Legends.S01e08.720P.Web.H264-Dirt.m4v) (ENGLISH)

Ever since I was a little
kid, I loved drawing cartoons.

If I couldn't have the toys I
wanted, I'd draw them instead.

I sketched Snoopy and the Red
Baron, werewolves and Frankenstein.

But what I drew the most
were the wrestlers that I loved.

Guys like Killer Kowalski, Waldo Von
Erich, Dr. Death, Mr. X and my favorite...

The Zebra Kid.

I loved wrestling so much
that I even drew myself.

And I dreamed that one day,
I'd be the champion of the world.

Brett the Hitman Hart!

We're

not looking at a character.

We're looking at a guy.

His name is Brett Hart.

Go get him, champ!

It wasn't comic book writing.

It wasn't storytelling.

It wasn't fables.

It wasn't make-believe.

Brett was the first superstar that
you actually saw a human being in.

What a tremendous
ovation for the Hitman!

We all wanted to be the
kid that got the glasses.

Yes, a nice gift for a
youngster about ringside.

I'm Fiverr, a Hitman Brett Hart
fan, if you're ever watching live.

He had the it factor all along.

He was like magic.

They just were drawn
to him like a magnet.

As a kid, I would sit down
in front of the TV and pay

attention to Brett's matches
more than anything else.

The same way I would do
if I was watching Disney, my

favorite film, because his
matches were so captivating.

They were so realistic.

He just had a cool factor.

You know, he had the
shades, the leather jacket.

He made pink and black cool.

If I got pulled over for
speeding and name dropped that

Brett Hart was my uncle, I'd
get out of the speeding ticket.

Definitely helped make
me a cooler kid in school.

And he was just
kind of the it thing.

And I'm sure a pro
wrestler such as yourself

will appreciate all the
closet space, Hitman.

This place scuttle, man stink!

He took every aspect of
being champion to heart.

Straight forward,
honest, charismatic.

That was a real champion.

The best there is, the best there
was, and the best there ever will be.

The excellence of execution.

I've lived for wrestling.

And my family has
lived for wrestling.

And we've died for wrestling.

We both collapsed in each other's
arms, just hugging each other, just crying.

We still grieve.

We still miss him.

It's not a sad story.

He faced adversity in real
life and he battled through it.

And he came out on the other
side with his head held high.

With his pride and
his respect still intact.

I'm not getting into it to be an
average wrestler or make a living.

I want to be the best wrestler
that ever put on a pair of boots.

I want everyone
to go, he's the best.

The whole mechanisms of a family of
12 kids is hard for anyone to understand.

And I've always been really grateful
for how my dad raised all of us.

He was a very hard working guy.

Every single day he got up in the
morning and made breakfast for everybody.

He'd make 12 dishes.

Six dishes would
be for the big ones.

And then he'd make
six slightly smaller ones.

And you were not allowed to leave
the table until you ate everything.

Because my dad grew up with
such a tough life growing up.

He was born in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan in 1915.

He was dirt poor.

His father got swindled in
some kind of a land deal.

He took up squatters rights on the property
until they got thrown off the property.

And they end up with his father
and his two sisters and his mom.

Living in a tent in the
freezing Saskatchewan

prairie for two
or three winters.

Living off whatever
he could hunt.

Rabbits and whatever birds and
stuff he could shoot with a slingshot.

I sometimes wonder how he
made it through those days.

My grandfather's salvation, his
refuge, his shelter was the YMCA.

Where he ended
up taking up amateur

wrestling really is just
a way to stay warm.

He takes beating after
beating after beating.

But he's getting better
and better and better.

He came from such a low place that this was
his way of asserting himself in the world.

He winds up in New York.

And it's in New York that he meets the
famous wrestling promoter, Toots Montt.

He takes a look at Stu, at that time
this chiseled Greek statue of a man.

My grandfather was,
as we say, jacked.

My dad and a bunch of wrestlers
all went to Long Beach, Long Island.

They were all on the beach and
they were all flirting with my mom.

And my mom was pretty
hot stuff back in those days.

My dad somehow
caught my mom's eye.

And my mom took a shine to him.

My mother and father got
married December 31, 1947

in one of the worst
snowstorms in New York history.

And my mother used to say, I've
been snowed under ever since.

Stu was working as a wrestler,
but he wanted to go home.

He wanted to go back to Alberta and he
had dreams of being a promoter himself.

There was a Calgary
promotion at the time.

He bought the
territory for $50,000.

He's got some grand
ideas, Stu, at the time.

When we were
growing up, it's hard to

imagine, but we lived
in this 22-room mansion.

It was kind of like a cross
between a hotel where maybe

all the staff quit and a
little bit like an orphanage.

We were right on the edge of
the city limits back in those days.

It was at one time a
hospital for the Red Cross.

Although it was very stately, it
was clearly a well-lived-in house,

you know, as a lot of houses when
you have that number of children.

Smith, Bruce, Keith,
then came Wayne, Dean.

Then we got
our first girl, Ellie.

And then there was Georgia.

And then I came along.

And then my sister
Allison came along.

And then my brother
Ross came along.

My sister Diana came along.

And finally the last, my
youngest brother, Owen.

I had a really
vivid imagination.

I loved cowboys and Indians.

I loved the Wild West.

Davy Crockett was a big hero.

It was always an adventure.

There was a guy that
handled the wrestling bear,

Terrible Ted, up in Calgary
and working the territory.

And my dad let him
live on the property.

He lived under the
back porch of the house.

And it was in a
little mesh cage.

My dad would always
have fudgicles in the freezer.

And you could take the fudgicles and
you could drip the ice cream on your toes.

And that bear would
lick your feet clean.

I remember my feet were
like black on the bottom.

I mean, they were so dirty.

I remember my mom
going, oh, you took a bath.

It's like, yeah, I took a bath.

The bear cleaned my feet.

I never even thought
much about it.

I kind of assumed everybody
had a bear under their porch.

Dad did a lot of the
cooking, the big stuff,

you know, maybe two
or three huge turkeys.

Stu had all these
connections with the grocers

where he would get the
distressed food and stuff.

They would give him all the
fruit that they were unable to sell.

So he would sometimes come
home with, like, 50 pounds of bananas.

And we'd be having bananas and
milk for breakfast for several months.

I spent every Friday
night from the time I was

four and a half or five
years old around wrestlers.

Gene Koniski and Killer Kowalski
and Pat O 'Connor and Luthez.

I can even remember Bruno
Sammartino coming up from my father.

And I earned my first money in
pro wrestling, selling programs.

And I made pretty good
money for a five-year-old.

I'd make two or three bucks a
weekend and buy stuff for myself.

And my dad had a feud going with
a guy named Archie the Stomper.

I can remember Archie the
Stomper going on TV and talking

about he was gonna tear the
Hart House down brick by brick.

Have everybody with
the last name of H-A-R-T.

Every single one of them!

Until he found my
mom and my dad.

He was gonna pile drive
my mom on the interstate.

Basically scared the hell
out of me with his promo.

And then I watched him
pull into the yard and a yellow

Corvette knocked on the door
and my mom came running down.

She opened the door a
crack and... Oh, Archie!

She had the New
York accent and all that.

She gave him a hug,
gave him his check.

They talked for about
20, 30 seconds and he

walked off and got in
his car and drove off.

What's going on here?

Why is my mom being
nice to Archie the Stomper?

Especially after last night
he was biting my dad's head.

I started to understand
how wrestling really works.

At the same time defending
wrestling at school all the time.

Growing up in a wrestling family the way
we did, my dad might be doing really good

and then it's six months
where it drops off horribly.

And I remember as a kid always reflected in
my clothes, in my shoes and my shoelaces.

Your knees are all
torn out and kids would

make fun of you for the
clothes that you wore.

When your dad's not a policeman or
a doctor or a lawyer, when your dad's a

professional wrestler
and there's 12 of you and

you're wearing hand-me-downs,
it had its challenges.

They called us heart fart.

And we hated that.

I was always pretty
defensive about that stuff.

I think more so
defensive of the wrestling.

When somebody came up and told me that
wrestling was all bullshit, none of it was

real and your dad wasn't really a tough
guy and my dad could beat your dad up,

that was time to throw down.

Where I would beat a
kid with a full Nelson or a

sleeper hold or a Boston
Crab right on the grass.

It was a big deal to me to
go out there and defend the

heart name and I never
lost a fight at school ever.

It didn't matter if we dressed
funny or if we were different.

We were the heart family.

My dad would say, the heart boys
are coming, the heart boys are coming.

I slept most of my life in this
room here with four of my brothers.

There's five of us in the room
there most of the time, if not more.

That's where a lot of hijinks
and wrestling took place.

In the middle between
the two bedrooms is

my mom's office where
all the calls came in.

The phones never stopped
ringing at the heart house ever.

Hello?

It was a grassroots business
that my mother and father

started and it's like the
little promotion that could.

I have a thousand dollars here where the
winner of it, each boy has contributed a

hundred dollars and they're going to have
a Wrestle Royal in Great Falls next Sunday.

You go upstairs and my mother would
be in the office booking plane flights,

managing the bank
account and signing checks.

And then in the basement, my
dad would be training people.

So you would hear
people often screaming.

In the basement, this is of course the
dungeon where Stu trains, you know,

wannabe wrestlers, trains people
who want to break into the business.

My grandfather had this
deep passion for submission

wrestling where you basically
put somebody in a real hold.

It's meant to induce so much pain in
them that they scream or they tap out.

He'd stretch you and
he'd twist you into a pretzel.

Many of these fellas were
looking at parts of their body

they had never seen before
and to see guys actually vomit.

Guys defecating and crying and begging him
and blood vessels popping in their eyes,

passing out in his arms.

Upstairs you'd be in the kitchen sipping
red rose tea and downstairs somebody's

screaming their lights out
and like begging for mercy

and my grandfather's just
having the time of his life.

My brothers would go down in the basement
and they would wrestle with my dad.

And they would
wrestle each other.

He taught his sons
how to make a living.

That's the way
they want to play it.

They're going to get a double
dose of their medicine next week.

My brothers were doing it.

Bruce and Keith
were wrestling full time.

Half as crazy as
he makes out to be.

My brother Wayne was a referee.

Wayne Hart, the referee.

When I was in high
school if you'd asked me

what are you going to
be when you grow up?

Are you going to
be a pro wrestler?

I would have told you never.

There's not a
chance in the hell.

And when I went out for the wrestling
team and I had the long hair, I remember

coaches always saying
you got to get a haircut.

And I was like, no
I'm not cutting my hair.

And then I would win.

My last year of high school wrestling
I was city and provincial champion.

That's pretty funny.

Of course things change
when you get your fight.

My first girlfriend and drinking beer
and loving life and having a good time.

The last thing I wanted
to do was wrestle.

I was a huge Beatles fan.

I was a big Doors fan.

I loved rock and roll music.

I always loved Jim Morrison and the Doors
because I liked the way his hair was kind

of like I like to think
that my hair was like that.

I went to the movie Papillon
with Steve McQueen.

It was one of my
favorite movies as a kid.

And I remember going
that's what I want to do.

I want to make movies.

I did enroll in film school
with no real guidance or plan.

There's our star.

This is all right behind my
dad's house and he couldn't drive.

Me and a friend of mine
bought an 8mm movie camera.

Damn lizard destroying
the whole city of Calgary.

Our movie was going
to be called The Lizard.

I went to a pet store and
I bought an iguana that

we were going to make
the monster in our movie.

It looked so vicious
and scary looking.

We bought a bunch of
model cars that looked like

the cars we were driving
around in those days.

We had some of our friends
pulling them on a string and

we had them crash and
blow up and burst into flames.

Look how bad his acting is.

We didn't really know
what we were doing.

We were actually so excited about buying
a movie camera and just making movies that

we started making the movie
without a script and without any plans.

And the big blow to us as a production
company was that our lizard died.

He croaked on us and it was
like, he's the star of the movie.

It's like King Kong dying.

So they went to our movie.

Okay, cut.

We'll try something else.

Iguala.

I quit college and film
school and everything.

I just dropped out.

I remember telling my friends,
I'm going to try the wrestling thing.

And it was like, really?

They couldn't believe it.

And I knew I was a good amateur.

I'm an amateur wrestler.

So I'm not getting into it to
be a promoter's kid wrestler.

I'm getting into wrestling to someday
be the biggest star in my dad's territory.

I'm going to make this
wrestling game work.

This is the fourth
of the Hart plan.

Bret Hart, again
with a big slam.

He's got the abdominal stretch.

And that's it.

And there's your winner.

Young Bret Hart.

My dad's been working
out with me a little this week.

He knows a little
bit about the game.

Yeah, a little bit.

Okay, Bret.

Good to see you.

Bret Hart.

The only reservation I ever had
was I didn't think he was big enough.

And then all of a sudden,
his physique emerged.

He got bigger.

He got stronger.

He was believable.

He was likable.

The fans took to him.

They got him.

One, two, three.

It goes to Bret Hart.

This place has gone wild.

Like a lot of kids who
grew up in Calgary in

the 1970s, stampede
wrestling was a ritual.

And it was something that you look
forward to on Saturday afternoons.

And I do remember the boys in my
elementary and junior high school.

A lot of the times at recess
would emulate the Hart boys.

I'm sure that me and Bruce and Keith
are ready to fight any way they want.

We'll give them any
kind of match they want.

It was quite funny because I was
like this kid that had been picked on.

And all of a sudden, girls were telling
me that my brother Bret is so cute.

And I'd be like, okay.

Sure.

The fans loved
the Harts so much.

I mean, all the Harts.

All of the eight boys had some sort
of dealings with the wrestling world.

And then the four girls all wind
up marrying wrestlers as well.

My mom, Ellie, is the
oldest of the Hart girls.

She ended up marrying Jim
the Anvil Neidhart, who's my dad.

I'm gonna dropkick you 60
feet all the way to the ceiling.

My aunt, Georgia, she ended up
following in my mom's footsteps.

His name was B.J.

Annis.

My aunt, Allison, was also married
to a wrestler named Ben Bassarab.

And then the baby,
my aunt, Diana, she

married Davey Boy
Smith, the British Bulldog.

Davey came over to
wrestle for my grandfather.

Davey proposed to me
outside on my dad's balcony.

He said, I've asked your dad
and he gave me his blessing.

I asked your mom
and she almost fainted.

That makes me laugh thinking
about my grandmother, Helen.

She started off not really
liking wrestling and her

whole entire family ends
up becoming a part of it.

Including her daughters.

She was in over her head.

In August of that year, of 84, my
dad was quietly negotiating the sale of

Stampede Wrestling and its TV
rights to Vince McMahon and WWE.

My mom was always pressing
my dad to get out of the business.

He was hesitant and he
decided that he was gonna sell.

Vince bought the company for the
TV network and was part of the deal.

Stu was like, I want you to give jobs
to four of my guys, which were Brett,

his son, Davey Boy Smith,
his son-in-law, Dynamite

Kid, and Jim Neidhart,
who was another son-in-law.

Stu wanted to make sure that they
were taken care of and had a place to go.

Vince looked at all four and
thought, we definitely could use them.

He told me that I was gonna be a
big star and they had big plans for me.

And I was like, that's bullshit.

That'll never happen.

Basically, Vince McMahon
had no plans for Bret Hart.

There were people that believed in him,
but Vince just wasn't totally sold on him.

And Bret was struggling to find himself
because there were only gonna be so many

failed characters in WWE until
Vince ended up just cutting them.

I was a bit more into the Led
Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.

And Bret was Cat Stevens, the Bee Gees,
Harry Chapin, Bob Dylan kind of stuff.

And I loved Van Morrison.

And he couldn't believe it.

He's like, wow, I never thought
you'd be a Van Morrison fan.

And I'm like, oh, I
love Van Morrison.

I was getting to that point
with Julie where I hinted to my

parents and my dad especially
that I wanted to get married.

Why don't you marry a doctor?

And I'm thinking, I don't know any
doctors that are gonna be interested in me.

That's wishful thinking
on your part, not mine.

We eloped.

We took Bret's best friend
and this other friend of ours.

He was working
at the restaurant.

It was a restaurant that
we would always go to

on Friday night because
we needed two witnesses.

So Bret ran into the restaurant.

He's like, George, come on.

He goes, you gotta come with us.

Julie and I are getting married.

And so he came
with us to City Hall.

And after the judge basically told us
that we were married, we went outside.

He goes, oh, yeah.

He goes, I got your ring.

Went and had a quick meal.

And he had to go wrestle.

The night I got married, I
wrestled Nick Bonkwinkel.

For the AWA World Championship
in Calgary at the Pavilion.

And that was my honeymoon.

I was convinced,
absolutely, totally

convinced that I was
gonna have the first son.

The first heart boy.

The baby's name is gonna be Stu.

I'm gonna carry the legacy.

But when they came and told me, like,
you've got a baby girl, it just floored me.

It's like, wow, I got a girl.

She was a really beautiful baby.

And it was a very happy
time for me and Julie.

It wasn't long that Dallas was
coming next, like, the next baby.

So I kind of prepared myself.

And it's like, I am not
gonna overthink this this time.

And I didn't have a name.

One of my brothers ended
up naming his kid Stuart.

So the Stu Hart thing was gone.

That wasn't gonna
happen anymore.

And the Dallas
Cowboys were on TV.

They were my favorite
football team at that time.

And I named him after
the Dallas Cowboys.

He reminded me a little bit of a
miniature version of King Kong Bundy.

So he was a miniature
version of King Kong Bundy.

And I immediately nicknamed
Bundy back in those days.

He was a great dad.

Brett was really
hands-on with our kids.

Because he was gone so much.

Like, that's all he did.

He was just staying home.

He didn't want to go anywhere.

I can remember
playing with my daughter.

She was pushing a shopping
cart or toy one around.

And she was so excited she
was gonna get me groceries.

And we did stuff all afternoon.

I had to hide my suitcase.

I had to bring it down the stairs
and sneak out of the house.

Because she would get so upset
if she thought I was leaving again.

It was always on the
nights that my dad would

have to sneak out and
get on a plane to leave.

I wish that he could
have been there more.

But I also, I think, felt
so bad for my mom.

I would love to
have stayed home.

Especially at that time
with two very young babies.

Welcome to the World
Wrestling Federation.

And welcome to the good old U.S.

of A.

Yeah, it's great to be here.

Now I'm down in the United States, I
want to really earn myself a niche here.

I pretty much walked out the door
and in a lot of ways never came back.

And I was gone at
least 300 days a year.

Every year.

Bret Hart from Calgary, Canada.

Following in his father's footsteps
into the ranks of professional wrestling.

Bret had been used to
being a top star in Calgary.

He was the promoter's
son and an incredible talent.

Body slam by Hart.

And a tremendous
stomp in there as well.

Back and rope.

And coming off.

Whoa!

But when Bret came into the
WWE, he didn't really fit into the upper

echelon as far as size,
drawing power, personality.

He didn't have the confidence.

The company wasn't
totally sold on him.

At one point they wanted
him to be a cowboy.

We're going to call
you Cowboy Bret Hart.

You're going to ride a different
horse out to the ring every night.

I'm not a cowboy.

You know, where I come
from in Calgary, you've

got to be a real cowboy
to call yourself a cowboy.

I can't even ride a horse.

He had to come up
with a suggestion.

Bret decided that he and
my dad could be a tag team.

Jim the Anvil Neidhart and
Bret Hart teaming up in the air.

And what's going to happen here?

Oh my!

What a clothesline!

Here are your winners, Bret
Hart and Jim the Anvil Neidhart.

When we first teamed up, we
didn't even have matching outfits.

I didn't think we
were going to last.

We had a Saturday night
main event match coming up.

I called the lady out of Ohio that
used to make all the wrestling gear.

I was in the hotel room with Jim
Neidhart and I said, she's got a hot pink.

He liked it.

He gave me the nod, like,
go for it and go for the pink.

And I remember thinking, pink?

Like, are you serious?

All of a sudden,
everyone's wearing pink.

Why is this?

Because they're jealous!

The Hart Foundation!

I didn't like it.

Jim loved it.

And I've always said pink
is not my favorite color.

But it was my lucky color.

We're the best team in
professional wrestling.

And we've got this
manager right here, the

greatest manager in
professional wrestling.

How do you feel, baby?

How do you feel?

The original formation of
the Hart Foundation were

kind of three guys that
were kind of put together.

But I think with all of us having the
name Hart somewhere in it, Neidhart,

Jimmy Hart, Bret Hart, it was
just something that really meshed.

You know, it was
like the three amigos.

Everybody was different.

Number one, baby!

I was running around the ring like 90
miles an hour with a high squeaky voice.

Ha ha ha!

Hey, baby!

Hey, baby!

It's all beautiful!

Come on, Bret!

Come on, Jim!

Kind of stirring up everything.

You got it right where
you want it, baby!

What about that, man?

I love to see the day
when somebody takes a

megaphone and shoves
it down their throat.

He would just absolutely
drive you insane.

Never stopping was where he
got his name, Mouth of the South.

And my dad was
always the scene stealer.

They want what we got!

Ha ha ha!

But they aren't gonna get it.

Ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha!

He was always the one that just had
an over-the-top charisma about him.

Whoo!

Are we scared?

Ha ha ha!

And he loved to
laugh like a lunatic.

Ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha!

Even though we were the
bad guys, the girls loved Bret.

Oh my gosh, did they love Bret.

We've got skill, we've got
looks, we've got everything.

And we've got money.

His talk and everything
else was so smooth.

He was like, smooth operator.

Not only am I possibly the
greatest looking wrestler,

but I'm also the greatest
technical wrestler.

Ooh, what a
dropkick by Bret Hart!

You get Bret to come
in with this crisp, slick,

but yet rough, rugged
technical wrestling.

And then, here comes Anvil.

Look at the power and the
strength of the Anvil, man!

Slingshotted over the
top like a Harry Zeppelin.

The Anvil, Jim Neidhart!

Big forearms and the goatee
and the ha ha ha, yeah baby!

And Bret just calm,
cool, holding it down.

All of the things that, as
a teenager, that I loved

in a tag team, they
brought it all to the table.

There's your champions,
World Heavyweight...

One of the most important
parts to our success as

a team was that we all
really liked each other.

Every day was an
adventure with Jim Neidhart.

I wish I could just go back and
live those days just for a few minutes.

Vince had called me.

He goes, I don't
know what it is.

For some reason, we
got more fan mail for you.

Than any other
wrestler in the company.

We're going to take
you out of the tags.

And you're going to be a
single wrestler all by yourself.

I was kind of skeptical of anything
that was going to happen for me.

And so I didn't
really believe it.

Bret had something.

He had that twinkle in his eye.

That you knew there's
something there.

For whatever reason.

It didn't blast off immediately.

Once you put me in singles,
you took away Jimmy Hart.

You took away Anvil.

And they were my
support for promos.

And I had to start
talking on my own.

It wasn't my strongest suit.

But I was trying my hardest.

You may have come out of Harlem.

But I came out of the dungeon.

Everything was
tied in with my dad.

The Hart family.

One of 12 kids.

He's taught us how to be tough.

He's made us fight.

And I learned hold
after hold after hold.

And I learned to never quit.

Gorilla Monsoon always talked
about my dad on TV in the dungeon.

And he learned
that in the dungeon.

From one of the greatest
wrestlers of all time, Stu Hart.

These are all things that fans
didn't hear about from other wrestlers.

Fans started to slowly get
opened up to this back story.

And at the same time, fans
had seen me slowly climb up.

They understood my struggle.

They related to it.

Although he is very technical.

And very sound.

Very believable.

Brett was not all that big
compared to the other performers.

But Brett stayed in there.

Hung in there.

And hung in there.

It's like eventually
everyone recognized his skill.

And the rest is history.

Still in heaven, Hart.

Mom and dad of the Hitman.

Brett was put in
with Kurt Hennig.

Who was one of the absolute greatest
performers in the history of the business.

Perfect clutch right there.

Building and building.

That could be the clutch.

No matter how much you
beat the crap out of him.

He just wouldn't die.

He just kept coming back.

Kind of like a
Rocky type of vibe.

You know what I mean?

Hitman gaining confidence
with each second that goes by.

Come on Brett.

Don't stop that rally.

And as the match progressed.

You would notice he would
focus more on the back areas.

Why is he doing that?

I'm going to another
portion of the body now.

Indirect.

His finishing was
the sharpshooter.

He's wearing down his opponent.

So his finishing was effective.

The sharpshooter.

He's got him.

He's got him.

The Intercontinental title
was given to the Hitman.

To the best actual technical
wrestler in the company.

We'd come that far and had
this moment together as a family.

And I was so happy to give both
my mom and my dad in that moment.

We

brought honor to the family.

And the name.

And my dad.

And everybody.

Brett the Hitman Hart
defends his coveted

Intercontinental title
against his brother-in-law.

The British Bulldog.

Brett.

You are.

You are my brother-in-law.

But when I step in the ring
with you, Brett, I never met you.

I don't even know you.

He's the one that
wanted to challenge me.

He's the one responsible
for all the family tension.

He's the one that wanted a shot.

The beauty of what the storyline
presented was this realism.

He wanted the big fight.

He's got the big fight.

Brett's obsessed
with keeping the belt.

Davey's consumed
with winning it.

This is not a made-up story.

She's not an actress.

This is my real sister, and she
really is married to the Bulldog.

But they don't understand
what we're going through.

It was a legitimate storyline.

I had feelings for both of them.

I really did.

Take a listen to the comments
of your dear mother, Helen.

Take a look at the
emotion she shows.

I don't want them to fight.

I don't want them
to hurt each other.

They're our blood.

I just can't stand it.

That's all.

Sorry.

She pretended to cry or
something, because she

was so torn up over her
family fighting over this.

And they even had certain members
of my family take Davey's side.

Brett's ego was so damn big
that he can't get a grasp of reality.

All that just came across as
layers to the truth of the story.

Then it's like, okay, well,
can you deliver the match?

And it's clear in circle.

What a match-up
this is going to be.

And they sold that out.

They sold that out
in less than 11 hours.

Before that, I think Madonna
and Michael Jackson

had the record for
selling out the fastest.

And over 80,000
tickets were sold.

Two great competitors
about to collide here.

This is my husband
wrestling my brother.

It was extraordinarily
overwhelming for me.

My brother's kicking
my husband in the face.

It's like...

And then he suplexes
Brett off the top rope.

Brett grabs Davey by the hair.

Davey slingshots him.

And Brett goes
into the turnbuckle.

Oh, my God.

Thank God that's over.

And Davey won.

Like, Davey boy won.

I was so happy about that.

He just pulled off 300 and.

You know, winning
and losing, when you're

telling a great story,
really doesn't matter.

The new intercontinental
champion...

What matters at the end of the day
is what does the audience remember?

There you see it.

Diana between her husband and
her... Losing isn't always a bad thing.

If it's done in a dramatic way, an
honest way, and an emotional way...

This has been a family affair.

It will make me a bigger star.

I don't know if that
was ever in the plans.

And that's what makes
me respect it even more.

He had to prove it.

Night in.

Night out.

Nice duck underneath
by the hitman.

Dropkick.

He's about to slap it on.

You're talking about
the sharpshooter.

Your brawler's a wrecker.

Sharpshooter.

There it is.

Forget about it.

Kids like me showing up,
always watching that Bret

Hart match because we just
knew it was gonna be great.

Talk about confidence.

Double tie and on a roll.

That eventually springboarded to
the World Heavyweight Championship.

There was a fair number of people that
never imagined me being world champion,

including fans and wrestlers.

He's thrashing the champion.

Hard in full control.

He is so magnificent
in this match.

He's perched up there now.

Look out.

Superplex coming up.

Oh yes.

Jeez.

Talk about a dark horse.

Now he's going for
the sharpshooter.

How do you express to an audience how happy
I was and how much of a dream this was?

You know what?

Just tell the truth.

Just tell them the truth.

You know, Gene, since I was this
tall, I've been involved in wrestling.

My whole family's been
involved in wrestling.

I've dedicated my
whole life to wrestling.

I dedicate this
one to all of them.

Family is real, and family is
something that everyone has.

Anybody that has siblings
know that siblings fight.

There's nothing, nothing that
will ever stop the Rocket Brother.

When people look at
the Hitman, they see that I

don't have 24-inch arms,
and maybe I'm not 6'8".

But you know what I am?

The greatest technical wrestler
in the World Wrestling Federation.

Wow.

And he is a wrestler's wrestler.

The Hitman Bret Hart, one of
the great technicians in the WWF.

His execution of everything he did
in the ring was absolutely flawless.

His nickname is the Excellence
of Execution for a reason.

Every suplex, every backbreaker, every
punch, everything just looks so authentic.

And it was very important
to me that everything

I do look as believable
and real as Bret.

And if you get a shot of
Bret Hart doing a suplex, and

put it side by side with
mine, it's exactly the same.

This is some day
that speaks to me.

Bret looked at the ring
as an artist's canvas.

He was going to paint a picture
every time he got into the ring.

He was an artist in real life.

Everybody's good at something.

Sometimes you don't even
know yourself what it is,

and one day you're just
going to stumble upon it.

I really love to draw cartoons.

Everybody has a gift
hidden inside themselves.

You've just got to find it.

These are my old cartoons
from years and years ago.

I remember WrestleMania where I fought
Roddy Piper for the Intercontinental belt.

I went through Piper and I did
go through Flair to get the title.

Here's one with me and
Davey at SummerSlam.

Which is kind of funny.

It's actually a good cartoon.

Goldberg and Hogan,
two of my favorites.

What has four years
done to the warrior?

Which warrior would laugh
really hard at that cartoon?

Here's Yoko and Lex Luger.

And the Mountie.

And of course this
is one of my favorites.

Owen, Jim and my dad.

I had fun drawing Jim.

He was always a fun character.

Here's an old one
of Steve Austin.

And there's Vader
and Undertaker.

Hogan.

I would get the story
from Steve Austin.

I would tell somebody what
happened the night before.

And then I would draw
some kind of cartoon about it.

To make everyone laugh.

And Andre used to love him.

He used to laugh all the time.

This one was pretty special in a
way because it was about Andre.

And it was Andre basically
carrying the territory.

I was probably about 12 or 13.

I don't know what possessed me
or what the reasoning behind it was.

Because I loved my brother Owen.

He was seven years
younger than I am.

But it was my job often
to put Owen's shoes on.

Or get Owen dressed.

Or make sure Owen ate dinner.

Or give him the task of making
sure Owen was being taken care of.

But I remember Owen
loved it when I drew him.

I remember drawing
him in the story.

You're gonna be the bad heart.

He had a little
stubble on his chin.

He was always in a mad mood.

Years later when we
were wrestling, we enjoyed

bringing that storyline we
made up as kids to reality.

We're gonna be the champions!

Here is two brothers that
come from a wrestling family.

We're like a
fine-tuning machine.

One had ascended to
championship status.

The younger brother,
Owen, was damn good.

But had never really had
that shot to be in a main event.

They didn't have
much going for Owen.

And they never had.

They'd made promises to
him, but they never panned out.

I think he got hurt and
different things happened.

But Owen got so discouraged
that he told me that

he was quitting and he
was gonna be a fireman.

I thought he was
such a great wrestler.

And I really wanted
to get him that chance.

Brett knew that if Owen had this
opportunity to have this rivalry with him,

it could be what catapulted
Owen into stardom.

We're gonna go at each other and it's
gonna be a war between me and you.

And we're gonna make this real.

And try to make people believe
that we really hate each other.

Deep down inside, Brett, in your
heart, you know I'm better than you.

Owen played his part so well.

You've tried to hold me back.

You've tried to keep me down.

He was just that bratty
little younger brother.

You, Brett.

You've been a problem for a long time
for me and never getting any recognition.

It's always you, Brett.

Your ego is too big.

You only worry
about yourself, Brett.

Brett was just like...

Owen, enough of the foolishness.

I'm gonna ask you one thing.

You're gonna sit down with me, Mom,
Dad, and we're gonna settle this thing.

Get it all worked out.

Everything's gotta be fine.

This is family.

You know I'm better than you.

And come WrestleMania
10, Brett, I'm coming at

you like a freight train
and I'm not stopping.

I'm gonna beat you, Brett.

Welcome to WrestleMania 10!

WrestleMania 10!

This is the moment.

Bret Hart thought he would never see that
he would actually be facing his brother.

Oh, what a slap!

And yes!

Putting on the brakes.

Nice maneuver.

And now...

Piledriver!

Yeah, here comes the hitman.

Clothesline.

From the top to the outside.

Damn, those brothers are
beating the hell out of each other.

Oh!

Uh-oh.

looking at Owen yelling
and screaming at his brother.

What a match-up this is!

Unbelievable!

It's the best opening
match of any...

It might be the best opening
match of any WrestleMania.

It might be the best opening
match of any pay-per-view.

Owen shocked the world
by winning the match.

The one opportunity
that you had in front of

a worldwide stage, you
couldn't beat me, Bret.

I am the best there is, the best there
was, and the best there ever will be.

Don't you forget it, brother.

Woo!

This is why it's such
brilliant storytelling.

WrestleMania tends to be
a very unique WrestleMania

in the sense that Bret
Hart has two matches.

So after losing to Owen in the opening
match of the show, Bret goes to the main

event, and he beats Yokozuna,
and he becomes the champion.

The Hitman at
WrestleMania 10, he's done it!

All the good guys come out to the ring,
and they hoist Bret up on their shoulders.

Somehow, he's
done the impossible!

And Owen is just looking
at Bret with such contempt.

You did it again.

I beat you.

This was supposed
to be my night.

We have forgotten about Owen
again, and we are now applauding Bret.

The World Wrestling Federation
Champion, The Hitman!

And it carries from April
all the way into the summer.

Watch it!

Watch it!

No, no!

Owen's getting the
mom to throw in the towel.

I mean, Owen cost
Bret his championship.

Owen pleading with his mother
to please throw the towel in there!

Oh, no!

Mom and Dad!

You fell right into my trap!

You threw the towel in!

And Bret, you're not
a champion anymore!

You're a loser!

And I'm a king!

When the cameras stopped rolling,
and there was nobody around, I don't know

if I ever saw a more respectful, loving
relationship between you two brothers.

Owen was so happy.

He was on top of the world.

He loved the
storyline that we had.

And working with Owen, we definitely
did become closer as we bonded together.

The love for what we were doing for
each other mattered so much to both of us.

I love that about wrestling.

And...

especially with
Owen, how it was...

there's this appreciation for one
another that supersedes everything.

The old ankle right down.

And then he was all...
Mesmerized, I'm sure.

Disarray.

Yeah.

All right.

Let's get serious, all right?

Bret.

How would you compare yourself to previous
World Wrestling Federation's champions?

Well, I mean, I'll
be honest with you.

And I have the utmost respect
for all the previous champions.

You know, but...

I'm a completely different
breed of cat than all of them.

Bret's an unusual cat.

Man, that was a real champion.

That was, you know, the
credibility factor with Bret, I think,

would be the highest of anyone
we've ever had as champion.

He took every aspect of
being champion to heart.

It was... It was a
true honor for him.

I mean, he's an old
school guy, right?

I mean, you know, his dad, all
his brothers were in the business.

So it meant a lot for
him to be champion.

Bret never looked
at his titles as a prop.

They were something honored,
earned, and privileged to have.

Bret liked being a role model.

You got a new champ, guys.

And I would give wrestling
fans and little kids all

around the world, somebody
that they can look up to.

I didn't yell at my fans.

Like, I didn't yell what I was
gonna do, and I'm gonna do this.

I'm the first wrestling hero
that communicates and talks.

Chill, man.

Okay, we'll go, man.

That's the boy, man.

Can I be your manager?

Nah, you wanna be a manager.

You wanna be a wrestler.

You wanna go for the big one.

Nah, I just wanna be
like you when I grow up.

Professional wrestler, man.

My main man.

There's something that
he has tapped into here.

Stay cool.

He became this different type of
hero, but a much more realistic hero.

This is my pride and joy.

Hold it.

To see a champion off the ball.

Yes?

It wasn't this
over-the-top character.

He was still cool.

He was a hitman.

But it was Bret, who just
happened to be a wrestler.

Everyone can relate to that.

Everyone can feel like
they're a part of that.

C-H-A-Z.

All right.

Everything was just a natural
extension of the real Bret Hart.

And the fans then will
make that all-important

emotional investment
into your TV persona.

Let me tell you something, boys.

I am the World Wrestling
Federation champion.

The excellence of
execution is on top.

The best there is, the best there
was, and the best there ever will be.

They hit my music
and I walked out.

That place went crazy.

They stampeded me.

It was like Beatlemania.

Bret had a rock star persona.

He really had this kind of
grungy vibe that was cool.

This energy and this presence
that was ahead of its time.

Bret was also a heartthrob.

He was so handsome.

Women were just
very, very drawn to him.

He had a huge female audience.

Well, that's kind of weird
that I'm, like, giving a

poster of my dad to my
friend for a birthday present.

I was the star.

Vince's top guy.

With or without the belt.

I was the top draw.

I sold the most T-shirts
and merchandise.

All the right things came into place at
the right time and it just made me stand

out above and beyond
all the other wrestlers.

Hi there.

Hi.

Welcome back.

Yeah, it's been a while.

A cowboy on a television show, but
you could have asked me that when I

was five years old and that's
what I would have wanted to be.

I was lucky they were shooting
Olsen Dove up here in Calgary.

Lose the roots.

Who is the thirstiest, the hottest,
and the hungriest man in the valley?

Well, you if you're buying.

That's right.

Carson, three whiskeys.

Set them up.

I was always throwing
somebody out of the bar.

They'd come find
me in the whorehouse.

It's such a fun role to play.

Well, I heard you
were in trouble.

Who says I'm in trouble?

There's one scene
in there, right?

Whenever I have a fight
with a big guy, he hauled

off and just drilled me
as hard as he could.

Right smack in the
teeth, busted my lip.

I've always said I got hurt more in
acting than I ever did in pro wrestling.

Lonesome Dove was the
most fun I ever had in my life.

At that time, my contract completely
expired and I was actually a free agent.

This was in the middle
of the most heated

national wrestling war
that there's ever been.

WCW was a group out of Atlanta,
owned by Ted Turner, and they had made a

concerted effort to
compete with WWE and had

started to entice our
top talent to come.

So I found myself in a
meeting with Eric Bischoff.

He said, look, what's it gonna
take to bring you to WCW?

Give me the exact same contract
as Hulk Hogan, plus one penny.

They called me the very next
day and said, 2.8, plus royalties.

To me, it was
three million a year.

They're gonna give it
to me for three years.

2.8 million for a pro
wrestler in 1996 is money

at the level that they
could not have dreamed.

Now, all of a sudden, it's
like, how can I turn this down?

Jeez, I got a guy offering
me three million dollars a year.

Three or four times
what I'm making for Vince.

I got four kids, and I'm in
the twilight of my career right

now, and I gotta think about
what's right for my family.

I didn't want to lose Bret.

You know, Hogan was gone, Razor
Ramon, you know, all those guys were gone.

They just can't get them all.

You know, so I was like, I
just wanted to hang on to Bret.

And he said, I can't match it.

And I said, well, I don't
expect you to match it

then, but, I mean, give
me the best offer you can.

The one I had from WCW was for
nine million dollars for three years,

and the one he came up with
was 10.5 million for 20 years.

A lot less than WCW, but we'll give you,
over the course of 20 years, a good amount

of money, and you'll be part
of the WWE family for life.

Basically, I was gonna
take whatever offer he

gave me because I
didn't want to go to WCW.

Who turns down 2.8 million?

I can't imagine anyone doing
that, and he really did do it.

I was very loyal to Vince, and I was gonna
stay with Vince kind of no matter what.

I shook his hand, and I
accepted the agreement.

I was a WWE guy
all along, always was.

I would have jumped in front
of a train for Vince McMahon.

Vince called me, and he
goes, I want to turn you heel.

Oh, I don't want to turn heel.

I'm making almost half a million
dollars a year on my merchandise.

It's not like I'm no good
as a good guy anymore.

My stuff's selling like
crazy, and I'm super

popular, and I don't
want to mess with that.

And Vince was like, you're only
gonna be a bad guy in America.

This is gonna be a
whole different thing.

We've never done this before.

You're gonna be a good
guy everywhere else.

Okay.

Like, it's always more
fun being a bad guy.

Stone Cold Steve
Austin shows up.

He's just a
beer-drinking badass.

Who has no respect for
anybody, including the Hitman.

If you put the letter S in front of Hitman,
you have my exact opinion of Bret Hart.

It sounded cool, and it worked.

If you put the letter S in front of Hitman,
you've had my exact opinion of Bret Hart.

It was always lurking behind a corner
or a wall or something to jump me.

Bret Hart and Austin...

They had been building really
nicely from a storyline standpoint.

It's a fistfight
in the alleyway!

I remember walking out to the ring at
WrestleMania 13, and there's kids holding

signs for me, and I'm high-fiving,
and everyone loves me.

It's gonna have to be
a bare-knuckle brawl.

I'm just gonna go to
kick his ass big time.

We've got him hooked
right from the get-go.

And so we took him on a ride.

We brawled up, came back.

I got busted open.

Austin's been busted open!

Blood just started
flowing out of my head,

and it ran down my cheek
and between my teeth.

And I'm thinking to
myself, God dang.

This feels good, because
I'm listening to the crowd.

These people are standing!

Can you imagine the pain?

He's agonizing.

He's screaming in pain.

And he won't quit.

And he passes out.

That's it!

Austin is unconscious!

Austin!

That gets you respect.

People just love me because
they knew that I would go through

thick and thin, through
anything, and never, ever give up.

Come on, Bret.

Enough's enough.

I'm a Bret Hart fan,
but that's enough.

Now you're going
back to the ring.

I wanted to do more
to a passed-out man.

And that audience went...

...immediately.

He went from being the best there is,
the best there was, to being an asshole.

I'm walking back to the dressing room
and people were giving me the finger and

flipping me off, and I
knew that I was the bad guy.

Steve has been the
lousiest, rottenest bad guy.

Everyone fell in love with him.

It was like falling in love
with the shark on Jaws.

He blamed Americans for
idolizing people like Steve Austin.

He blamed Americans
for idolizing anti-heroes.

All you have to
do is look at O.J.

Simpson, and you know there's
no such thing as justice in America.

It was fun being a bad guy and
pushing all their buttons, going

to the American cities and
being food out of the building.

Bret Hart has appalled
this capacity crowd.

Canada and Britain and
everywhere else around my big name.

I'm still the hero.

I'm still Bret Hart
the good guy.

I'm standing up
against Americans.

The American wrestling fans,
coast to coast, can kiss my ass.

While I was crusading against America,
I was also feuding with Shawn Michaels.

I know I'm sexy.

Unrelenting youth and freedom.

A sexuality that was open.

I was absolutely 100% full-on prick
as a character and as a personality.

Things were changing.

I didn't think you could still do
the same mom and pop storylines.

I felt that we could continue
to grow, evolve, change.

And that made me want to puke.

You're a guy that has degraded the World
Wrestling Federation Championship belt.

Shawn's cockiness and
attitude in general irritated Bret.

I don't like him, I don't trust
him, and I don't believe him.

I don't believe in
anything about the guy.

He's a phony little shit.

The... storyline, dislike for one
another, became very real very quickly.

People can feel real animosity.

Hitman, I seen you on the road,
and bro, you ain't no role model.

I felt like I got pushed
to a point and I just...

you know, on live
television, and that ain't good.

You couldn't go ten
minutes in any situation.

Even though lately you've had
some sunny days, my friend.

You made some reference
to... me having sunny days.

And I remember
thinking, sunny days?

Sunny!

There's a young lady there who worked
for the company and her name was Sunny.

She and I used to run around, and all I
know is that her and Bret had become

friends, and so I made a comment that
they were more than friends, so to speak,

and that he wasn't happy about.

Understandably so.

When I got home the next day after that
Monday Night Raw, my oldest son asked me

if I had something going on with
Sunny, and my daughter asked me.

I had enough problems with my marriage
at that time without Sean's little comment.

We were in Hartford, Connecticut,
and that's where I made up my mind that I

was going to straighten Sean out
once and for all about this Sunny thing.

And I just beelined straight over
to him and pushed the door in.

He takes a swing, whoa, I move out of the
way, well, we get into it, so we're just.

I grabbed him by the
hair, pulled him down, and

dragged him all around the
dressing room by his hair.

The big old, you know, chunk
of hair comes out of my head.

The end of 1997 is
a wild time in WWE.

It starts in August.

Bret Hart becomes the champion.

Now, while all this is
going on, Vince goes to Bret

and says, you know that
Lifetime contract we signed?

Can't do it.

WCW was pretty far ahead of WWE
when it came to popularity at that point.

WWE's finances
were weak at the time.

They were losing money.

They were taking out loans at the
time to make payroll, but all of a sudden,

you've got Bret, who turned
down $2.8 million a year, and

now all of a sudden, he's
being asked to take a pay cut.

Went from that to, well,
maybe you should call

WCW and see if you
can still get that offer.

I'm sure I'll get you a fatter contract,
a lot more money, and we'll work it

together so you can go to WCW and earn
far more money than what I was paying you.

Bret's flabbergasted.

He never wanted to go to WCW.

Vince kind of left him
with no choice, so the

contract gets torn up, and
Bret Hart signs with WCW.

He's the WWE
champion at the time.

Vince wants Bret to lose it to
Shawn Michaels in Montreal.

So I went to Shawn.

I said, hey, Shawn, I want you to know I
have no problem dropping the belt to you.

Shawn looked at me and said, well, I
appreciate that, but I just want you to

know that I'm not willing to
do the same thing for you.

And that really floored me.

Why would I do the honors for
somebody that has no respect for me?

Why would you expect me to?

To hell with him.

I can't drop the belt to a guy
that can't be professional with me.

He's been so disrespectful.

For lack of a
better word, such a.

Because it was me,
it was a flat-out no.

And look, that just
causes a problem.

Bret going into Montreal, signed
with WCW to start in December.

And it's November, and
he's the WWE champion.

How did Vince get
himself into this position?

It's a predicament,
but here it is.

He did.

I didn't want him to go to
WCW with our championship.

So the request for Bret
would be, okay, let's drop this

championship back to someone
here in WWE where it belongs.

And that didn't happen.

So I had to do what I had to do.

I had it in the initial contract that I
had creative control for my last 60 days.

So I knew I had my rights.

I was covered.

I could protect myself.

I'll drop the belt
to Steve Austin.

I'll drop it to Steve Lombardi.

I'll lose it to anybody you
want, any way you want.

But I will not lose to a guy
that has no respect for me.

I truly believe
that I am the best.

On top of it, I'm not gonna let you
do this to me in my home country.

And the last thing I could ever
dream of is letting that lousy, rotten,

stinking little degenerate take
the World Wrestling Federation

championship belt from me
in front of my home people.

It's not gonna happen.

After refusing and refusing
and refusing to lose to

Shawn Michaels, this plan
is presented to Bret Hart.

The entire time, a documentary
called Wrestling With

Shadows was being filmed
independent of WWE about Bret Hart.

Bret Hart has one last meeting
with Vince McMahon... I gotta just talk.

...about what the finish of the
Survivor Series 97 match is gonna be.

And he's still miked by
the documentary crew.

The way this whole thing
has been depicted, it's

really hard for me as a
hero here to come up short.

This weekend, what would
you want to do today, then?

I'm open to do that.

I think what I'd like to
do is get through today.

I think tomorrow I should just go in
and do my speech and forfeit the title.

I think it allows me a chance to leave
with my head up and leave in a nice way.

I mean, I don't
have to beat Shawn.

We could have a schmoz
or whatever you want.

I would think it'd be
a run-in type thing.

Yeah.

But I'm open to do that.

No, I think that's...
I'm open to do that.

Like I said before, I'm determined
this is gonna wind up quite well.

They're gonna be watching you.

We taped the whole conversation.

It was made perfectly clear to me it
was gonna be a run-in, a disqualification.

In wrestling dressing room jargon,
it's a schmoz where it's outside

interference from various
wrestlers coming in.

The title is not
gonna change hands.

It's okay.

Just talk to Vince.

It's gonna be a
disqualification.

Vince goes in there
with the suggestion of the

finish, which Bret thinks
is what the finish is.

It's gonna be a DQ finish.

Bret's getting his
hand raised in Montreal.

It was all done.

There's nothing to
fight about anymore.

I won.

Bret did meet with Vince.

Then when it went down, it
was like, okay, we didn't do that.

It's no different than an actor in a
television series who at the end of it

refuses to die or refuses
to do the job, so to speak.

What do you do?

Look, Vince, I want you to know that
I'll do whatever it is you need me to do.

You ever read Sammy
the Bull Gravano's book?

And especially at that time in
my life, there was a sense of

validation that he trusted me
enough to do the dirty work.

We're getting that
belt off of Bret tonight.

This is what I have to do.

It goes off the
rails right away.

I clothesline him over the
top rope and I'm fighting

him in the crowd and I'm
beating him all over the place.

We got all these moves and different things
planned to keep telling this great story.

One of the spots called for Sean
to try to put a sharpshooter on me.

Suddenly, I look over
and I see Vince McMahon

yelling at the timekeeper
to ring the bell.

Ring the effing bell.

Are you kidding me?

And all of a sudden,
we hear the bell ringing.

And it was just like...
Bret did not tap out.

What the eff was that?

We just screamed Bret.

He got screwed.

And the bell was ringing.

The referee was already signaling that I
had supposedly tapped out and gave up.

Clearly, I was reversing the
hold and I was not giving up.

And it was a screw job.

We're seeing something
that we can't hardly

believe that we didn't
know was going to occur.

He got chopped out of the title.

For real.

The deed was done.

It was unlike
anything I'd ever seen.

Real guttural emotion.

When they screwed me,
I just was so angry and

so disappointed that
Vince chose to go that way.

When the, as he calls it, Montreal screw
job occurred, I wanted to make sure that

Bret saw me out at ringside
and know that what I did

was the right thing to do,
at least from my standpoint.

He's really good at
spitting, I'm sorry to say.

I could have hidden.

I could have not gone
out to the ring at all.

I could have left the building.

I could have done
a lot of things.

Rick Rude and Davey Boy
came in the shower and they go,

Vince is waiting for you
and he wants to talk to you.

As soon as I get dressed, if you're still
here, I said I'm going to knock you out.

And he gave me one.

It was right in the
temple on the left side.

I hit him as hard as I could.

I remember going
14 years for this guy.

Christmases and
birthdays, all the front

turnbuckles, all the body
slams I ever gave this guy.

All the times I worked
harder than I needed to.

And the gratitude that he showed me
for all those years of working for him,

I was going to connect.

And it was the greatest
punch I ever threw.

When it had just first happened
backstage, I was kind of confused.

Like, what's going on?

Like, Dad's mad?

And it was more
scary, kind of intense.

And then on the flight home,
I saw how it really hit him.

It's actually the first time
I ever saw my dad crying.

It broke my heart to
see him so upset by that.

I don't think people understood
how much that really meant to him.

He felt very hurt.

And it was like the ultimate betrayal
for Bret, to have Vince do that to him.

Nothing like that had ever
happened before in WWE.

It was a part of the biggest shaft,
certainly of the wrestling business ever.

I wanted to go down in
history in this business.

I didn't imagine
it being like this.

And it was just, you knew
you were part of something

incredibly big, but something
that wasn't incredibly positive.

Did you or did you
not screw Bret Hart?

Bret screwed Bret.

I have no sympathy
whatsoever for Bret.

What I asked for was to be
treated with respect on my way out.

And if I had to do the whole thing again
tomorrow, I'd do it exactly the same way.

I resent people that intimate to me that
I overreacted, or I didn't do the right

thing, or I should have
just done what I was told.

The hell with all those guys.

It was a huge insult to me.

And it really bothered me
for a long time, to the point

that it was really tough
for me to move on from it.

Growing up in wrestling, being
Stu Hart's kid is all part of that.

I wasn't just some guy
that got into wrestling.

Wrestling was my whole life.

When Bret joined the WCW,
it just was not the same.

It was just so hard.

And he was disillusioned
and disappointed.

The day I got there, I
wanted to turn that company

around and just stuff it
right down Vince's throat.

But they were so stupid, they
didn't know what they were doing.

I spun my tires from the
day I got there to the day I left.

May 23, 1999, it was like the worst thing
that's ever happened in pro wrestling ever.

I got on a plane and headed to
Los Angeles to do the Jay Leno show.

So I just was on the plane
sitting there in a kind of a mostly

empty cabin and I just had
the strangest, darkest thought.

I knew something bad happened.

I could feel it in my bones.

Finally, I checked my
voice messages and I got a

message from a friend of
mine that worked in WWE.

That Owen had died
doing a stunt in the ring.

Tragedy befell the World
Wrestling Federation and all of us.

Owen Hart was set to make
an interesting entrance from

the ceiling and something
terribly, terribly went wrong.

I don't know if the harness
broke or what the malfunction was.

I had to say something from
my heart and from my soul.

And he fell from the ceiling.

When someone dies that you
love, it just brings you to your knees.

I have the unfortunate responsibility to
let everyone know that Owen Hart has died.

Owen Hart has tragically died
from that accident here tonight.

I blocked so much of
it out of my memory.

He was special.

He just was one of the most legitimately
lovely men that I've ever known.

To this day, I never heard anybody ever
say one negative word about Owen Hart.

It's never a good
time to lose a friend.

But he was young
and just so much going.

It was just really, really hard.

The actual funeral
procession that went through

town, Calgary came out
great and strong for that.

It was really impressive to
see how much they cared.

It was very sad to see,
to lose a child like that

and to a sport that created
your family's persona.

And now that's the very thing
that has taken away your child.

I really felt a lot of
sympathy for Helen and Stu.

He had left a widow and
two beautiful kids behind.

Owen missed out on being a husband and
a dad to his wonderful kids and they missed

out on growing up
with their dad and the

wonderful memories they
would have had with him.

Owen was the last heart.

This little golden, big,
blue-eyed little boy.

He was so loved and
cherished and he was so funny.

We will never get over Owen.

We will never stop missing him.

We will never stop
thinking about him.

We will never stop grieving.

I had as much reason as
anybody to hate wrestling.

The more I thought about it, then I
realized that Owen loved wrestling,

just the same way I did.

I can think of so many
funny memories about Owen

and the jokes he pulled
and the things he did.

And so many wrestlers
loved Owen the same way.

I wished a lot of times
that I could talk to him

and remember some of
the great memories we had.

We had so much fun being
Bret Hart and Owen Hart.

My mother and father,
they did not recover.

It was like a light went out.

It aged my parents considerably.

My mom died a few years
later and then my dad was

somewhat brokenhearted
after she had passed away.

He loved wrestling so much.

You could wake my dad up at four in
the morning and tell him that there's some

Chippendale dancer down in the basement
that wants to learn how to wrestle.

And I'm telling you, he couldn't
get his pants on fast enough.

His whole life was wrestling
and he loved every bit of it.

I was in the room when he passed
and it was a very peaceful passing.

And I could feel the
power drain from the room.

I've always felt that it was an honour
for me to be there and I've always been

grateful for it and so glad that
I was there at the end for him.

There was a string of years
there, like from 99 to 2004.

I went through a
lot of tough stuff.

My career ended, which was
really hard for me to accept.

Bill Goldberg was a guy that, on a scale
of one to ten as a wrestler, he was a zero.

He was just so
reckless, so dangerous.

He didn't know
wrestling wasn't real.

He kicked me so hard, he would
have knocked bricks out of a wall.

I finally got home off
the road and my doctor

checked me and he goes,
you are really messed up.

You are so concussed.

You need to stop
everything right now.

You know, you can fix certain
things, but you only got one brain.

That's it, my career's over.

Out of nowhere, I had my stroke.

After falling from his mountain bike,
the crash triggered an acute stroke.

I was in a wheelchair
for three months.

My left side was
completely dead.

Essentially, he had
been reduced to an infant,

learning to talk and
walk all over again.

The fact that I survived it
and had the recovery that I did,

I count my blessings and I
thank everyone that helped me.

My first wife did help
me a lot through that

time period, which
says a lot about her.

Well, he was the
father of my children.

We were still kind of
going back and forth.

Still kind of seeing each other,
and still one foot in the door, one out.

My first wife, Julie, we went through
a lot together and we just grew apart.

We got along really well,
about 50% of the time.

And we really got along really
badly the other 50% of the time.

Right until we had all the kids, it
seemed like he was always gone.

So I think I've always been a single
parent the whole time we were married.

He never took a break.

Never took a break.

We were both
going through a lot.

Even myself, you know, pull
away, come back, pull away.

And eventually, nah,
it's not going to work.

We're not even the
same people anymore.

Finally, I reached a point
where there was no turning back.

And we got divorced, and I don't want to
sit here and pretend that it was all her.

I mean, I failed in a lot of
ways as an unfaithful husband.

Once I got divorced, I
just wanted to be alone.

I was just doing nothing.

I had a lot of dark thoughts, and I
really questioned a lot about myself.

Everywhere I went, the first question I
got asked was about the Montreal Screwjob.

Whether it was real, how it happened,
did I really hit Vince McMahon?

It just was like a
constant downer in my life.

It changed me in a lot of ways.

It made me a bit of an angry man
and bitter about what happened.

It was kind of like carrying
around a big bag of rocks.

You pick it up every
day and you put it over

your shoulder and
you're carrying it around.

And the best way to
put it to bed was to drop

the rocks, drop the whole
bag, and make peace.

What if I called Vince
McMahon up and said, hey, let's

bury the hatchet so I don't
have to worry about it anymore?

After all these years, he
deserved that moment.

It's like he had never left.

People were dying to see him.

They were dying to acknowledge
him, to give him a standing ovation.

All those things are beautiful.

Bret's legacy is timeless.

Bret's body of work is timeless.

Our WWE Universe
has never forgotten that.

It's been 12 years since
I've been back in the WWE.

And I thank you from
the bottom of my heart for

carrying me in your
hearts for all these years.

And the very first thing I
want to do is I want to call

back there and ask Shawn
Michaels to come out here.

Steven, face to face.

Now we both were
realizing, oh, my God, there's

more to life than just
the wrestling business.

Who knew?

I was good friends with Shawn
Michaels when we were younger.

You know, I had a hand in all that
stuff, too, that happened with Shawn.

You know, and it
wasn't just me, the victim.

You know, we're both guilty.

We're synonymous
with each other.

We're such a big part of
each other's lives and careers.

I do put myself in his shoes, and I
have deep regret and deep remorse.

You want to end it.

You want to end it for him
and certainly for yourself.

You're not the only one, Bret.

That's been carrying
this around for 12 years.

You're not the only one
that wants to bury the hatchet.

I think he did understand
the real remorse

and sorrow that I had
about that entire time.

I call for a truce, and I call
for you to shake my hand, and

if you want to bury the
hatchet, let's bury it right now.

It was a similar
feeling for both of us.

It was a release of
those rocks and a good

lesson in my life, and I think
it was a good lesson for Sean.

Healing's good for
everybody, even pro wrestling.

And it sounds silly,
but there are real-life

aspects of it that
make it serious.

With Vince, you know, I
never forget what happened,

but I also know that
Vince did a lot for me.

The man that I am today, I
owe so much of it to Vince.

One of the reasons that this
whole Montreal thing was so

personal between you and me,
I was like a father figure to you.

And I'd like to thank you
for being the best there is.

I'd like to thank you for being the best
there was and the best there ever will be.

Well, of course there
were shenanigans.

I mean, you can't have a WWE show without
somebody getting kicked in the crotch.

Oh!

Vince!

My match with Vince wasn't the
greatest match in my career by any means,

but people laughed and people enjoyed
it, and it was a happy ending for me.

Mr. McMahon tapped.

Bret Hart's signature submission
hold brings an end to one of the most

definitely screwed Mr. McMahon.

Bret was right back
where he belonged.

Mr. McMahon's
grandest stage of all.

His character reminds me a lot of the
Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne.

WWE is like the asylum,
and Bret, like, survives

the asylum, and he's
lived to tell his story.

And more than anything,
Bret gives people hope.

Like Andy Dufresne said in the movie
Shawshank Redemption, hope is a good thing.

We met in 2008.

We have a mutual friend
of ours that introduced us.

I moved up to Canada in 2009,
and we got married in 2010.

I know a lot of people
on the outside think,

what the heck could
they see in each other?

Especially when they look at our
racial differences and our age difference.

But it's just really hard to explain
how well we get along with each other.

If anything, I like to joke
that I feel like sometimes

I'm the 63-year-old
and he's the 38-year-old.

Because he is so young
at heart, and I'm an old soul.

You look great.

It was such a beautiful day.

This was magical.

Just a great little bond
that we just take good

care of each other and
get along really well.

You could just tell
how happy everyone is.

Steph's really hard not to like.

What you see is what you get.

She's just a really kind
person, and I'm really lucky.

Steph's birthday is on the
same day as my mom's.

Steph kind of reminds
me a little bit of my

mom in the sense that
she was an American girl.

There was a big gap between
my mom and dad's age, and

I feel like my mom and dad
were kind of cheering us on.

Like even in the beginning, I knew
his kids were reluctant, about me.

I had to really earn their
love and earn their respect.

And I think I did over time.

Once they saw us and saw how
happy he was and saw how happy I was.

My relationship with them has
only gotten stronger with Steph.

I think when they see me with
Steph that they know that we're happy.

His house here is kind
of like his dad's house.

It was like the
nucleus for the family.

We always come here for dinner.

This is where our family lives.

This is where our family meets.

Family is everything to him.

My grandpa's legacy, and now my dad's
following within the footsteps of that.

He's created his own legacy,
of course, but when you put

it all together it's actually
such a beautiful story.

I think it's one of a kind which makes
the Hart family as a whole so unique.

We shared him
with the whole world.

Which is why I am
enjoying retirement so much.

It's because we have
more to ourselves.

With grandkids, my dad is just so happy
to be able to spend time with them and kind

of make up for the time
that he missed with us.

That's not fair!

Resilience.

There's nothing
that can stop him.

He's the hit man.

I got to live my dreams.

The good and the bad.

The sorrow, the tragedy.

A difficult life makes
you a better person.

I'm very content
and very satisfied.

I had a good life.

I wouldn't change any of it.