Report of Bret Hart on a Radio Show
By Justin Waine on June 16, 2000
The following is off the newswire, the source have been credited within the piece.
I was expecting it to be a segment or two, maybe 20-25 minutes, but he was on the air for about two and a half hours. The hosts, Steak Shapiro (of "Imus in the Morning" fame) and Mike Bell, are not really big wrestling fans, but they had seen the "Wrestling with Shadows" documentary. Bret hit on a number of topics.
Growing up a Hart: He told some really funny stories about the dungeon. He said Stu used to put them in these very painful holds, while at the same time telling them exactly what he was doing and what body parts it was affecting. He said that he and his brothers grew up sitting on the side watching them, but that they learned by a certain age to not sit too close or they would wind up tied in knots. Pretty funny stuff.
He went on to say that he thought that he was the only one that Stu wanted to go into wrestling because he was "so much better" than his brothers.
They had a very long discussion about Vince McMahon and the Montreal incident. Mostly just a rehash of the documentary, nothing really new. But hearing him describe the locker room incident with Vince was pretty funny. One exchange:
Steak: "So even though what happened in the ring didn't go exactly as you planned, it was still a pretty good way to go out."
Bret: "Yeah, any time you get to punch your boss out on your last day, I'd say that's going out on your own terms."
He also said that he thinks Vince was trying to pit him and Shawn against (agaynst...Canadians, eh?) each other the same way he did to Hogan and Bret in Hogan's last days in WWF.
On his negotiations with WCW: He reiterated that he didn't really want to leave WWF. When Bischoff showed up at his hotel and asked what it would take, Bret told him to "take what Hogan is making and add one penny." Eric told him he couldn't do that, but to give him something he could go back to WCW with. Bret told him three million a year, and Eric said okay, he could do that.
On the current state of WCW: Bret thinks the "inmates are running the asylum." In his opinion, there are too many young guys trying to tell the established guys what's what. (I think the opposite is true, but that's just MODO). He also thinks Bisso have good ideas, but they need someone with more of a wrestling background to help them make things more believable. He actually mentioned Dusty Rhodes as a possibility (?).
Not too much about Owen, other than he still says it was Vince's fault. He did say that if he was still in the WWF, it wouldn't have happened, because Owen always bounced ideas off him to see if he should do it. He said Owen never should have trusted Vince.
He also said that Vince promised him the day before Owen's funeral that he could have all his archives from the WWF (pictures, videos, etc.) but Vince's lawyers called him back four days later and told him that Vince didn't remember having that conversation.
That's about it, I guess. He plugged his new book, and he was doing a signing in Buckhead last night.
(Credit: PWTorch.com)
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