Bret Hart: Too Poor For Real Pants

[Jkeats]

Bret Hart's book just arrived in the mail. I'll start reading it real soon (probably today). I got curious about this book after reading the "Pain and Passion: History of Stampede Wrestling" book. The Stampede book and Dynamite Kid's book are my favourite wrestling books. And I think Bret Hart's book will also be very interesting to read.

I had originally ordered from the Canadian Amazon last year and I'm into my second reading of it. Definitely on of the top books on wrestling ever (JJ Dillon's is still my all time favorite).

 

He does come off a touch hypocritical and even delusional at times. The stuff about Flair and how he wasn't a great worker because he didn't plan the match out before hand and preferred to call it in the ring was weird.

 

I thought his portrayal of his time in Memphis odd as well. Emphasizing the "hillbillyness" of it all, as if he was performing in front of big money, high rollers in his Stampede days on the Prairies.

 

Overall, this book coupled with Pain and Passion gives a great overview of the Stampede days and the Hart family as a whole. Highly recommended.

[Bix]

I didn't think he necessarily meant that Flair was a bad worker because he called matches in the ring, just that he had trouble adjusting to not calling his matches when Bret was calling them and/or laying them out in advance.

[Indikator]

So Bret-by-numbers was rather incompatible with Flair-by-numbers?

 

This makes me long for uncooperative behaviour alà Robinson-is-gonna-school-you or Murdoch-will-make-this-match-bad

[Bob Morris]

Regarding Flair, John summarized elsewhere that it really boiled down to Bret never liking Flair's in-ring style.

 

Really, though, Bret isn't much different from most wrestlers in that he is a firm believer that his ways to go about wrestling matches were the way it should be and what made him great, and has opinions of other wrestlers and their styles that aren't gonna change no matter how much somebody else offers a counterpoint.

[Jkeats]

Regarding Flair, John summarized elsewhere that it really boiled down to Bret never liking Flair's in-ring style.

 

Really, though, Bret isn't much different from most wrestlers in that he is a firm believer that his ways to go about wrestling matches were the way it should be and what made him great, and has opinions of other wrestlers and their styles that aren't gonna change no matter how much somebody else offers a counterpoint.

I think it also had to do with him not liking that Meltzer rated Flair's matches so highly as well.

 

I agree, though. Every wrestler thinks the style they work is the way to work a proper match.

[stunning_grover]

I recently finished reading Bret's book. And it is definitely one of my favourite wrestling books. I think I'll start reading it for the second time soon. There's many interesting stories in it.

 

One of the many things I found interesting was how Bret felt that "his" ladder match was stolen by Shawn Michaels who went on to have a ladder match at WrestleMania X. That was the first time he mentioned Shawn in a negative way. It seemed that Bret and Shawn didn't have any problems up until that time. They real problems between Bret and Shawn seemed to start in 1996 around Shawn's first title reign. I guess that's when Shawn's behaviour got worse.

 

And about Flair... Bret clearly explained that he was expecting a lot from Flair after so many people (including Dave Meltzer) called Flair one of the greatest wrestlers. But when Bret and Flair had their first match, it was a disappointing one that even featured a blown finish. According to Bret, Flair complained that it was Bret's fault that the finish was botched and Bret didn't like to hear that (especially because he felt that it was Flair's fault). So it seemed that's where Bret's disliking for Flair started. But yeah, it seems that Bret just didn't like Flair's style.