Sportsnet.ca is featuring an interview with WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart where he reveals he is now 100 percent recovered after surgery for prostate cancer last year.
Hart, 59, suffered a stroke back in 2002 that left him partially paralyzed, another health issue that Hart has since overcome.
He urged any men over the age of 40 to get tested to catch cancer early.
“You gotta go in and get a blood test. If you’re a man over 40, you need to go in. You don’t want to be like my brother, Smith, who’s a guy that didn’t worry about it and it’s too late now. If you’ve got prostate cancer, if you don’t catch it early, you could die from it. And if you catch it early, you can live a pretty normal life.”
WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart was in the U.K. for a series of Q&A shows last week. Total Wrestling Magazinewas in the audience for his show in Cardiff and posted several highlights on their website, below are a couple:
Appearing at WWE Payback:
“I do it to honor Nattie, I no desire to be there no desire to be on TV. I’m happy to be there for Nattie but I’ve just had wrist surgery so it’s not a great time. It’ll be great to put Flair in the sharpshooter though.”
The future of women’s wrestling:
“Sasha Banks is a real innovator, different stuff to her matches. Bayley is great too, some of those women are much better than the ones on Raw at the moment. I have a lot of respect for womens wrestling, it’s hard being a womens wrestler in WWE, they don’t get enough credit.”
Hart also discussed the passing of Chyna, criticized the six-woman tag match on RAW recently and more. You can check out those highlights at Total Wrestling Magazineby clicking here.
As noted earlier this week, Bret Hart announced that he has prostate cancer. He said that he would be getting surgery to remove the cancer but that was the only thing we knew at the time of his Facebook post. Hart’s announcement came two weeks after his brother Smith announced that he had prostate and bone cancer (in his hip).
“I’ve had a great lifelong dance and I’m a survivor of many hard battles,” Hart said in a Facebook post “I now face my toughest battle. With hesitation and fear, I openly declare myself in my fight against prostate cancer. In the next few days, I will undergo surgery with the hope of defeating this nemesis once and for all.”
If there’s any good news here it’s that prostate cancer is usually a slow-growing cancer and if the cancer is limited to the prostate then it can be removed during surgery and the survival rate is relatively high. In 99 percent of cases, the person lives more than five years.
The good news with Bret is the belief is that the cancer was found in the early stages. His brother’s cancer had already spread to the hip when he discovered it so that is not the best news but Smith is determined to beat the disease.
WWE Hall of Famer did a Q&A with Off The Record’s Periscope account this week. Bret talked about his brother Owen Hart, The Hart Foundation, Hulk Hogan, CM Punk, Hockey and much more.
Bret said his brother Owen Hart should be in the WWE Hall of Fame and he’s hoping the induction happens during WrestleMania 32 weekend in Dallas next year. Bret said the induction is way overdue and he will be sorely disappointed if it doesn’t happen.
Bret said he’s looking forward to WWE’s upcoming “Owen Hart: Hart of Gold” DVD set but he has reservations because it feels like it was too controlled with WWE “tip-toeing” around so they didn’t offend Owen’s widow Martha. Bret said Martha has made an ass of herself and p*ssed him off. Bret believes Martha has done more to erase Owen’s legacy and career, and doesn’t want today’s fans to enjoy Owen. He said Martha is “very anal” about not getting over what happened to Owen.
Later Bret said if Owen isn’t inducted next year, he won’t attend another Hall of Fame ceremony until he and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart are inducted as a tag team, The Hart Foundation. He also added that he hopes WWE inducts the whole Hart Foundation next year in Dallas – himself, Owen, Anvil, Brian Pillman and British Bulldog.
WrestleZone reports that WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart meet with Vince McMahon on Friday about replacing Hulk Hogan as a judge on Tough Enough. It was previously rumored that Hall of Famer Ric Flair would replace Hogan on Tough Enough.
WWE is set to make an official announcement on Hogan’s replacement on Tough Enough on Tuesday.
With the 15th anniversary of The Montreal Screwjob coming up, and with Bret “The Hitman” Hart scheduled to be on Raw this week, we thought it was necessary to take a look at the match that changed wrestling. Hart is to appear on the live broadcast from of all places, Montreal Quebec, Canada.
Here is the opening of the Wikipedia account of that night:
The Montreal Screwjob was a controversial, purportedly real life professional wrestling event in which the owner of the World Wrestling Federation, Vince McMahon, double-crossed the defending WWF Champion, Bret Hart, during the main event match of the professional wrestlingpay-per-view event Survivor Series held on November 9, 1997 at the Molson Centre in Montreal,Quebec, Canada. A secret manipulation of the match’s result (known as a “shootscrewjob” in professional wrestling parlance) was devised by McMahon and discussed with Hart’s match opponent, Shawn Michaels. It was decided by McMahon that Shawn Michaels would win the contest, and the WWF title, from Bret Hart no matter what. The plan was executed when the match referee, Earl Hebner, under orders from McMahon, called for the bell to ring and ended the match as Michaels held Hart in the Sharpshootersubmission hold (which was Hart’s signature finishing move), even though Hart had not submitted. Michaels was declared the victor by submission and crowned as the new WWF Champion.
So what is the big deal? You would say that all wrestling is scripted – right? Well, let’s take a look at what Bret and others have to say.
So again, why is this so important to post about and why do you say this one match changed wrestling (and btw, I have a hard time saying Sports Entertainment)?
Well, Hart was one of the most respected men in the sport. It was his home country. He couldn’t stand Shawn Michaels. He was leaving for WCW. So many issues and so many opinions.
My partner Trevor is going to help with this story and this will be a good place for him to join the discussion.
Trevor – The fact that this incident is such a huge part of the wrestling industry’s history is due in large part by it’s timing. The truth is if it had not been for a documentary crew following Bret for several months the events of that day would have been just another case of rumors and gossip. The fact that Bret was in the process of filming a documentary titled “Hitman wrestling with shadows” is in my opinion the single most important aspect of the “screwjob”. The documentary film crew caught every behind the scenes moment leading up to the events which occurred and the aftermath.
The documentary paints the picture of a wrestler who is torn between an offer to leave the company which gave him the huge platform of success and WCW who was offering Bret more money to join it’s organization.
The truth is that at that time Vince told Bret he “couldn’t afford” to keep him on and regretted signing a 20 year contract. Bret appears to show a deep loyalty to Vince and it appeared that both individuals were trying to work something out. In the end it was decided that Bret would go ahead and leave the company after his obligation to appear at the 1997 Survivor Series in Montreal.
With Bret leaving Vince McMahon believed that the only right thing to do was for Bret to loose to Shawn Micheal’s after all you couldn’t have someone who was leaving the company have the title right? Bret’s idea was to appear on Raw the following night and forfeit the championship. With his last mach being in his home country of Canada Bret had reservations about loosing in front of friends and family in attendance.
This was the main issue leading up to the “screwjob” after all it appeared that Vince and Bret had already come to to terms with his departure from the company itself. The most conclusive evidence came in the form of what was intended to be a secret one on one meeting. However Bret had a wire (microphone) so the documentary film crew could capture the meeting audio. Behind closed doors Bret finally recommends that neither he or Shawn win the match but that the match would end in a brawl with no clear winner.
Vince can be heard saying “Whatever you want to do is fine with me”. At some point before the match Vince apparently met with the creative team behind the show and the referee and devised the plan to have Shawn win.
Regardless of who was right or wrong the good news is that wounds have heeled between Bret and the WWE. Vince would later admit he regretted the way things turned out. The saying “it’s in the past” applies here for sure. Although the events of that November night will always be the defining event which opened the curtain and showed the world how professional wrestling works. We still watch it!
Here’s a clip from the documentary (1998)
Thank you Trevor!
To finish up and to re-emphasize what Trevor said, those of us who have watched wrestling for years know that the events are scripted. I mean once as a kid Dick the Bruiser and Bobby “The Weasel” Heenan (this was before he was “The Brain”) were scheduled to sign autographs at a local car dealership and imagine my surprise when they drove up in the same convertible. No one “hated” Heenan more that Dick the Bruiser, or so I thought at that time.
Many times we know what is going to happen before they actually take place and yet we still watch with great anticipation. However, Bret thought he knew what was going to happen in Montreal until the “screwjob” took place. I echo what Trevor said about bygones. I’m glad Bret and Vince have put things behind them and who knows, maybe we will see Bret perform his own “screwjob” in Montreal on Raw this week.
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