An Evening with Bret 'The Hitman' Hart

They say never meet your heroes, well last night I met one of mine and it was brilliant. Ever since I was a kid I have loved professional wrestling, in fact my name Big Stevie Cool is inspired by one of my favourite wrestlers from ECW. When I was really little I was a big fan of Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, the Ultimate Warrior and all those larger than life cartoon-esque superheroes but when I was a teenager in the 90's it was all about 2 wrestlers, Shawn Michaels and Bret 'The Hitman' Hart. So when one of my mates said Bret Hart was coming to the North East for 'An Evening with Bret Hart' I was all over it. A platinum ticket (which we had) was £75.00 and this included a meal and a photo with The Hitman himself.

Me and Bret 'The Hitman' Hart

The event was held at the Lancastrian Suite in Gateshead and when we got there we found out our table was right at the front of the room and really was the best table in the room. We got a round of beers in and were just having a chat about wrestling and football and just a general catch up. We had a look at the merchandise on sale and the items available to bid for on the auction there were numerous signed memorabilia from the likes of Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, The Nature Boy Ric Flair and The Excellence of Execution himself, there was also a replica Winged-Eagle WWE Title belt to win in the raffle.

After about 15-20 minutes the host announced that Bret was about the arrive. The Hitman's music started and he received a standing ovation as he entered the room, he came onto stage and thanked everyone for coming and hoped we all had a good time. It was then time for everyone who wanted one to get a picture with Bret. We all waited in line and when it was my turn I shook The Hitman's hand and he asked me how I was. I have to admit I did geek out a bit as he was staring me in the eyes and I mumbled something along the lines of 'it's an honour to meet you Bret'. I felt like right moron afterwards but was happy to find out my friends were similarly in awe of the WWE Hall of Famer. We then had our meal which was either Chicken Curry and Rice or Cheeseburger and Chips, I went for the curry as the burger didn't look particularly appetising. It was then time for the auction, I felt the items were over priced but I suppose the point of an auction is to get as high a price as possible, but I wasn't bidding so if someone wants to pay £120 for a Newcastle shirt with Hitman No1 on the back then thats their choice.

Bret came back out and we enjoyed a interview segment with Bret and the host where we heard many stories about how Bret started in wrestling, his early days in WWF with the feud between The Hart Foundation and The British Bulldogs (this took me right back to my childhood as I remember watching a lot of the matches he mentioned) as well as his main event run as world champion against the likes of Yokozuna, Diesel and Shawn Michaels. He talked about who his favourite matches were with, Bret mention Mr Perfect and Rowdy Roddy Piper as his favourites. He also talked about who he likes of the current crop of WWE wrestlers and gave special mention to Cesaro and Kevin Owens. Bret then engaged in a Q&A session with the audience and we heard some great stories about Bret and his brother Owen and Brother-in-Law Davey Boy Smith, both of whom are sadly no longer with us, the story of the 3 of them on an empty plane was particularly funny.

The evening came to a close with the end of the Q&A but Bret did stay for quite a while to sign autographs for pretty much everyone who came. Me and my friends decided to have another couple of pints while we waited for the queue to go down, we were the last ones in the queue and my mate Dean asked if Bret would get him in a headlock but he was quickly denied by Bret's security. We all had a great time and although I initially thought the ticket was expensive it was totally worth it. Hopefully some other wrestling legends may do similar evenings with and we will definitely go.

I thought I would end this post by giving a list of my personal favourite Bret Hart matches. These are top 5 in chronological order as I couldn't choose between them.

Bret The Hitman Hart v Mr Perfect for the WWF Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam 1991

 

The British Bulldog v Bret The Hitman Hart for the WWF Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium

Owen Hart v Bret The Hitman Hart at Wrestlemania X





Shawn Michaels v Bret The Hitman Hart Ironman Match for the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania XII





Bret The Hitman Hart v Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wreslemania 13




Honourable mentions also go to the match Bret had with Rowdy Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania VIII which you can see here and the match he had with Chris Benoit on WCW Monday Nitro in honour of his brother Owen not long after he died which you can see here.

Well Thats all for now

S

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