This past Saturday, ‘An Evening with Bret Hart’ took place in Edmonton, Alberta with the Hall of Fame wrestler speaking about his career.
Reader Brian Swane attended the event at the Century Casino and sent the following report to POST Wrestling:
This was originally scheduled for March 2020. It was a big crowd, just a few seats short of a sellout. Kelly Remple, a media personality from Regina, hosted the conversation portion with Bret while Edmonton radio personality Yukon Jack hosted the Q&A portion.
-The conversation portion focused mostly on growing up in Calgary, Stampede Wrestling, breaking into the WWF with Neidhart, getting the title in 1992, his program with Owen in 1994, and his 1997 run.
– There was very little new, just about everything he had talked or written about before. He talked a lot – he was only supposed to go on for two hours, but went for more than 3 (including an intermission), but ended up going over the same thing a few times.
– CM Punk was the first guy he named when asked who he would have liked to work with. He also made special mention of Brock Lesnar and said he could have done a great program with a babyface John Cena when he was the anti-American heel. Kurt Angle, The Rock, and Randy Orton were also mentioned.
– He also named Barry Horowitz as his most underrated wrestler, and his favorite match was against Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13.
– What I found most poignant was when he was asked about so many wrestlers from his era have passed away. He talked about how every night on the road at the bar, the boys would go up to someone’s room to do cocaine, and those who didn’t partake would be ostracized in the locker room. So, he would always sit with a woman and get her to pretend she was with him for the night, so he had an excuse to turn down the others going up to do cocaine. It was a jarring example of how pervasive drugs were and the locker room culture at the time.
– The names “FTR” or “AEW” were never once mentioned (although I can personally say at least two questions were submitted regarding that topic). But he also didn’t entirely hold back on Vince McMahon. The way he talked would not have left one suspecting he had just signed a new deal with WWE.
– He was never asked about Bill Goldberg but managed to get off on a tangent where he went on three lengthy rants about him. It bothered me a bit personally. For one, the audience isn’t paying to hear him air his personal grievances over and over again. But I also just feel sad for Bret to still be so consumed after all these years. It’s not healthy to carry a burden of such hatred for so long.
– That said, the crowd seemed to really enjoy the evening. He is still as over in Edmonton as he was when he walked out on the Raw after Canadian Stampede wearing an Oilers jersey.