BOOK REVIEW: BRET HART - MY REAL LIFE IN THE CARTOON WORLD OF WRESTLING
By Jeff McGinnis on 1/4/2010 5:22 PM
The following was written in October 2007.
In 1969, baseball player Jim Bouton wrote a book entitled
"Ball Four." Both an ongoing diary of his season and a memoir of a life in the
game, Bouton's book would go on to light a firestorm of controversy over its
depiction of the life of sports stars. Though by today's standards "Ball
Four"'s content is relatively tame, at the time its frank portrayal of the
day-to-day realities of living in such an occupation ignited debate both
inside and outside baseball. Some argued that Bouton had no business divulging
what went on behind closed doors, and that he was ruining the game for fans by
revealing the lifestyle of its players. Others, however, adored Bouton's book
and called it a masterpiece, one which showed that baseball players were not
superhuman, but real people with real problems, who had good points and bad
ones.
Bret Hart's new book, "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon
World of Wrestling" may inspire similar debate among fans and critics alike.
While the market has been flooded with wrestling autobiographies in the years
since the publication of Mick Foley's classic "Have a Nice Day," none have
probably summed up so frankly the day-to-day realities of living in wrestling
quite like Hart's book. An amazingly detailed and meticulously crafted tome,
running over 550 pages, it is a richly detailed story which follows Bret's
career from childhood to the day Stu Hart passed away in 2003. No noteworthy
moment is glossed over, no issue left uncommented on, and the sheer volume of
material makes the book a can't-miss for any fan of the sport.
But there will be controversy here, too, as "Hitman" is also
one of the most brutally frank books ever about the realities of living on the
road as a wrestler. Hart does not gloss over the questions of drugs, alcohol,
infidelity, politics - you name it, and so does he. "It's not my intention to
take needless jabs at those who made the journey with me, but I'll pull no
punches, either," Hart writes in his preface. And he is certainly true to his
word: Before the book is done, he admits to his own steroid use during his
career, frankly discusses the rampant drug use by his fellow wrestlers, and is
surprisingly blunt in admitting to numerous extra-marital affairs during his
time on the road.
The story, of course, begins in the famous Hart house in
Calgary, as Bret describes growing up within a wrestling culture and under the
stern and watchful gaze of his father, Stu. The early chapters paint a picture
of growing up a Hart, stuck in the middle of 12 kids with a strict but loving
father, and a home life that was anything but Ozzie and Harriet. As elsewhere
in the book, Bret is very blunt in admitting that his childhood was far from
being all wine and roses, from problems between his parents to never-ending
money issues as his father tried to keep his wrestling promotion, Stampede
Wrestling, afloat.
Bret describes his first, tentative steps into wrestling,
more inspired by his brothers' financial success than by any burning passion
for the art form. Far from being prodded by his father to follow in the family
footsteps, he says his dad actually encouraged him to focus on his amateur
career instead of becoming a pro. His early days, training at the feet of
Katsui Adachi and Kazuo Sakurada, soon gave way to the trial-by-fire of
grueling matches with the young Tom Billington (Dynamite Kid) and an extended
tour of Puerto Rico.
Every step of Bret's career - from his start as a young star
of his father's promotion to his first days with the WWF and beyond - is
meticulously described in remarkable detail in the book. By his own account,
Hart kept an audio diary during his career, giving him a wealth of archival
material from which to draw from, and it shows in the amazing thoroughness
with which Bret documents his life both in and outside wrestling. There are
only a couple small factual inaccuracies that only the most obsessive fan
would even notice.
In addition, Bret does not shy away from describing his
private life in similar fashion, crafting an extremely strained portrait of
his first marriage where his wife, Julie, seemed to be eternally in a state of
planning to leave him, even as she mothered his four children. This was
exasperated by Bret's admitted vice - women. He would have frequent sexual
encounters on the road over the course of his career, and Hart's tone in
describing this habit is not exactly one of regret, though he does admit to
feeling quite guilty at the time. "When all was said and done, my fondness for
women kept me out of trouble. It may have even saved my life, when you
consider how many wrestlers died from their drug and alcohol addictions."
But Bret does not shy away from his own experiences with
such issues, discussing his own steroid use beginning in the 1980s, which he
claims to have undertaken solely at the start to help deal with injury
problems. His portrait of the 1980's WWF locker room lining up to get their
little bags from Dr. Zahorian is a chilling one, especially in light of WWE's
most recent scandals. He also details much of the recreational drug usage in
the sport, naming quite a few names in the process. There will probably be
backlash against Hart for his bluntness in dealing with this subject matter,
especially coming as it does in the midst of wrestling's biggest steroid
controversy since the early 1990s.
Hart is also very open in discussing his opinions of many of
his fellow performers, both positive and negative, though it never comes
across as particularly vindictive. Given the negative comments made about Hart
in recent years by both Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair (particularly in Flair's
book, "To Be the Man"), Hart's comments criticizing them as workers seem
positively restrained by comparison. There was far more venom in the article
on Bret's website responding to Flair's book than will be found in "Hitman,"
though he does make plain his less-than-stellar opinion of Flair as a
wrestler.
An interesting portrait also emerges of Vince McMahon, as
Bret describes the eternally evolving relationship between the two of them
over the years, leading up to the single most talked-about moment in wrestling
history: the Montreal Screwjob, which gets its own chapter. Bret certainly has
more than a few scathing things to say about McMahon over the course of the
book, though in recent years their relationship has become ever-so-slightly
more cordial, primarily because Vince owns the rights to all the footage of
Bret's career, and Bret understands that his legacy as a performer is in
Vinces hands.
As for the author himself, Bret comes across as an
individual you can generally sympathize with, who takes himself and his legacy
quite seriously, almost to a fault. He is never at a loss to toot his own horn
when it comes to his abilities and ideas (he frequently describes his
execution of certain moves as "perfect," and is quite complimentary of his own
storytelling ability in general), but given the career which he contributed to
the business, a slight lack of humility is certainly tolerable. He is also
quick to compliment and praise other workers from his era, as well, even Shawn
Michaels, whose talent Bret never denies even as he denounces everything else
that Shawn stands for.
In the end, "Hitman" will stand the test of time as one of
the definitive wrestling biographies. Though it is not as purely entertaining
and engaging as Mick Foley's books, as a document and story of one man's life
and career, it is as meticulous and complete as a fan could ever hope for. The
tale it tells is certainly not always (or even usually) a happy one, but it is
always fascinating and compulsively readable. "Hitman" is currently available
in Canada, with a wider release in the United States and the United Kingdom to
follow in 2008, and it quickly goes on the short list of books that all
wrestling fans owe it to themselves to read.
