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EX-PRO WRESTLER HAS TO GRAPPLE WITH CONSCIENCE
New York post
Wednesday,November 29,2000
By BRAD HUNTER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER 23 years of being battered in wrestling rings around the world, Bret "The Hitman" Hart is ready to reveal some of the squared circle's darkest secrets.
The profession, he says, has become a twisted circus of money, injury, drug abuse and death. When he retired last month, Hart said he knew he had to get out.
The catalyst for Hart's candor is the tragic death of his younger brother, Owen, in a World Wrestling Federation stunt gone awry 18 months ago in Kansas City, Mo.
Its fallout forced the legendary wrestler to take a long, hard look at his beloved profession. What he saw sickened him.
"For me, it has no relation to what I did for 23 years," Hart told The Post. "People are now trying to hurt you for real, the level of violence and sex . . . it's no longer for kids."
The wrestling carnival has become so debauched the wrestler no longer allows his own children to watch, he says. Outrageously violent scenarios, sexual and racial stereotypes, along with widespread drug abuse are now the norm.
"Wrestling killed my brother," Hart said sadly. "To me, rock music is dead - and so is wrestling."
Hart, 43, fingers WWF czar Vince McMahon and his $1 billion enterprise as the reason for most of wrestling's ills.
The grappler had soured on the wrestling pooh-bah before his brother's death, but in the aftermath, his feelings have intensified.
WRESTLING wasn't always this way, Hart says.
His father, Stu, started Stampede Wrestling in the '40s in a territory that stretched across western Canada and included Montana.
Several of his eight sons followed him into the biz and two of his daughters married wrestlers.
Wrestling in those days was strictly lower-class and performed in small, sweaty arenas and clubs. TV matches were kept to Saturday morning, and while the stars were big men, they were a long way from the muscle-bound behemoths of today.
The sport was in dire need of a visionary who could take it out of the trailer parks and put it in prime time.
Wrestling's revolutionary came in the form of McMahon, who bought the WWF in the early 1980s from his father Vince McMahon Sr., a longtime East Coast promoter.
The younger McMahon took his matches to a national audience, popularized its superstars and bought the best talent available. One of the talented young wrestlers he brought aboard in the early 1980s was Bret Hart.
Hart thrived in the WWF, quickly earning a reputation as a technically excellent wrestler who reveled in his role as a heel.
"Vince really cleaned it up. It had always been pretty low rent and low paying - and gory," Hart said.
Hart added the wrestlers followed a code of honor and the No. 1 rule was: Never hurt your opponent. But as wrestling became more mainstream, an epidemic of drug abuse lurked in the shadows. Hart says the biggest names in the business, including himself, were using steroids. Prescription painkillers were also rife.
Stars like Hulk Hogan and Superstar Billy Graham have publicly confessed to using steroids, while the British Bulldog is in a rehab center battling an addiction to painkillers.
As the WWF grew in popularity, so did the money involved. Merchandising deals, TV and advertising contracts were no longer chump change.
Pressure on the wrestlers to bulk up using steroids also increased, Hart explained. On the road for weeks at a time and hobbled by a litany of aches and pains, the grapplers would frequently turn to painkillers.
"When I was with the WWF, the schedule was merciless. I was doing 300 shows a year and there are drug problems that come out of that," the wrestler said. "Particularly the painkillers. Guys found they couldn't do their job without a 'support system.' Drugs will do that for you.
"I banged up my knee and then used steroids to rebuild the muscles, but most of the people were using them for bulk. A blind eye was turned to it."
But some things were tough to ignore.
Fatal heart attacks, a side effect of steroid use, were becoming frighteningly common among wrestlers in their 20s and 30s.
Men like Rick Rude, Eddie Gilbert and Yokozuna, along with scores of lesser wrestlers, all died of heart failure at young ages.
"There's been a lot of guys who died because of using steroids," Hart charged. "Most of them aren't big names but they're still dead."
Yet despite public exposure of steroid use among WWF stars, the organization remains relatively unblemished. Even after the WWF's former physician George Zahorian was jailed for supplying wrestlers with steroids and painkillers, there was little public outcry or interest in a crackdown.
REGARDLESS, the WWF remained outrageously popular. The public seemed to think of wrestlers as distant cousins of Wile E. Coyote, cartoon characters having play fights and then dusting themselves off.
But after a huge burst of popularity in the 1980s, wrestling went into another swan, jacking up the stakes once again.
In the drive for TV audiences, the stunts became more dangerous, the content hyper-sexualized and the characters and story lines more outlandish.
"If you want the idea of the dimensions, I spent the past year dodging cars, swinging baseball bats and chairs. I even drove over four other wrestlers in a monster truck with them stuck inside a car," Hart said of his time with the WWF's chief rival, the World Championship Wrestling.
There were others reasons for Hart to quit.
A series of concussions finally sidelined the WCW champion earlier this year and because of his long recovery, Time Warner, the WCW's owner, fired him, he said.
A spokeswoman for the WCW confirmed that Hart's contract was terminated prematurely for medical reasons.
Finally, in October he retired from the world of pile drivers and pins. But he can't escape the sport that runs in his blood.
Everyday, the unjust death of his brother haunts him - and he says the fallout has also destroyed his once close family.
Owen Hart, The Blue Blazer, fell 78 feet to his death while trying to enter the ring on a cable during a pay-per-view event in Kansas City on May 23, 1999. But the cable suddenly snapped and Owen fell, smashing his head on a turnbuckle.
As stunned wrestlers learned of the death, McMahon ordered the bouts to continue.
Bret Hart was shocked.
Hart said his brother's body was barely buried when McMahon began making overtures to the Hart family. He believes McMahon suspected there would be a suit, so he moved quickly on damage control.
In his opinion, McMahon had a plan: to split the family and minimize the wrongful-death lawsuit being filed by Owen's wife, Martha.
Hart says the wrestling chieftain convinced two of the dead wrestler's sisters and their husbands he had their best interests at heart.
"Vince went to my parents in Calgary and talked to my sisters, Ellie and Diana who are married to former wrestlers Jim Niedhart and Davey Boy Smith, aka British Bulldog. McMahon came bearing gifts, Hart said.
Niedhart became director of a WWF wrestling school and Smith was allegedly promised a big comeback.
"My sister Diana thought she would become the next Sable [a former female wrestling superstar], and it just wasn't going to happen," Hart said. He says once his sisters and their husbands had served their purpose they were jettisoned from the WWF.
They vehemently deny his claims.
Now, neither Bret nor Martha speak to his sisters.
However, Ellie Niedhart said it was Bret who ripped the family apart.
"Bret's had a vendetta against Vince. Vince McMahon didn't intentionally kill Owen."
She denied receiving anything in return for listening to McMahon. The problem, she said, was Bret's ego.
The WWF settled Martha's wrongful-death suit two weeks ago for $18 million and is suing the maker of the harness involved in Owen's accident.
Yet the whole affair still sticks in Hart's craw.
In the hours following Owen's death, Hart said McMahon frantically tried to get in contact with him. The message was seemingly heartfelt.
"His rep was begging me to meet with Vince and I already knew I couldn't talk about the impending lawsuit. It was best to say nothing," Hart recalled. "Finally, I said 'OK, meet me in a park near my house.' "
The two men eventually met and Hart said McMahon offered to give him access to extensive photos and video of the wrestler made during his 10-year WWF career - in order to keep him on his side.
WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt said that McMahon was unavailable to talk to The Post.
"What he's saying couldn't be further from the truth. The loss of Owen to the WWF and his family was genuine," said McDevitt.
McDevitt also said the wrestler's sisters and parents "never asked for a penny."
"I think Bret is angry the lawsuit is now behind them, but the rest of the family is relieved," McDevitt said, adding that Owen had suggested the comeback for his brother-in-law, Smith.
Jim Niedhart, he said was fired from the wrestling school long before any settlement was reached, but would not give reasons why.
"Bret Hart is poisoned, he doesn't like modern wrestling but he willingly accepted a paycheck," McDevitt said, pointing out that Hart carried on making a living from the sport until only a month ago.
Hart remains steadfast:
"At first when Owen died, I saw it as one of those bizarre things that happen in wrestling and I tried not to let it sour me. But now, from what I've seen, I think that something like this will probably happen again."
------------------
Yours in sport,
George
George Spellwin
Research Director
Tell your friends about elitefitness.com!
Click here to Give them a free subscription to Elite Fitness News.
You could win 30lbs. of Mass Quantities Triple Threat 3/60 Protein!
New York post
Wednesday,November 29,2000
By BRAD HUNTER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER 23 years of being battered in wrestling rings around the world, Bret "The Hitman" Hart is ready to reveal some of the squared circle's darkest secrets.
The profession, he says, has become a twisted circus of money, injury, drug abuse and death. When he retired last month, Hart said he knew he had to get out.
The catalyst for Hart's candor is the tragic death of his younger brother, Owen, in a World Wrestling Federation stunt gone awry 18 months ago in Kansas City, Mo.
Its fallout forced the legendary wrestler to take a long, hard look at his beloved profession. What he saw sickened him.
"For me, it has no relation to what I did for 23 years," Hart told The Post. "People are now trying to hurt you for real, the level of violence and sex . . . it's no longer for kids."
The wrestling carnival has become so debauched the wrestler no longer allows his own children to watch, he says. Outrageously violent scenarios, sexual and racial stereotypes, along with widespread drug abuse are now the norm.
"Wrestling killed my brother," Hart said sadly. "To me, rock music is dead - and so is wrestling."
Hart, 43, fingers WWF czar Vince McMahon and his $1 billion enterprise as the reason for most of wrestling's ills.
The grappler had soured on the wrestling pooh-bah before his brother's death, but in the aftermath, his feelings have intensified.
WRESTLING wasn't always this way, Hart says.
His father, Stu, started Stampede Wrestling in the '40s in a territory that stretched across western Canada and included Montana.
Several of his eight sons followed him into the biz and two of his daughters married wrestlers.
Wrestling in those days was strictly lower-class and performed in small, sweaty arenas and clubs. TV matches were kept to Saturday morning, and while the stars were big men, they were a long way from the muscle-bound behemoths of today.
The sport was in dire need of a visionary who could take it out of the trailer parks and put it in prime time.
Wrestling's revolutionary came in the form of McMahon, who bought the WWF in the early 1980s from his father Vince McMahon Sr., a longtime East Coast promoter.
The younger McMahon took his matches to a national audience, popularized its superstars and bought the best talent available. One of the talented young wrestlers he brought aboard in the early 1980s was Bret Hart.
Hart thrived in the WWF, quickly earning a reputation as a technically excellent wrestler who reveled in his role as a heel.
"Vince really cleaned it up. It had always been pretty low rent and low paying - and gory," Hart said.
Hart added the wrestlers followed a code of honor and the No. 1 rule was: Never hurt your opponent. But as wrestling became more mainstream, an epidemic of drug abuse lurked in the shadows. Hart says the biggest names in the business, including himself, were using steroids. Prescription painkillers were also rife.
Stars like Hulk Hogan and Superstar Billy Graham have publicly confessed to using steroids, while the British Bulldog is in a rehab center battling an addiction to painkillers.
As the WWF grew in popularity, so did the money involved. Merchandising deals, TV and advertising contracts were no longer chump change.
Pressure on the wrestlers to bulk up using steroids also increased, Hart explained. On the road for weeks at a time and hobbled by a litany of aches and pains, the grapplers would frequently turn to painkillers.
"When I was with the WWF, the schedule was merciless. I was doing 300 shows a year and there are drug problems that come out of that," the wrestler said. "Particularly the painkillers. Guys found they couldn't do their job without a 'support system.' Drugs will do that for you.
"I banged up my knee and then used steroids to rebuild the muscles, but most of the people were using them for bulk. A blind eye was turned to it."
But some things were tough to ignore.
Fatal heart attacks, a side effect of steroid use, were becoming frighteningly common among wrestlers in their 20s and 30s.
Men like Rick Rude, Eddie Gilbert and Yokozuna, along with scores of lesser wrestlers, all died of heart failure at young ages.
"There's been a lot of guys who died because of using steroids," Hart charged. "Most of them aren't big names but they're still dead."
Yet despite public exposure of steroid use among WWF stars, the organization remains relatively unblemished. Even after the WWF's former physician George Zahorian was jailed for supplying wrestlers with steroids and painkillers, there was little public outcry or interest in a crackdown.
REGARDLESS, the WWF remained outrageously popular. The public seemed to think of wrestlers as distant cousins of Wile E. Coyote, cartoon characters having play fights and then dusting themselves off.
But after a huge burst of popularity in the 1980s, wrestling went into another swan, jacking up the stakes once again.
In the drive for TV audiences, the stunts became more dangerous, the content hyper-sexualized and the characters and story lines more outlandish.
"If you want the idea of the dimensions, I spent the past year dodging cars, swinging baseball bats and chairs. I even drove over four other wrestlers in a monster truck with them stuck inside a car," Hart said of his time with the WWF's chief rival, the World Championship Wrestling.
There were others reasons for Hart to quit.
A series of concussions finally sidelined the WCW champion earlier this year and because of his long recovery, Time Warner, the WCW's owner, fired him, he said.
A spokeswoman for the WCW confirmed that Hart's contract was terminated prematurely for medical reasons.
Finally, in October he retired from the world of pile drivers and pins. But he can't escape the sport that runs in his blood.
Everyday, the unjust death of his brother haunts him - and he says the fallout has also destroyed his once close family.
Owen Hart, The Blue Blazer, fell 78 feet to his death while trying to enter the ring on a cable during a pay-per-view event in Kansas City on May 23, 1999. But the cable suddenly snapped and Owen fell, smashing his head on a turnbuckle.
As stunned wrestlers learned of the death, McMahon ordered the bouts to continue.
Bret Hart was shocked.
Hart said his brother's body was barely buried when McMahon began making overtures to the Hart family. He believes McMahon suspected there would be a suit, so he moved quickly on damage control.
In his opinion, McMahon had a plan: to split the family and minimize the wrongful-death lawsuit being filed by Owen's wife, Martha.
Hart says the wrestling chieftain convinced two of the dead wrestler's sisters and their husbands he had their best interests at heart.
"Vince went to my parents in Calgary and talked to my sisters, Ellie and Diana who are married to former wrestlers Jim Niedhart and Davey Boy Smith, aka British Bulldog. McMahon came bearing gifts, Hart said.
Niedhart became director of a WWF wrestling school and Smith was allegedly promised a big comeback.
"My sister Diana thought she would become the next Sable [a former female wrestling superstar], and it just wasn't going to happen," Hart said. He says once his sisters and their husbands had served their purpose they were jettisoned from the WWF.
They vehemently deny his claims.
Now, neither Bret nor Martha speak to his sisters.
However, Ellie Niedhart said it was Bret who ripped the family apart.
"Bret's had a vendetta against Vince. Vince McMahon didn't intentionally kill Owen."
She denied receiving anything in return for listening to McMahon. The problem, she said, was Bret's ego.
The WWF settled Martha's wrongful-death suit two weeks ago for $18 million and is suing the maker of the harness involved in Owen's accident.
Yet the whole affair still sticks in Hart's craw.
In the hours following Owen's death, Hart said McMahon frantically tried to get in contact with him. The message was seemingly heartfelt.
"His rep was begging me to meet with Vince and I already knew I couldn't talk about the impending lawsuit. It was best to say nothing," Hart recalled. "Finally, I said 'OK, meet me in a park near my house.' "
The two men eventually met and Hart said McMahon offered to give him access to extensive photos and video of the wrestler made during his 10-year WWF career - in order to keep him on his side.
WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt said that McMahon was unavailable to talk to The Post.
"What he's saying couldn't be further from the truth. The loss of Owen to the WWF and his family was genuine," said McDevitt.
McDevitt also said the wrestler's sisters and parents "never asked for a penny."
"I think Bret is angry the lawsuit is now behind them, but the rest of the family is relieved," McDevitt said, adding that Owen had suggested the comeback for his brother-in-law, Smith.
Jim Niedhart, he said was fired from the wrestling school long before any settlement was reached, but would not give reasons why.
"Bret Hart is poisoned, he doesn't like modern wrestling but he willingly accepted a paycheck," McDevitt said, pointing out that Hart carried on making a living from the sport until only a month ago.
Hart remains steadfast:
"At first when Owen died, I saw it as one of those bizarre things that happen in wrestling and I tried not to let it sour me. But now, from what I've seen, I think that something like this will probably happen again."
------------------
Yours in sport,
George
George Spellwin
Research Director
Tell your friends about elitefitness.com!
Click here to Give them a free subscription to Elite Fitness News.
You could win 30lbs. of Mass Quantities Triple Threat 3/60 Protein!
