Notes from the NWA Legends convention this weekend in North Carolina, according to Mike Johnson and PWInsider.com:
– Bret said he is leaving directly from North Carolina to go to Stamford to finalize his DVD deal.
– Hart said he doesn’t blame Vince McMahon as much as Shawn and Hunter. He said Vince is a “ruthless businessman” and it’s to be expected out of him, but there was a code of trust within the wrestlers that Shawn and Hunter broke.
– Bret said any rumors that he was going to take the WWF Title belt to WCW was a “BS story” since WWF had a lawsuit with WCW over the Alundra Blayze incident (where she took the WWF Women’s Title belt and threw it in a trash can on Nitro). He said it was impossible legally, even though that’s a story WWE spreads around.
– Bret said that if they had wanted to replace Shawn with someone else in the match in Montreal, he would have had no problem losing the belt. He said his issue was with HBK and told the story of their locker room fight where he ripped out a clump of Shawn’s hair.
– Bret said that before he got involved in the DVD they had shot interviews with Lawler, Hogan and Shawn burying him. He said that Lawler claimed he was selfish when the reality was that he was protecting his own assets as an independent contractor and was backed into a corner. He said Montreal was about “right and wrong, not Canada and the United States”.
– When asked about his WCW run. He says he’ll never know why he got paid so much to “sit on a bench”. He said that Eric Bischoff was always good to him and treated him well, but the booking committee of 6-8 others were the ones who had control of everything. He said that as much as he liked Bischoff, he didn’t have a clue and relied on the wrestlers for the ideas and “didn’t know a good one from a bad one”.
– When asked about wrestlers he never got a chance to work but would have wanted to, Bret said Hulk Hogan, although they did do some tags in WCW. He said he could have given Hogan the best match he ever had. He said he wish he could have worked a big match with Tatsumi Fujinami, as he was one of the best workers ever. He said they worked once before a sparse crowd so Fujinami didn’t want to go all out. He said he would have liked to wrestle The Rock and Jake Roberts. He noted that he had two singles matches against Ricky Steamboat and wished he could have done more.
– Bret said that his match with Steamboat in the WWF will hopefully be on the WWE DVD.
– Bret noted that he would have liked to wrestle Jack Brisco and loved watching tapes of him. He also said Rick Rude would have been another.
– When asked about best and worst matches, Bret said he loved working with Mr. Perfect. He noted his Summerslam 92 bout against Davey Boy Smith but said they had a better match years before in Stampede. He said he loved working with Dynamite Kid, and said he truly was “the best there was, is and ever will be.” He put over the Ironman bout at Wrestlemania 12 with Michaels as well. He said it was a great contest of guys trying to outdo each other. He went into detail discussing the bout. He also talked about wrestling Mr. Perfect at King of the Ring, The British Bulldog at In Your House, and Diesel at Survivor Series 1996.
– He said he wishes he could have had great matches with Ric Flair, but it didn’t work out that way.
– Bret said the worst PPV match he ever had was the Wrestlemania 11 submission match with Bob Backlund. He said he knew it was a bad idea the moment it was told to him. He said they were limited in what they could do and Roddy Piper running around with a mic was just bad. He said he doesn’t mean that as a knock on Backlund because they had a match that was good at Survivor Series. He then discussed how he worked with Backlund and said he’d like to see Hogan or Flair do the same, as they have the same matches no matter who the opponent is.
– When asked about Vince Russo, Bret said he has nothing bad to say. He said he was a wrestling fan and why he was booking a company is a “mystery” to him. He said that a lot of things in WCW were confusing to him. He said the only person with a clue in WCW was Dusty Rhodes and no one listened to him. Bret said that you can’t hire fans to write.
– When asked about the WWE Hall Of Fame, Bret said when he was screwed he made a promise to himself never to work for them again, so he’ll never be back as an on air character and won’t be at Summerslam this year or next. He said if the DVD goes well, he’d consider going back based on how that works out. He said he would consider being inducted because the fans always come first. He said it would be nice to finally make that final farewell he never got to make but “we aren’t there yet” in terms of his relationship with WWE.
– Bret Hart was telling fans during his autograph signing that he has signed on with another Canadian production of “Aladdin” in which he will again play the role of the Genie.
– Bret Hart’s Question and Answer session at the convention has been pushed back. The Q&A will now take place tonight from 5pm-7pm. Of course, I’m sure someone out there will still insist that Bret is going to show up at Summerslam tonight, even though he’s not.
– WWE referee Charles Robinson was at the convention on Friday, visiting with friends and taking in the convention.
– There was an embarrassing incident involving Ole Anderson and David Flair at the convention. David had a table at the convention, and in addition to signing autographs, he was selling autographed pictures of his father, Ric Flair. David was also selling pictures of the original Four Horsemen, which included Ole. Anderson came to Flair’s table and remarked that he wanted Flair to pay him for selling the Horsemen photos. Originally, there was laughter from those at the scene, as they thought Ole was joking around. It turns out Anderson was serious, and actually wanted money from Flair due to Flair selling the Horsemen pics. Those who were present said Anderson came off looking very bad in the situation.
– When asked about WWE, Bret says he hopes WWE doesn’t forget what they did to him. Bret said that he’s over it, but he has a world of contributions he could have made to WWE and to the wrestlers, but when they screwed him, they lost that access. He said that his heart will never be with WWE again and the screwjob was never a storyline to him. He said it was difficult at the time and he doesn’t forget what that company is all about. He said that it didn’t feel right to let his legacy be diminished or fade out, so he compromised his feelings with WWE to make the DVD deal. He said that he would rather give his insights to TNA or someone else.
– When asked about Triple H by a fan who said Hunter cursed him out for holding a Bret sign at a show, Bret said he was a “no good piece of s***” and said that he and Ahawn were “lying pieces of s***” who swore to God they knew nothing at Montreal. He said that if someone came to him, he wouldn’t have screwed Shawn. He said that the only people who can’t get over Montreal are the ones who were responsible, because they have to look in the mirror every day. He said that to this day they don’t like that
Bret’s legacy is so well regarded that they need to tear him down. Hart said they were “out of synch with reality”.
– In regard to Hogan not dropping the WWF belt to him in 1993, he said Hogan wasn’t one of the boys and no one could trust him as he thought he was above the business. He mentioned the steroid scandals of the 90s, which led to Bret getting his top spot. Bret admitted to using steroids himself, but since he wasn’t known for his “look” or size, he wasn’t associated with them the way others were. He says while guys like Hogan were known for their look, he was better known for what he did in the ring.
– He said that WWE needed to find someone in 1993 who wouldn’t screw up because they were in such trouble, saying they didn’t want someone who would get caught with a 13 year old girl or pulled over with a DUI. He said in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Ric Flair had a horrible match with Randy Savage and that made Vince decide to put the belt on Bret. He said that he thinks he had a positive influence on the business, saying you can see his influence on Angle and Benoit’s work.
