Dropped by MediaPlay's going out of bid-ness sale and picked this thing up for about 16 bucks. If you like rasslin' DVD's, then get over to MediaPlay this week. Also, if you like crappy horror movies, direct-to-video thrillers and Japanese cartoons, then you'll cream your pants. In other words, don't expect to fill in your "Wish List" of decent movies and TV shows.
Anyways, this 3-disc set follows the career of Bret "The Hitman" Hart. The actual production of the set was almost bigger news than the discs themselves. Right now, I'm watching the lengthy documentary of Bret's career. It starts with footage from his rookie years in Calgary's Stampede Wrestling. This last almost an hour and since most fans (myself included) are unfamiliar with Bret's Stampede days, a little explanation would have been nice. For instance, instead of telling us "he fought Bad News Allen, the Stomper and Dynamite Kid"... tell us WHY he fought each one. What was the storyline? What led to their gimmick blow-off matches? etc.
Things become a little more familiar when Bret is imported into the WWF in late 1984. He narrates his narrow escape from being cast as "Cowboy" Bret Hart. Bret expresses more than a little bitterness towards the "old farts" and how he basically languished in the undercard for over a year. Maybe it's the delivery from Hart himself, who never cracks a smile or seems friendly in his narration-- but the bitterness gets old after awhile. His eventual teaming with Jim Neidhart and Jimmy Hart in the Hart Foundation is covered fairly well. Only question I have is WHY he was tagged with the name "Hitman". Sure, it's a tough-guy name, but it seems like a random tag thrown onto him. It just as easily could have been "Hacksaw" or "Hardcase".
The multiple break-ups and re-teamings of the Hart Foundation are glossed over. I'm shocked that Bret's big WrestleMania 4 conflict with Bad News Brown, with subsequent face turn and break from Jimmy Hart was excluded. Also, no mention of Bret's November 1987 Saturday Night's Main Event match with Randy Savage-- which was his first high-profile singles match in the WWF and one I had always considered his breakout match. So the Hart Foundation years quickly fast forward to Bret's Intercontinetnal title match against "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig in 1991. Things are a bit more coherent at this point, as his matches with Roddy Piper and Davey Boy Smith are featured. Then the documentary steps right into Bret's career as multiple-time World Champ.
Bret expresses alot of pride when narrating his runs and that's refreshing to hear. he also expresses constant (and somewhat justified) discontent towards contemporary Shawn Michaels. But again, Bret seems upset that there were a few months from 1991-1997 where he was not acknowledged as "the best".
A good deal of time is spent on Bret's "Canada vs. USA" feud from 1997. Bret smirks a bit as he mentions that there really is no annymosity between the two countires and that he thought the whole idea was harmless. Nice to hear that, because I remember ALOT of internet smarks getting all worked up over the concept back in '97.
The infamous "Montreal incident" is touched upon. This disc assumes you've seen A&E'S "Wrestling with Shadows" documentary, so don't expect the incident to be explained or spelled out for you. This is followed by a quick burst of his WCW days. Like most WWE productions, the story is "WCW was completely clueless". Of course, the bigger problem was that an already crowded WCW had another top-level babyface who was on the rise at the same time, in Bill Goldberg. Goldberg's unexpected rise took away alot of the impact of Bret's time in WCW.
The story touches on little brother Owen's tragic in-ring death in 1999. Jeff Jarrett's tearful talk about Owen is included. Interesting to note that Jarrett appears without any credit or graphics listing his name. This portion also has the Owen Hart tribute match that Bret and Chris Benoit performed on WCW's Nitro. Always thought it was rather unsettling how the WWF saluted Owen by having Steve Austin chug a beer while Road Dogg and the Godfather ran off with "hoes" to "tell Owen stories".... but WCW actually did it in a fairly classly way.
The video winds down with Bret's final days in WCW. He mentions how he thought he was finally turning the corner in WCW, but a concussion derailed things. I have to agree with that, as WCW was set to run with Chris Benoit and Bill Goldberg as top contenders to Bret's title. In the span of a few weeks, Bret was out with a concussion, Goldberg sliced his arm open while punching out a limo, and Benoit left. No mention of the short-lived Bret Hart-led nWo 2000 is included.
The extras included a few intersting tidbits. Bret says that Konnan was the one who taught him how to apply the sharpshooter. Never knew that...I always thought Konnan didn't arrive in the WWF until 1992, but Bret started using the sharpshooter in 1991. He lightens up a bit when reminiscing on Owen crank-calling their dad Stu, before Wrestlemania 4. A segment detailing the enormous Hart family tree is included, as well as a previously unknown secret about Bret's Survivor Series 1990 finale with Ted DiBiase. Bret also talks about his contemporaries who have died; everyone from Adrian Adonis to Ray Traylor. He gets especially emotional when talking about Rick Rude. I never knew that the two had been close. There's also a story on how Bret began using his trademark sunglasses.
Throughout the whole documentary Bret seems sad. Not the tear-jerking kind of sad, but gloomy. Like you could throw the guy a party and he still wouldn't smile. Maybe it's just his personality, but he comes across as having a chip on his shoulder. I also got the impression that, for a guy who made his living in a fixed "sport", he takes himself way too seriously.
The first disc concludes with two early Hart Foundation matches, both from Madison Square Gardens. The first is against the British Bulldogs from 1985 and ends in a curfew time limit. It's kinda' funny to see the crowd immediately evacuate the building when the curfew bell rings. The Hart Foundation was fairly new at this point and some of Gorilla Monsoon's commentary reflects that. The second match is against the Killer Bees from 1986 and also ends in a draw. In this match, the Harts are in top-form as heels-- switching and double-teaming behind the ref's back.
I have yet to view the remaining two disc. My area of focus for the WWF has always been from about 1988-1992, and all of the matches on these are from Bret's 1991-1999 run. It may take me awhile to get through them. Just going from history (as well as the documentary's quick highlights), it's enlightening to note that a good portion of Bret's matches featured him losing. He wasn't afraid to take a clean loss and help out his opponent.
"Bret Hart: the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be" checks in with one of the longest DVD titles around. But it's a highly informative and entertaining show for the rasslin' fan. Some of my griping about the omissions has more to do with my weird tastes and aren't necessarily a knock on the product .For instance: I want moreBad News Brown/Bad News Allen...and I also never learned WHY Bret smashed Macho Man with the chair, giving the title to Hulk Hogan in 1998 :)
Did you see the other discs, yet? The Owen Hart match from Action Zone is good.
Yeah.. watched a good portion of the umm..second (?) disc. Saw that Action Zone match with the Bulldog run-in and everything. I couldn't figure out who the second commentator was, though. He was all excited about little kids wearing "the pink and black for Halloween".
The DiBiase match was okay. No commentary, so I'm guessing it was originally cut for Coliseum Video with Tony Schiavone on the call.