Despite a career that was cut short by an in-ring injury, Bret “The Hitman” Hart enjoyed a lengthy run as one of the top superstars in the modern era.   Now, he tells his life story in with his heart on his sleeve as he recounts his life from his time growing up in one of wrestling’s most storied families to his controversial exit from the world of professional wrestling  .  After you read Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling you may feel that the book is deserving of the claim “The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be” in terms of wrestling books. 

Hitman without a doubt is one of the best wrestling books ever written.   Literally decades in the making, Hart’s story is told with the help of audiotapes he made during his time as a wrestler, providing fans with access to some of the biggest angles in wrestling history as well as some of the biggest names in the business.   There’s stories from the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) rise to national prominence in the 1980’s through the dark days of the early 1990’s and through the company’s tumultuous battle with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) during the Monday Night War.   On a more personal level, the book recalls his unthinkable departure from the WWF for said rival WCW, the tragic death of his beloved brother Owen, to his anticlimactic departure from the ring, and personal struggles he endured afterwards.

Wrestling fans seem to either prefer books with interesting road stories or behind the scenes accounts of key events in wrestling history .   Hitman provides both along with deeply personal look at what it was like growing up in a wrestling family.   By all accounts, Hart had his hands full navigating the shark infested waters of wrestling as well as the family squabbles inherent to any family and amplified by the incredible amount of siblings he had.   By the end of the book, you can’t help but share Hart’s sentiments when he talks about surviving his time as a wrestler.

Given the book’s page count (573 pages) and small font size, it’s quite clear from the start that Hart has a lot to talk about (Rumor has it the original version was over one thousand pages but edited down to its current size).   It’s also clear that Hart isn’t afraid to talk about some of his most personal moments:

After dinner my dad would take us boys down to the basement and let us wrestle one another, teaching us the basics.   Then he would get us to run around in a circle on the mat, and in a strange version of dodge ball, try to knock our feet out from under us using one of the heavy leather medicine balls.   I used to love this game and was often the last one standing.

Then it was time to hit the shower.   Dean and I usually ended up crying because Smith and Bruce would pee in our mouths or blast us right in the eyes, which burned.   The best we could manage was pee on their legs.   There was no point telling on them because in the Hart house you were only guilty of something if you got caught. P. 15.

Hart was born into a family of twelve brothers and sisters, the son of legendary shooter Stu Hart.   Hart’s father promoted Calgary Stampede Wrestling, a promotion that saw both ups and downs but which struggled throughout most of its existence.   The Hart family grew up surrounded by wrestling and it was inevitable that they would become involved in the sport despite mother Helen Hart’s strong protests that her boys not become wrestlers and her daughters not marry wrestlers (the Hart matriarch would see that exact scenario would take place as her children grew older).

As Hart describes it, growing up in Hart House was an ordeal but it was never boring.   Whether it was constant fights with his siblings, dealing with the taunts of schoolmates who mocked Stu Hart’s profession, living in abject poverty at times, or dodging the oftentimes terrifying discipline of father Stu, Bret Hart’s experiences shaped him into the person he is today.   Depending on your own experience growing up, Hart’s life story may seem dysfunctional or remind you very much of your own family.  

While Hart explores his childhood with depth and insight rarely found in most wrestling autobiographies, the focus of the book is on Hart’s career as a wrestler.   Hart seems to leave no stone unturned as he recalls his days struggling to find his way in the territories to his struggles trying to find his way in the WWF.   Hart’s road to success took many twists and turns and he describes them vividly throughout the book.  Reading some of the road stories mentioned by Hart, it's hard to believe how some of them made it out alive:

In the lobby, Piper and Muraco were in the process of being arrested by a bunch of pissed-off Fresno cops after a high-speed car chase that ended in a rolled-over rental car!  That's when Cowboy Bob decided to march out of the elevator, buck-naked, hollerin' drunken epithets in his deep nasal whine...Soon Bob was throwing wild punches.  The cops shot him with tranquilizer darts that he looked at, pulled out and then laughed at, saying "Is that all you got?"  p. 190

Hart’s personal story is intricately woven with that of many of his colleagues, none more so than fellow wrestler Tom Billington (aka the Dynamite Kid).   Hart compares his breaking into the business as Billington was making a name for himself and as the book progresses, he describes Billington’s calamitous fall from grace with his own rocky road to the top.   While Hart’s tale is bittersweet, Billington’s is one that epitomizes the pitfalls that Hart’s generation often fell into but Billington’s fate seems far from tragic as Hart paints it as one of his created by the Dynamite Kid’s incredibly bad life choices rather than by misfortune.  

Despite a truly remarkable career as one of the best workers from the last twenty years (and an equally remarkable rise to superstardom despite a first class pedigree and unquestionable in-ring ability) Hart’s career will forever be remembered most by the Montreal Screwjob, the night Vince McMahon did what he thought was best for his company and betrayed Hart’s trust by robbing him of the WWF Championship despite promising him that the would remain on that night in Canada.

While much has been said about the Montreal Screwjob (including the excellent documentary film Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows), Hitman is different in that Hart is able to tell his side of not only what happened the night of the incident but the events leading up to it and why he was so adamant about not dropping the title to Shawn Michaels in his home country of Canada.   While the conventional wisdom is that Hart didn’t want to drop the belt to HBK in Montreal, it’s much more complicated than that as Hart describes it.   With the recent release of Shawn Michaels' Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story, fans now have a chance to hear both wrestlers’ side of the story and judge for themselves. As for Hart's assessment of Michaels, it's pretty clear from early on in the book that Bret Hart didn't take a shine to Michaels the person as he recalled a conversation he had with Davey Boy Smith, "Shawn's a decent guy but he's got his little hang-ups." I replied. "Unfortunately, one of them is being an asshole." p. 369.

As he rose from tag team wrestler to singles superstar, Hart has never been afraid about speaking his mind when it comes to his place among the legends of wrestling.  

Hart spares no one’s feelings either when he addresses his opinions of some of wrestling’s biggest stars. Whether he’s lavishing praise or hurling brickbats, the Hitman is brutally frank such as the passage where he shows his complete disdain for the Ultimate Warrior:

As we rounded a corner down a backstage ramp, we came upon the boy and his weary family, who had been moved there so as not to get in the way of Warrior’s entrance.   I thought, That lousy pice of shit.   He’d made them wait all night, unable to summon the compassion to see this real little warrior.   Hogan, Randy, and countless others, including Andre, never hesitated to take the time to meet a sick, dying kid.   My disgust for Warrior magnified a thousand times.   To me he was a coward, a weakling, and a phony hero. P. 258

In some fans’ minds, Hart is probably the president of his own fan club.   While Hitman certainly provides ammunition for anyone who believes this to be true, Hart isn’t afraid to expose his own personal flaws, primarily his infidelities on the road.   Hart talks about the many loves he met while traveling around the globe (by no means should the book be confused with Penthouse Letters though) as he chose the vice of lust over that of the rampant hardcore drug and alcohol abuse he saw with his peers.   While Hart makes it clear that he was no choir boy when it came to drinking and occasional indulgences with drugs, in his mind, the release of a string of endless one night stands (as well as some extramarital relationships) was far less hazardous than the snowstorm of cocaine he saw wrestlers get lost in during the 1980’s nor the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that followed.

As Hart describes the many wrestlers who fell to drug and steroid abuse, he’s quick to point out that the matter was one of personal choice just as much (if not more) than it was of conditions on the road.   Hart vividly describes the hard life of being a professional wrestler, both the brutal physical and mental toll exacted as one works through injuries oftentimes for weeks with no family or friends save for the people working around you.   In the end he uses the words of writer Mark Helprin to sum up his career, “If you want to make it to the top, give yourself up to loneliness, fear nothing.”

Hart’s passion shows through in his writing and it’s clear that the soul of an artist in the ring easily translates to that of an artist on the written page.   His time writing columns for The Calgary Sun has prepared him for a task as daunting as penning a memoir and it shows.   The book conveys Hart’s emotion and despite the book’s length, it never rambles or seems to fall off course.

There are a lot of wrestling books out there by key figures in the industry but very few come close to Hart’s book when it comes to exploring such a large portion of wrestling history with so much detail and personal reflection.  Hart shares an oftentimes brutally frank opinion on a variety of topics whether it’s personal relationships, wrestlers’ ability, or reputations.     Hitman isn’t a light read that you finish in a day but like a well worked broadway, it holds your interest from start to finish.   Regardless of your opinion of Bret Hart the wrestler may be, Hitman is a good read worthy of both your time and your money.

Editor’s Note:   Currently, Hitman has not been released in the United States .  There is talk that the WWE has approached Hart about assisting Hart with promoting the book and distributing it.  Given the book’s less than endearing comments on the WWE and Vince McMahon, one might be skeptical as to how much the book might be edited should it become a WWE Books release.  Ordering the current edition of the book is easier than you think as it’s available at www.amazon.ca no matter where you might live.