Saturday, August 23, 1997
Cheap shots everywhere
By BRET "THE HIT MAN HART"
For the Calgary Sun
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Since I'm writing this as five-time WWF champion, I think it should
be clear to everyone -- except maybe the Americans -- that my `don't
take any crap, take prisoners' attitude has been quite effective. How
many times have I said that anyone who puts their nose in my business
is going to get it broken, huh? Well, that applies to the WWF's red,
white, and blue suits too.
They're more notorious for cheap shots than Stone Cold on his best
worst day!
What's that J.R. and McMahon and Pettengill said in commentary
about The Hitman being the `unprecedented' five-time WWF World
Champion? Fact is, it has been done before by only one guy. That guy
was Hulk Hogan. Just because they don't want to acknowledge
Hogan, since he sold out to work for somebody else, don't go
lessening my achievement becaue of it.
They called Hogan the icon! The figurehead! Hero of the WWF!
What do they call me?
A traitor and an egomaniac! How twisted is that?!
And then there's WWF Magazine writer, Vic Venom. I've had it with
this guy's know it all attitude. There have been lots of times I've just
ignored nonsensicle things he's written about me but not after someone
showed me the October issue of WWF Raw Magazine. Venom says,
`Damn, I'm really sick of this story. I'm sick of talking about it, and I
sure as hell am sick of writing about it."
What story is he talking about? Of course, the one about Shawn and I
having a little tussle in the locker room last June. With monthly
pay-per-views isn't there enough action in the WWF to keep you on
the edge of your chair without dredging up old news from last June?
You're just one of Vince's instigators. The very comment, `Bret never
liked Shawn Michaels' is absurd.
Go back and look at the interviews leading up to Wrestlemania 12. I
said over and over that I had respect for Shawn and that one day he
could be the guy to walk in my boots. When Shawn won the WWF
Title he returned the compliment saying, "I will carry this belt with the
same dignity and class that the Hitman always did." It was only when
Shawn realized that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't hack the
responsibilities of being Champion that Shawn started acting like a
degenerate -- which Shawn admitted was the way he was acting. I
saw it as a big loss to the profession and actually I hope Michaels can
get himself together enough to be the competitor he once was. You
write that Shawn crossed a line by talking about personal family things
on TV.
Venom, you are the one who crossed that line by writing, `...(Bret)
hated the fact that his kids liked Shawn...'
Whatever is between me and my kids is none of your business and it
is inappropriate for you to write about my personal family matters. The
truth -- if you care about the truth at all, is that I respect that my kids
were astute enough to pick up on Shawn's talent and that they also
picked up on the fact that Shawn has become a jerk. Everything you
wrote about the deal I made, with McMahon, to come back to the
WWF, saying, `Bret was offered a truckload of money from our
friends down in Atlanta so Vince McMahon ... offered him more', is
just plain wrong! The one thing you did get right is when you wrote, "...
McMahon realized that Bret Hart was the cornerstone of his
company...".
