Michael Landsberg says that everyone knows that Bret had a stroke, but they may not know how serious it was. Ladsberg asks Bret how he's feeling.
Bret feels really good. He's glad to be where's he's at today. He was at the bottom of a really deep hole. He remembers the moments when he had the stroke, there were really dark times for him.
Landsberg: Physically, what were you not able to do when you had the stroke?
He had a little bit of feeling in his toes and the tips of his fingers. He didn't find out that he had a stroke until 4am. Bret said for the next four days he thought he would get up and walk and be back to normal. But the doctor told him that he's looking at six months of recovering.
There were no guarantees that Bret would walk. Doctors didn't want to make big promises. It's a depressing hallway to walk on. He compliments the people in the hospital. He has a whole new found respect for hospital and nurses and health care systems.
Your life was going along pretty normally, one minute you were on top of the world, and the next minute you couldn't turn your hand. Where was the first rise of sunshine after stroke?
Bret says that when he was able to stand on his leg...sort of being able to walk.
The pain in the ring and the pain from the stroke. Can you compare? No comparison. Bret said that this was his biggest battle. It wasn't too much of pain, just the fact that he couldn't do anything. He said if you're a smaller and thinner guy, it's easier to recover at first, you carry less weight. After about three months of recovery...after all that muscle mass, everything starts to comeback, then he starts to recover faster than someone who didn't work out.
Michael Landsberg cherishes the fact that Bret's talking on this show.
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When you realized that you were going back to a reasonable life how'd you feel?
He said the first few weeks when he had the stroke, he tried not to be bitter because he was really bitter and down. Then by time, he started getting little things back....
How would you look at life now then at the peak of when you wrestled?
Bret said that you start to look at what's really important to you. All the hard feelings towards people didn't mean as much anymore.
Who was there for him during the stroke? and who called him from wrestling?
First and foremost, his family, his wife Julie was tremendous, his kids are all great. He then talks about Walter Gretzky. Bret said that Walter did a lot for him. He appreciates every bit of what Walter did. Roddy piper was another one. A lot of the Canadian wrestlers, Benoit, Jericho, Edge, all called him.. Undertaker called him. Old friends called him. He said maybe wrestlers didn't call him much after he left wrestling because they didn't want to open that can of worms.
Talks a little about his family. Bret said when he suffered the stroke, he scratched a couple of names off his visitors list, people he didn't want to see like his siter Ellie (Neidhart's ex-wife) and Diana. He never forgave them.
Landsberg says that Bret is the best there is, the best there was and we can say the best there ever will. When they return from the break, they will talk about Vince McMahon.
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Bret Hart talks about Vince McMahon.
Landsberg: "Sitting here in 2003, do you still hate Vince McMahon?"
Bret says "no", hate is a big word. He thinks he moved on. He certainly does NOT forgive Vince for what he did. They(WWF) tried to minimize it as if it was nothing. It was never about business it was about being dishonest and unfair.
When he had his stroke, Vince called him. Bret was such a wreck at that time. He thinks it was a nice gesture on Vince's part. Bret said that his friend was working on a coffee table book for him at that time. They were talking about pictures, and Bret told his friend that he didn't have access to any of his archives. When Vince called, that was the first thing Bret asked him. Vince said "have your friend call me, anything he wants". Bret said he wanted to find a little closure too. He doesn't want to carry the bitterness towards Vince forever. He still doesn't know what happened with his brother Owen. No one ever justified what happened. Once he kind of realized that there is nothing he can do to get back to that... he had enough weight on his shoulders too. Bret mentions that he has nephews in his family that wrestle and he didn't want them to feel that they couldn't go wrestle for Vince because of him.
Landsberg: Knowing what you know now, if they were your kids, would you try to keep them away from wrestling?
Bret says he tries to steer his kids away from it. He'd rather have his kids wrestling than doing dry wall, not that he has something dry wall.
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Landsberg says that Off The Record owes Bret Hart a lot. Bret drew them an audience. Bret said that one is happier to be here more than him.
Labdsberg said that Bret educated people on bravory.
Discusses the Vince/Bret meeting in Florida.
Vince thought that Bret was behind the Owen lawsuit. Bret said that he wasn't. He stood by the lawsuit, but that's it.
When they met, Vince gave him a big hug. Bret says that in his WWF days, Vince was like a father to him. He said there was really bad judgment on Vince's parts in 1997. But he thought it was time to heal the wounds. Vince made a gesture and Bret made a gesture back. Bret wanted peace. They talked about maybe doing a DVD on his greatest matches.
Landsberg asks Bret if he would come back, not as a wrestler.
Bret responds and says: "Not a chance."
What about if Vince McMahon came to you with a thank you tour, saying "you know what? We didn't say goodbye correctly."
Bret had thought of it before and maybe if the audience was there.. he has to look at him from his side too. Bret wants to be remembered for his contribution. Vince had sealed everything Bret did for the company, and Bret doesn't want that, he would like to be remembered.
Talks about Curt Hennig
Bret said it was upsetting. Bret said that Curt was on his list of top five best friends in wrestling. Bret can't believe it happened. Bret said people kept asking him if he could have one guy to wrestle in a last match, who would it be? And Bret has always said Curt Hennig. Bret really climbed up in wrestling against Curt. (Talks about SummerSlam 1991) If anyone knows the real story, Curt hurt his back really bad and alot of wrestlers would have no-showed that night, but Curt Hennig did.
Credit: Paul Nemer of WrestleView.com
***To Read Part 2 Click Here ***
