The Stu Hart Interview
By GREG OLIVER --
SLAM! Sports
On Wednesday, November 26, 1997 Greg Oliver sat down for a one
hour chat with the legendary
Stu Hart at the
Hart House in Calgary. The first part of the interview is mainly
questions sent in by readers of SLAM! Wrestling. The second part is Stu
remembering wrestlers of days gone past for our
Canadian Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Highlighted names will take you to the corresponding page in the Hall of
Fame.
As always, we welcome your feedback. Send email to
goliver@canoemail.com. My apologies for
not keeping track of who sent in which question.
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Greg Oliver with Stu Hart in The Dungeon. While you can't read it, all of the weights have 'HART' inscribed on them.
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OLIVER: What do you think of
Bret in the ring?
STU: Bret's one of the better wrestlers in the industry,
proven by his box-office appeal. The fans love him and he's very
believable, reasonably serious wrestler. Not too much nonsense with him.
He comes to wrestle and he wrestles.
OLIVER: Does he remind you of yourself when you were
wrestling?
STU: I never relied on a lot of fantasy stuff. I did
pretty believable work. For the most part the wrestlers and the fans
believed I was giving all-out effort. I could always draw money at the
box office that way too. Any of the wrestlers that worked for me, I
tried to instill right in them sincere hard work without not too much
fantasy. They're leaving it to the imagination.
OLIVER: With the recent events with Bret leaving the WWF,
people want to know how you feel about that for one.
STU: I felt bad about that. Bret's been with them ... I
was bought out by the WWF in the early 80s and I sent them the best
talent I had here. Then I sent them Bret and
Owen and the Bulldog and the Dynamite Kid. Even
the
Rougeau boys were working for me then.
And several others that were in this territory. So there was a pretty
good nucleus of believable workers coming from here.
OLIVER: Do you remember anything happening like that when
you were a promoter? Like what McMahon did to take the belt away from
Bret.
STU: Well, there's been chicanery, slight-of-hand tricks
going on in wrestling for years, I suppose. Since Shakespeare's day.
Since the gladiator days when fellows were wrestling lions and stuff. I
even wrestled a tiger, so I'm right in there. I even wrestled a bear a
couple of time.
OLIVER: Is it the type of thing where someone might get
blacklisted?
STU: Usually they blacklist themselves by their conduct
where they get a reputation of not being reliable. In sports, your
reputation means a lot to you because they don't trust you or figure
you're putting all out, you'll fall by the wayside.
OLIVER: Who were some of the guys who were blacklisted
when you were a promoter?
STU: There were several. I wouldn't say blacklisted.
There were people who were unreliable, couldn't keep their appointments
or trying to be too cute, they soon left on the side. Passed them by.
Then if your reputation gets established as unreliable then nobody wants
to invest in your talents even though you might be pretty talented. But
if you're unreliable, then they'll try to get someone reliable who
wasn't so spectacular maybe.
OLIVER: Now that Bret is gone, do you expect to continue
your relationship with the WWF -- showing up at occasional
pay-pay-views, TV shows?
STU: I don't think I'll be too active with them. I'd have
to express myself if I was talking to Vince McMahon, whom I've known
since he was a young fellow. I would have to express myself, my feelings
anyway. I thought it was a rather a cheap way of getting the belt on
Michaels. I don't think it hurt Bret as much as it hurt the business. If
they take a title that's supposed to be worth something and then trick a
guy out of it, I think that does injustice to the wrestling business.
OLIVER: Do you expect to go to some WCW shows then?
STU: I haven't got any plans to go to the WWF or WCW
shows. Right now I'm, I wouldn't say phasing myself out of the business,
I'm at the age where I don't want to be traveling around a lot.
OLIVER: What about if they came to Calgary or Edmonton?
Would you try to go to those shows?
STU: If they gave me an invitation and wanted me to come
along I would, depending on the situation, I would try to comply. If my
kids were on the show, or possibly a close friend, we'd go down and see
them. I've been in the business for virtually all my life. I started in
New York in 1946 and I wrestled all over the United States and Canada. I
have many friends, both promoters and wrestlers.
OLIVER: Who were some of your best friends when you were
wrestling?
STU: I knew Buddy Rogers. I knew Al Mills. I wrestled Lou
Thesz. I wrestled all those fellers. There was Orville Brown. There was
Danny McShane. I know Leroy McGuirk, the champion out of Tulsa.
OLIVER: Do you still keep in touch with any of them?
STU: The odd one once in a while. I visited the Funks a
few months ago down in Amarillo.
OLIVER: Was that the Bret versus Terry Funk match?
STU: Yeah, that was the Bret versus Terry match. That was
good match. Dory was one of the better wrestlers in the industry at one
time. Terry was a little more bombastic than Dory. I never ever saw Dory
ever in a bad match. You could give him a broomstick and he'd have a
good match with it.
OLIVER: What kind of position are
Davey Boy, Jim Neidhart and Owen in at the
moment.
STU: There's under contract to Vince for some few months,
or a year or two maybe. I don't know quite what the extent of the
contracts are. It's fairly hard to jump ship and Vince has been proving
himself reasonably reliable with them. Once you establish yourself as
not being a man of your word you lose some credibility too. I think
Vince enhanced his position with that situation down in Montreal. I
thought that was a disgrace. When you take the Canadian flag, and you
have it black arted. You saw that?
OLIVER: Yeah, on RAW.
STU: Didn't you find that disgusting?
OLIVER: It was a bit much.
STU: I know if I did it I would be ... they would take me
out right now and put me away. And I couldn't blame you if you did it.
To think that this fellow [Shawn Michaels] did that on international
television that went all over the country ...
OLIVER: Did a horrible thing to our flag.
STU: Awful thing. He made out to even have an orgasm in
the flag. He blew his nose in the flag and threw the flag on the ground.
I was amazed that he got out of there without being lynched.
OLIVER: What are you most proud of that your son Bret has
accomplished?
STU: Well Bret is one of the most popular wrestlers I
know and he's been popular even since he was in high school. He was a
good athlete in football and high school sports. And a damned good
amateur wrestler. And Owen was National Collegiate Amateur champion. So
they could wrestle if they had to, and didn't have to worry about some
high school kid catching them and hitting them.
OLIVER: So you'd say that you're proud of their amateur
background?
STU: I'm proud of their amateur background and their
professional background. In fact Owen can do anything that can be done
in wrestling. He's an exceptionally talented wrestler. I see him make
those belly-to-belly suplexes. You had to be a damned good amateur
wrestler to do that type of work. They wrestle snug enough that it looks
quite believable. Bret may use that use slogan 'The Best there was, the
best there is', but I think he's justified in using it because he
doesn't do anything that embarrasses the sport.
OLIVER: What do you feel about some of the submission
wrestling, like the UFC and Ken Shamrock?
STU: Ken Shamrock, I've worked out with him just a little
bit when he was in Calgary here. I think he's quite knowledgeable, like
that belly-to-belly suplex. It's funny. Submission wrestling is not that
spectacular. I could demonstrate submission wrestling on you now, and I
wouldn't have to be turning somersaults in the air. I just keep my body
close to yours and when I finished with your tail would be close to ass
and you'd be saluting me when you went by. I would make a Christian of
you when I finished with you. A couple of minutes with you, and I'd have
you believing in what I was doing.
