Bret Hart's story is easily the greatest wrestling story ever told.
It is in essence an historical document of the business as told by one who has lived through and survived (barely) changes, events and even eras in the industry few foreseen before their occurrence and fewer still adapted too afterwards.
Obviously this was particularly true for his famous wrestler, trainer, promoter and father Stu Hart, an massive figure in wrestling history who was to struggle financially and personally as a new era of wrestling, masterminded by Vince McMahon spread across North America.
Its amazing to think how much Bret Hart has seen during his time in wrestling.
As a young man with his father, he was at the same table where all the heads of the old territories bickered and heckled over what to do in the face of young upstart Vince McMahon Jr's national expansion from his fathers New York territory.
Then followed his early role as a WWF jobber riding the crest of an unprecedented Hulkamania boom in 80s pro wrestling.
Canadian Stampede wrestling where Bret started out was to succumb to Vince McMahon, Bret Hart's new boss, along with all the other territories that dared stand against him one by one; leaving Bret and wrestling's future forever intertwined with Vince McMahon.
Bret witnessed the end of his father's world of pro wrestling while initially hanging on to the coattails of its WWF successor. Many, like his brother Bruce were left behind and forever embittered.
For Bret, shoot/carnival style wrestling finally died however the day Stu Hart died. Stampede and others were replaced first by cartoon wrestling (hence the title of his book) and later by a sleazy, non-sensical and ultimately personally unfulfilling style of wrestling product (personified by Vince Russo) that he himself never quite adapted to as part of WCW.
Finally the Monday Night Wars that Hart first had fought under the WWF flag and later the WCW flag and the subsequent demise of WCW was to be the final act in Bret's 24 year long career. Crash TV booking had reduced WCW to a rabble wrestling promotion by 2000 and just under a year later WWF bought out his former employers.
Hart himself admits WCW never used him properly so it is fair to say his work in WCW can safely be ignored when determining his legacy.
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