Kevin sent this in.
Thought I would send in a run down of how the “Evening with Bret Hart” event went this weekend at the Mayfair hotel in London.
First off, the whole event from start to finish was brilliantly organised, and it was evident the promoters wanted to give the fans their moneys worth. The venue was great, and the staff there were very helpful (£400 a night hotel, so I am not surprised!).
The show started well on time, with a montage of footage from The Hitman’s career. About 1/2 an hour after Bret made his entrance to a huge pop from the 200 fans in attendance.
Questions covered include (any quotes are very loosely quoted from memory) :
Bret’s favourite matches – particular focus was given to Wrestlemania vs Steve Austin, where Bret told an interesting story about how Steve had never bladed before that event. When Bret suggested that blood would make the match, and make Steve an instant hero, Austin said “Hell, I’ll give it a go” to which Bret replied “You don’t practice at Wrestlemania. Let me do it for you. If you have second thoughts, make sure you tell me before I go to the trouble of getting the blade out” (Bret had previously explained to us how he used to store the blades under his top lip by his gum!) “Because when I have gone to the trouble of setting it up, you’re going to bleed either way!” He then went onto explain how as they started to build for the blood, Steve threw Bret out of the ring and as he did so said “I’ve changed my mind” to which Bret replied as he was falling over the ropes “Too late!”… I guess you had to be there, but it was very funny.
He also mentioned how he had set the ring bell up very early in the match, and that just before he was supposed to use it, Austin threw him out of the wrong side of the ring, nearly ruining that part of the match. He went onto explain how this match was pivotal to both of their careers, as you could almost hear the crowd falling in love with Austin as Bret was beating the sh*t out of him. The in depth analysis that Bret gave of this match and how he built the psychology just show how great he was.
He also went into great depth about his Summerslam match against Bulldog, and how he had pitched the finish of that match to several others before Davey, but nobody ever took him up on the offer. Then when they saw it they were all like “Ahhh, thats what you meant” and regretted turning him down.
Owen’s ribs – Bret tells us another of Owen’s ribs and how he used to wind up Mr Fuji by calling him at 4 in the morning and calling him a “chinese *****” and offering to fight him down in the lobby. Bret would come back from an event to see Fuji pacing in the lobby of the hotel in his kimono, and realised Owen had gotten him again. Another rib was when Owen used to call Wrestlers at 7am to tell them the hotel had a very early checkout time. Bret recalls seeing Lex Luger down in the hotel lobby with all his bags ready to go at 7:30am. He also told us how he once got Owen back, but Owen never knew. Owen happened to be in the same tanning salon that Bret was in and Owen hadn’t seen him. So Bret pinched his clothes and left him there, and never mentioned it to him.
Owen’s death – When asked if he could have one more moment with Owen what would he say, he replied “I would ask him what he was thinking” and went onto explain how he visited the arena shortly after the accident and actually went up to the spot that Owen fell from. “It was a whole long way down, it was scary”.
Other topics covered included the usual Montreal screwjob questions, how Hogan was a sh*t for not passing the torch after he had promised to do so, which left us with the camera fireball from Fuji, how he was set to go over Ultimate Warrior at the Royal Rumble but ended up facing Razor (which he says was a great match), and how he still thinks some American fans have not forgiven him after the USA vs the rest of the world angle.
After the show they played Wrestling with Shadows whilst everybody who had VIP passes waited for their meet and greet session. Nearly everybody had the VIP, and the organisers did a great job of making sure everybody got seen in a timely fashion and they also went to great trouble to make sure everybody got their free signed photos. Bret greeted everybody with the same smile, and signed anything that was given to him, and everybody got a photo from the photographer, and there was somebody on hand to take their camera if they wished for a photo of their own.
I went to the Sunday event as well, and this was just as well organised, and the questions were different making sure that anybody who did go to both events again had their moneys worth.
All in all, a great experience, well worth every penny. I have never been to an event so well organised. They had the photos uploaded the same night! Normally you would be waiting days if not weeks. There was also none of the pretentious over protective “I am a security guard, so I rule you” type of attitude you normally get at these type of things.
Best meet and greet ever! Photos from the event can be seen at the following link : http://www.flickr.com/photos/90733663@N03/