Bret "Hitman" Hart began his career in his father's Stampede Wrestling promotion, before achieving global superstardom in the World Wrestling Federation in the '80's and '90's. His no-nonsense attitude, and the legitimacy that came with being a Hart Brother from the infamous family Dungeon enabled Bret to bypass the cartoon gimmicks that were handed out to his WWF colleagues. And so, while his peers on the WWF roster were saddled with ludicrous personas (such as the gifted Terry Taylor being made to cluck and strut as The Red Rooster), Bret was able to sidestep all of the cornball nonsense and continually be presented as a serious athlete. Forget the multiple championship wins, being presented simply as a wrestler in Vince McMahon's 80's universe,was perhaps Bret's greatest accomplishment. That being said, even a guy as respected and decorated as 'the Hitman' would still occasionally find himself dragged into craziness from time to time involving video games, love songs, cartoons and even pirates. Yes, pirates. Let's take a look at ten times that even "The Best There Ever Will Be" couldn't stop himself from being involved in wrestling's lunatic side.
10. Greased Lightning At The Slammy Awards
The Academy Awards could avoid future ratings slumps by learning a thing or two from the 1987 Slammy Awards. Face it, promoters, if your prestigious award ceremony doesn't include Harley Race and Jim Duggan throwing live chickens at each other, Rick Rude busting into an impromptu striptease, and Randy Savage wearing a sleeveless tuxedo, then nobody wants to watch. The most memorable segments of the Slammy Awards were the musical numbers, in which WWF wrestlers were forced onto the stage to sing and mime to tracks from WWF's Piledriver album. If you ever wanted to see The Ultimate Warrior dancing in full bricklayers' gear (including hard hat, jeans and sledgehammer) or Jake Roberts and Brutus Beefcake playing trumpets while Vince McMahon hollers through Stand Back, then look this one up on the WWE Network immediately. During one musical performance, The Honky Tonk Man belted out his legendary entrance theme live, flanked by a pink cadillac and several twirling "Honkettes". Suddenly the curtain parted, and Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart bizarrely doo-wopped onto the stage in a hideous strut, before Irish whipping one another across the stage. The Anvil finished up on all fours, just in time for Bret to leap over him and come up squatting, bouncing and clicking his fingers like a pink, bizarro version of Danny Zuko. Bret's Slammy humiliation wouldn't end there however, as he spent the rest of the evening in the audience wearing a pink tuxedo, before finally being dragged back on stage to provide backing vocals for If You Only Knew. As Bret recalled in his book, "There we were, actually singing about how our destinies belonged to Vince." Poor Bret. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNiUUdHq9gw
It ain't easy! Former Manager of Ultimate Warrior's "WarriorWeb", Former Senior Editor of Vince Russo's "Pyro and Ballyhoo", and wrestling fan for over twenty five years. Daniel's favourite wrestling memory is being in Wembley Stadium with his Grandad for SummerSlam '92.
