Bret 'Hitman' Hart, The Best There Is, The Best There Was, THere Best There Ever Will Be is the long-awaited Bret Hart documentary/collection. Featuring a fantastic two hour documentary on his life and his career in Stampede Wrestling, the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) and the defunct World Championship Wrestling company. There's also 18 full matches, apparently hand-picked by Hart himself and various other bonus features.
The Little Things
First thing you'll notice is the presentation. This DVD has been lovingly put together and every aspect just screams quality. From the great packaging, featuring clippings of Bret Hart match reviews and vintage pictures, down to the slickly produced menus and and artwork (curiously young and chubby Bret Hart on the cover). The footage on all the discs are great, with crisp, sharp video and no blurring of the WWF logo which seems to be on most modern WWE DVDs.
Disc One
The first thing you'll probably want to watch is the main documentary. It opens with Vince McMahon thanking Bret for being man enough to put their differences aside and contribute to making the set. From there we go into Bret's live story. Two quite annoying things throughout the programme. The first is the banal music they have playing behind every single interview. It's just bad enough and loud enough to annoy you, but thankfully not distract you. The other is the narrator, who has a really annoying and insincere voice. It's probably just me being picky, but it would've been nice to have a recognisable voice doing the narration. Still, that's about the only two complaints I can think of. I won't go into great detail about what goes on in the programme, but I'll just go through a brief rundown. It begins with Bret's early years and his amateur wrestling career. After accomplishing all he could in amateur wrestling he decided to try his hand at professional wrestling in his father's Canadian-bases organisation, Stampede Wrestling.
Bret was a hit in the company, at both tag and singles level, capturing all the major titles and meeting up with the man who would become his (and many other wrestlers') idol, The Dynamite Kid. There's lots (at times too much) of footage from Stampede and the footage whilst a little grainy, still holds up well.
Moving on, we see footage from Bret's start in the WWF. Vince McMahon bought out Stampede Wrestling, mostly to get his hands on the young talent there, such as Dynamite Kid, the British Bulldog and of course, Bret Hart. Things didn't quite go according to plan at first, as the WWF wanted to stick Bret with a cowboy character. Bret hated the idea (and hates everything to do with cowboys) and suggested to be teamed up with Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart and Jimmy Hart to form the Hart Foundation. They eventually relented and the Hart Foundation was born.
The Hart Foundation quickly went on to become one of the most successful teams in the company. Having great matches with everyone from the British Bulldogs, to Demolition, the Hart Foundation set a high standard. After winning the tag titles several times, it was decided to break up the team to make Hart a singles superstar. This is what the main bulk of the programme concentrates on. We see his rise as Intercontinental Champion, eventual WWF Champion and details on all his famous feuds. Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels are the two feuds covered in most detail and there's lots of insight from people all over WWE from Christian, Jim Ross, Steve Austin, Mean Gene Okerlund and many more, whilst Bret fills in the gaps in between footage. Other topics covered are his rise as an international superstar (Hart had founds all over the world, from Germany to India) and the famous USA Vs Canada feud.
Eventually we come to what might be the most interesting topic, that being the events of 1997, at the Survivor Series. I'm assuming most people reading this will be familiar with the topic, but for the rest of you I'll briefly explain. In 1997 Hart was set to join the WWF's competition, WCW (with Vince McMahon's blessing). However, before he could leave, he had to drop the World Title to his real life enemy, Shawn Michaels. Bret was unwilling to do it at the date requested and he and McMahon agreed to a finish that would enable him to lose the title at another time. Unbeknowst to him, McMahon had planned to screw Hart out of the title, and during the match, Vince McMahon came to the ring just in time to see the referee declare the match finished, with Bret seemingly a loser (to his very own submission move, no less). The ref and Shawn Michaels (with his title) quickly escaped the arena, and Bret went into a rage, spitting at (and later attacking) Vince McMahon and trashing the ringside area.
There's much more to the story and you can find more in-depth coverage elsewhere (Bret's official site would be the best place to look). McMahon and Hart both give their opinions on what happened, with both men remaining pretty stubborn about what they had and what they would've done.
After this the death of Bret's brother, Owen Hart, who died performing a stunt at a WWF event, is covered. Then the story of Bret's troubled and ultimately career-ending time in World Championship Wrestling.
The DVD ends on mostly a high note, with Bret acknowledging all the pain and heartache he's suffered, but also the good times and the wonderful people he'd met along the way. After suffering a major stroke in 2002, Bret's now got his life back on track, along with a new wife.
Overall it's a very well made and interesting production. Bret's not afraid to mince his words and he comes across pretty well, considering how much heartache he's had in his career. Sometimes he speaks a little too highly of himself (modesty seems to be a foreign word to him) but he does give credit along the way, from the Japanese tag team that showed him the ropes, to people like Rick Rude. Thankfully the Montreal incident isn't covered in too much detail (there's already Bret's DVD, a book and various WWF rehashes of the event) and covering it in any more detail would probably lower the tone of an otherwise fairly positive programme. There's little bitterness from either side and you come away from the DVD with the knowledge that Bret was well respected by his peers, his fans and ultimately that he is the best there is, there best there was and the best there ever will be...
Extras
There's various extra interview snippets covering diverse topics like learning his finishing move, the Sharpshooter; talking about his family; remembering pranks his brother would pull and much more. I suppose they're the deleted scenes, but they're just as interesting as anything in the main feature. Alongside these are a tribute video to the friends and family in the wrestling business, including Rick Rude, The Big Boss Man and Miss Elizabeth.
Matches
There's two matches squeezed onto this disc, both Hart Foundation matches. The first is a splendid match against the British Bulldogs from 1985 and a fun match against the Killer Bees from 1986. It's good, early footage from the seminal team and features commentary from the late team of Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes.
Discs Two And Three
The other two discs contain the rest of matches picked by Bret. There's a match from very early in his career against Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat, from 1986. A good match, if a little on the long side. There's also a curiously silent match against 'The Million Dollar Man' Ted Dibiase. It's a good match, but the lack of commentary is a little jarring. A pair of Hart Foundation matches versus the Rockers (featuring a young Shawn Michaels, who would go on to be Bret's biggest enemy both in and out of the ring) and a WWF Tag Team Championship match from 1991 against the Nasty Boys.
Next up is a couple of classic Intercontinental Championship battles against Mr Perfect (with fantastic commentary and an amusingly short interview with Bret's father, Stu Hart) and the 1992 match against The British Bulldog from Summerslam, in Wembley Stadium. This is the highlight of the set for me, as I was lucky enough to be there in person and it's been years since I've seen the match (and it's still as great, thirteen years later).
The Bret/Owen rivalry is covered, with their Wrestlemania X match and a WWF Title match from 1993. Their cage match is curiously missing, unfortunately. Other highlights include the Wrestlemania 13 submission match against Steve Austinm which is one of the best Wrestlemania matches of all time (and easily the match of the night at the time). A match against The Undertaker in Birmingham from 1997 is included. It's a decent match, but nothing special. The final highlight is the fantastic and moving Owen Hart Tribute match pitting Bret Hart versus 'The Crippler' Chris Benoit.
There's a few odd picks on here, including a terrible match against Diesel (apparently it's one of Bret Hart's personal favourite matches, so who am I to judge?), a decent, if missable match against Bam Bam Bigelow and the seemingly random inclusion of a match against the Japanese wrestler Hakushi.
Conclusion
Whilst there are a few dodgy matches on the set, the majority are fantastic and still hold up today. It would've been nice to see some more WCW footage (although he hardly had many classic matches or feuds there) and there are literally dozens more matches that could've been released. Maybe the rumoured volume two of Bret Hart matches will be released some day.
With a fantastic main programme, a load of great matches, some fun interviews and easter eggs and fantastic packaging, picture, sound and design, this is easily the best DVD that World Wrestling Entertainment has ever released.
Go buy it.
More details
Story
Good
Characters / Performances
Outstanding
Special Effects
Standard
Soundtrack
Weak
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Not applicable
Value for Money
Excellent
What format are you reviewing?
DVD
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
