Bret Hart's autobiography reviewed

You look at any Top 10 list of Best Wrestlers of All Time and I guarantee you that Bret "The Hitman" Hart will be on each and every list.  It helps that his catchphrase was "I'm the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be." and he lived up to that catchphrase each and every time he stepped in the ring.  He electrified the crowds with amazing matches with such wrestlers like The Dynamite Kid, The British Bulldog, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and baby brother Owen Hart.  He's even on my personal top 5 mingling in with Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.  So when I heard that there he was going to put out his autobiography, I vowed to get it which I eventually did with Santa's help.  So without further delay, let's put The Sharpshooter on Hitman: My Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling.

Yeah, of course it's a life story but it does cover everything and I mean everything.  It starts off with his home life, then climbing the ranks through his dad's, Stu Hart, federation Stampede in Calgary, his life as a WWF Superstar and the flameout that was his WCW days where his career was ended by a misplaced kick by Bill Goldberg.  Then life-after-wrestling where he suffered a stroke after a bike accident but there is a glimmer of light at the end as Hart gets mobility in the left side of his body back and he makes peace with the past.

The thing that really surprised me about this is the depth that this book goes into.  When I say in depth, I mean Bret talks about the matches, where they happened, when they happened and how they happened.  The story has time to breath as everything is laid out in decent detail.  I know I have some problems with other wrestling autobiography's not being detailed enough especially "Superstar" Billy Graham who talking about winning the WWF belt and then two pages later was talking about how he was poor and out of the WWF.....HE HELD THE BELT FOR A YEAR!  But I digress, it's nice to see a fully-detailed account of Bret Hart's life as told by Bret Hart.

Which leads me to another point, its blunt honesty. Bret thinks nothing of just mentioning that he did some drugs, got drunk a few times and cheated on his first wife.  However, his first wife does come across as a bitch so you can kind of see why Bret cheated on her all those times.  He's also not afraid to take his fellow colleagues to task.  There's a few that's obvious that he was going to attack like Shawn Michaels, Triple H and Ultimate Warrior but there's a few that's kinda shocking like Ric Flair and Bad News Brown are also taken to task.  You might consider him a jerk a few times but you will always get why Bret says these things.

If there is one flaw, by the end Bret Hart goes into that cliched old man spiel about "Back in my day..." when he talks about the Attitude Era and beyond.  He goes on to say that it wasn't wrestling, his father was displeased with it and how Owen would've hated it even more after his tragic death.  I get why he would say that since he came from a more realistic time where it was cartoony but not sleazy.  However, I got into wrestling due to the Attitude Era and I kind of was a bit unhappy, but that's just me.

This book is one of the best wrestling autobiographies out there.  The only real comparison it has is Mick Foley's "Have A Nice Day" which is the masterpiece of wrestling autobiographies.  It's a very good read with lots of depth and brutal honesty.  There's plenty of things to learn about the wrestling business.  There's plenty of laughs and it even has a few heartwarming moments.  Bret may have proven he's the best there was, is and ever will be in another medium.

9/10