Bret Hart Talks About Forgiving Shawn Michaels?, Staying In Touch With Vince & More

Bret Hart, the legendary wrestler and author of the fantastic book Hitman joined John Kline for a 25-minute interview on Elevation Radio Friday night. Joining Kline live from the island paradise of Hawaii with birds chirping in the background and sunshine raining down, Bret spoke about many topics including the process he used to recall information for his book, his experiences as a young wrestler in hostile Puerto Rico, his fantastic in-ring chemistry with the likes of Curt Hennig, the Undertaker and Steve Austin, his current relationship with Vince McMahon, his thoughts on today's WWE product, and whether he would ever be willing to talk to Shawn Michaels again. Bret spoke about how the reason his book is more accurate than most other wrestlers' accounts is because throughout his career he recorded a collection of audio tapes in order to document what exactly happened during his career and to keep all of facts straight. He cites Tom Billington's book as an example of an account with glowing inaccuracies: "Some of these wrestlers books, you read these stories and I can assure you they're really wrong??I can cite way too many examples in Dynamite Kid's book for example where you go 'that's not even close to what really happened like the real stories and stuff, he was just so muddled at the end that he just had stories mixed together?..but in my case I can say when you're reading a lot of the little stories in there and a lot of the little incidents that happened when I tell you who was in the room, that's exactly who was in the room, because that's exactly what I would have told myself, like that's the reason I made the tapes, to be really accurate."

Bret discussed his time in the original Hart Foundation and how being paired with Jim Neidhart helped save his career and helped the Hitman launch into super stardom: "I don't think I would have made it, if it hadn't been for Jim Neidhart. I think I would have never gotten a chance?..to show what my talents were. Being tagged up with Jim allowed me to almost sort of hide behind him and get my foot in the door and work with a lot of big guys who weren't always so cooperative to work with,??in many ways the tag of me and Jim being mixed together was perfect. And it gave me a chance to grow and get my confidence."

Bret discussed his current relationship and whether he has any sort of communication with Vince McMahon today: "Generally we're not in contact with one another, but if either one of us is trying to get ahold of each other we can do it easy enough. The last time I spoke to Vince we were more than cordial. He was really quite grateful that I spoke up a little bit about Chris Benoit and what happened there. ?..I don't know for sure how he liked my book or not . . .I wasn't especially worried about how it affected Vince or offended Shawn (HBK) or offended (Hulk) Hogan. All these people said enough about me and it was time to tell how it was from my perspective. I think Vince is OK with me, but who knows?"

Bret on whether he has any future plans on appearing on WWE television: "I try to cooperate with them when I can, I think its good to be on better terms with them (WWE), but I have no plans at all to appear on any TV show or pay per view for them, ever. I don't ever want to be in a position where I have to work and actually expect to make a check from them or contract. I've already made a contract with them that they broke, and I don't think you can really do business with them after that???I don't want to be a character in wrestling at all. I don't want to do that again anymore."

Hart on whether he watches the current wrestling TV Product: "I do try and watch it. I think Randy Orton is pretty good. The little thing they're doing with Shane and Stephanie and everything, I'm kind of liking it so far. It seems interesting enough . . . There's a few guys out there that are wrestling pretty good. I think they can do a better job with their storylines, but they seem to be getting a little better lately then they were a few months back."

Bret on his backstage meeting with Shawn Michaels following the incident in Montreal: "I walked up to him (HBK) thinking there were two choices. Kick him in the face while he as bent over and knock him out cold, because I had broke my hand, but that wasn't the right thing to do, because you have to know. You have to be 100 percent sure. Because sometimes when you do something like that you have to know for sure. I really knew there was a 99 percent chance, but maybe there was some chance he had nothing to with all that. He threw the belt down and said he wasn't going to go out on TV the next day?..I offered my arm, stuck my hand out and he started crying. He (HBK) felt like such a coward, and he doesn't write about that in his book, but you can ask Undertaker about any of that."

On the possibility of ever meeting and clearing the air with Shawn Michaels, if HBK ever approached him about a meeting: "?.I'm at that stage in my life where I'd probably hear him out maybe, I don't know. Sometimes you're better off, you don't want to be carrying around a lot anguish, you know, bitterness or anything. Sometimes you're better off letting it go, I don't know what it would take to do that??.I just kind of prefer to stay away from it."

Other topics we covered include: Ultimate Warrior, his willingness to help his younger relatives and friends like TJ Wilson (a/k/a Tyson Kidd) or Harry Smith, the Calgary Hitmen, Bruce Springsteen, Hart's acting career, and the possibility of trying to get "Hitman" made into a movie or a TV Series and his recovery from the stroke.