Wrestling has had its ups and downs over the years, but it wasn’t too long ago it was still a protected commodity, meaning kayfabe was in full force and wrestlers did everything they could to make the scripted matches and animosity look as real as possible.
Both the WWE and WCW blurred the line between fiction and reality, and when Vince McMahon masterminded the Montreal Screwjob, a documentary film caught the behind the scenes action.
Bret Hart’s Wrestling With Shadows Story
Wrestling With Shadows is a feature length documentary directed by Paul Jay and what made this a fresh documentary was how Bret Hart gave them near complete, if not complete, access to his world behind the scenes.
They followed Bret for a year, filming behind the scenes to give fans a never before seen glimpse into the inner workings of one of the world’s top promotions at the time.
Story behind the story
Released on December 20, 1998, the film is mainly known for Vince and Bret’s back and forth, but there’s a touching behind the scenes story Bret shared in his book Hitman:
“I had just moved, alone, into an old stone ranch house planted on the edge of a hill in the west end of Calgary, overlooking the Rocky Mountains; because I had to travel so much, it made the most sense for the all the kids to live with Julie. I took the opportunity to invite Owen to come over to see my new place as well as watch a rough cut of Paul’s documentary, now titled Wrestling with Shadows.
“I was worried that my dad came across as too harsh in the doc when I talked about him often stretching me hard enough to pop the blood vessels in my eyes and about my life passing before my eyes while he smothered me in various submission holds.
“I was relieved when he told me not to worry because it was all true. The thing that upset Owen was when, in the documentary, I compared losing to Shawn with blowing my brains out. My brother admonished me.” – Bret Hart.
Throughout his book, Bret talked a lot about his family and how he never wanted to disrespect his dad or anyone else and always tried to do what was best for everyone and the business.
He’s also shared some great stories about Owen and Stu, but this is one of the fun ones where Owen sounds like the older brother and we can feel the love they had for each other.
What do you think about Wrestling With Shadows? Let us know in the comments below.
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