Bret Hart, accompanied to the ring by a cat?
It could have happened.
"The Hitman" has been outspoken about his WCW run not living up to expecations. Specifically, Hart told Fightful in a recent interview that not having creative direction in storylines or promos was a detriment to him. He recalled one instance where he just talked about something that entertained him, and it happened to impress WCW brass.
"I had nothing to talk about. I’m going out and I’m ranting about WCW fans, they have no respect," I’m sitting there going, ‘What else do I got to say? I don’t have anything to say. I don’t know who I’m fighting or where I’m going, what I’m doing.’ I remember I got really frustrated, I went out and talked about my cat. I talked about my cat was my only fan, Smokey the cat. My cat was named Smokey. But, I remember it was the stupidest interview ‘cause I had nothing to talk about. It was almost sarcastic to make it clear to Bischoff in the back, ‘I don’t have anything to talk about.’ The best I can come up with is my cat. I just remember when I came back to the dressing room, Eric Bischoff goes, ‘I loved the part about the cat.’ He goes, ‘I loved it.’ I remember scratching my head and thinking, ‘For the money these guys are paying me, they’ve sure got some stupid people here.’"
It went a lot further than a promo about a cat. Hart pitched a full on storyline ang angle with the cat. No word on if it was going to be Smokey, but he went the extra mile just to see if it was something WCW would actually to.
"I actually remember giving him an idea about the cat, putting the cat carrier and having the cat in my corner all the time. He said he loved it. It never went anywhere, like everything in WCW. Yeah. I actually had an idea where the cat, I’d have a real cat all the time in my corner, and then for one of the matches I would put a stuffed toy cat in my cat carrier and I would have a zipper on it. I would stick the insides of the cat with a brick and then when I was in peril in the match I would reach in, say, a boston crab or something like that, or some kind of a hold where I’m in jeopardy. I would open my cage door, reach through, grab the cat by the tail, swing it and hit the wrestler over the head with the brick and win the match with a stuffed cat with a brick. But, I remember it was almost like a rib to see if they would just do it. Actually, to be honest, it would have been better than anything they did have me do at that time. Anyway, that never came to fruition. Sometimes you gotta just make up stuff on the go all the time," Hart told Fightful.
It didn't happen. Such is life.
"Better off with Teddy, anyway," Bret Hart said.
Bret Hart appears on a new episode of Corner Gas Animated on CTV Comedy on Monday, October 26. In America, you can see the first two seasons of Corner Gas Animated on IMDBtv. Our full interview with Bret "The Hitman" Hart is above. He also has a new 35-part web series titled "Confessions of the Hitman" that you can subscribe to on his site.
