Bret Hart Remembers Failing His First WWE Audition

Bret Hart is a two-time WWE Hall of Famer and is widely regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers of all-time. 

The Hitman had a long and successful career in WWE, but he apparently had something of an inauspicious debut. 

In his first WWE match, Bret teamed with The Dynamite Kid to defeat Troy Alexander and Iron Mike Sharpe on the August 29, 1984 episode of Maple Leaf Wrestling. 

Though victorious, Hart said on an episode of his new series Confessions of the Hitman that his performance was poor and that Vince McMahon was left unimpressed by what he saw. 

Per Bret: 

Vince McMahon saw me one time after I had my knee surgery. And I was told not to wrestle for six months, but six weeks later, I’m wrestling. I told them, ‘I just had knee surgery. I can’t do anything’. They said, ‘Don’t worry about it. All you’ve got to do is stand on the apron and do a couple of moves’. They put me in a tag team match with Dynamite Kid and I had been off for six months before my knee got operated on. And then, they told me not to worry too much. Just go out there and get my face on TV.

We’re two new guys from Calgary, Dynamite and me, and we had the match and I didn’t do very well at all. My timing was all off and I kind of messed up something in the ending of the match, but nobody really noticed, but I know when I came back to the dressing room, Vince McMahon couldn’t wait to shake Dynamite Kid’s hand and praise, and slap him on the back, and tell him how great the match was, ‘Beautiful stuff’. 

And I remember when I walked by, he didn’t even look at me. I think I failed my audition. 

You can see highlights of the match in question below.