Owen's Death Still Haunts Bret
Owen's
death still haunts Hitman
By JOE
WARMINGTON -- Toronto Sun
His voice is
soft and quiet, if not sombre, as he speaks. "I
am down," Bret Hart admits. You can see it in
his eyes. The guy's hurting. He's just finished
his appearance on Open Mike with Mike Bullard
when he says he has "a lot a headaches." It's
been that way since he was kicked accidentally
in the head by fellow WCW star
Goldberg.
But the true source of his
depression surrounds last May's tragic death of
his wrestler brother Owen. "It's an on-going,
constant anguish," the proud Calgarian tells me.
"There is pain. It has messed everything up."
Despite that, he tries to fulfill his
obligations to his fans and to his publisher to
promote his new book, The Best There is, the
Best There Was and the Best There Ever Will Be,
which by the way he wrote with The Sun's own
sports talent, Perry Lefko.
The nice
thing about writing any kind of story about The
Hitman is you know millions of people are going
to read it. With the advent of the Internet,
anything on Canadian stars like Hart, Wayne
Gretzky, Shania Twain or Bryan Adams seems to
draw e-mails from all over the world.
But Bret tells me, after months of dizziness,
he's thinking this "may be the end of my
career."
So the big question is what's
next for Bret Hart? He's not sure himself,
although he admits there are movie deals and
other opportunities in the works. Perhaps he
could follow the footsteps of another famous
wrestler and enter the arena of politics and
even someday become premier of Alberta. "I
would never say no," he says. "But I think that
is even a tougher ring to be in than
wrestling."
But before he thinks too much
about his future, he's dealing with today's
problems and challenges for now. "I have been
going to a lot of Calgary Hitmen hockey games,"
he said when asked what's helping him get
through. "And (tonight) I am going to the
Raptors game. I am looking forward to meeting
Vince Carter for a couple of
minutes."
He's also got a call into his
pal, Tie Domi, who he hopes will pass along a
get-well card he's signed for Bryan Berard. "I
feel sick about it," he said of Berard's
injuries. "It broke my heart."
