Bret Hart

Pictured: (Left to Right) Dick Byers, Butcher Vachon, Mad Dog Vachon, Don Leo Johnathan, and Bret Hart

This photo was taken at the Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas. My brother Ross and I attended the event to celebrate our good friend Bob Leonard’s induction into the CAC. Bob Leonard is a long time family friend and Stampede Wrestling photographer.

I was honored to spend some time with all four of the guys in this photo. Dick Byers was a really good wrestler in his era- he was the real thing, one of the greatest wrestlers of his generation. I remember watching him have an absolutely beautiful match with the great Freddie Blassie on some old black and white footage from the early fifties. The Destroyer was a great worker, maybe the most credible, most famous masked wrestler of them all.

When I was growing up, one of my first fascinations was with masked wrestlers. I even thought at one point that if things didn’t pan out for me in the WWF, my next gimmick would be as a masked wrestler. Later Later on after forming the Hart Foundation and establishing myself as The Hitman in 1987 Vince passed on bringing Owen in because he was my brother, and could only be a babyface, especially with his spectacular high flying moves. Owen was a great talent and I wanted to get him a break, so I threw the idea out to Vince to bring Owen in under a mask. When I suggested he could sell mask merchandise much like they do today with Ray Mysterio, Vince agreed to bring Owen in, and the rest is history. I’m still fascinated with masked wrestlers, but never had the chance to wrestle as one myself. The closest I ever came was with Jacob Two Two as the Hooded Fang.

Don Leo Johnson is one of the classiest guys in wrestling and was given the most respected honor at the CAC this year – the Iron Mike Mazurki Award. My dad Stu used to talk about how Don could do nip-ups. He was a very agile wrestler for someone who’s 6’6”. Stu used to talk about a photo of Don jumping 7 feet in the air drop kicking Andre The Giant. Don was the first wrestler to really work with Andre when he came to North America, and Andre never forgot him for it. I always remind people today that Andre was a great worker too, and he was a careful protective wrestler with exceptional co-ordination. He learned much of that from Don Leo Jonathan
Mad Dog Vachon used to work with my dad Stu. He was a British Commonwealth Games champion. He lost his leg in a hit and run accident a few years ago – he’s still as tough as ever. It was good to see him and his brother The Butcher.

This photo is very special to me. I’m the "mark" in this picture. It was an honor to spend time with all 4 of these great wrestlers.