Pavilion. In the dressing room before the match, Tomasso came up to me to give us the finish and asked me if I could get some color — which is wrestling parlance for blood. I was a bit taken aback, but told him if he thought it might help get the match over, I didn’t mind giving it a whirl. As it turned out, the blood did help to get the match over. I’ve since gotten color on a number of occasions and, later, when I was booking, I had guys do it when it seemed to serve the purpose. I might add though, that, in the 49
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♥ BRUCE HART ♥
past couple of decades, bookers and wrestlers have gone to the well too often in that regard. Getting juice should never be construed as a compensation for getting heat or selling, because it’s not.
Since we drew good houses in both Calgary and Edmonton for my debut matches, my dad let me work weekend shots until the end of my university semester in March — which only whet my appetite to go on the road full-time.
After I finished my junior year at the University of Calgary, my dad let me work the circuit, full-time, for the summer. We had several other young guys breaking in at the time, including Afa and Sika Anoia, Gadabra Sahota (a.k.a.
the “Great” Gama), Kim Klokeid, Randy Morse, Ray Stefanko, my brother Smith and Rick Martel. Although none of us were making much money, we probably would have worked for nothing, as it was a great learning environment, in and out of the ring.
One of the guys I really learned a lot from was Dan Kroffat, who was always trying to come up with new angles and concepts; one of his concepts, in fact, was the ladder match, which would go on to become a big thing in the WWE.
A lot of the boys, especially the veterans, couldn’t stand Kroffat. He was pretty cocky and tended to come across as a smart ass, a know-it-all type, but I always found him to have good insights into the business.
On one of the road trips, Kroffat and I were discussing what set the great babyfaces apart from the average ones and he said that he’d never seen a face draw a dime — regardless of whether he was built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a world-class amateur wrestler, or whatever else — if they didn’t have two key elements of working down pat: selling (getting sympathy) and being able to come back with fire (intensity). Since that time, I’ve seen (and trained) countless wrestlers and can attest that Kroffat’s hypothesis is bang on; if you don’t have those two elements down, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll amount to anything.
I also learned another valuable lesson back then. When I first started in the business, my matches were always scripted move for move beforehand and I figured I was on the right track. One day though, on the way back from Saskatchewan, I was talking to a couple of grizzled veterans, George Gordienko and Geoff Portz, who told me that scripting was akin to having training wheels 50
StraightFromTheHart.indb 50
10/8/10 5:08:55 PM
♥ STRAIGHT FROM THE HART ♥
on a bicycle and that in order to become a good worker, you needed, at some point, to have enough confidence to “freewheel” or improvise.
Improvising, they pointed out, was what working was really all about, as it enabled the crowd to feel that their cheering, booing or whatever had some bearing on the outcome. Establishing that interactive bond with the fans was what it was all about. Portz, to reinforce his point, icily noted that you wouldn’t find any “paint by numbers” renderings in any museum. When he put it that way, I got his point.
The next time I worked, I eschewed the script and decided to ad lib — charting unknown territory. The immediate feedback was remarkable and convinced me that Portz and Gordienko were right on the money. Since then, I’ve become an ardent advocate of improv.
Scripting, unfortunately, seems to be the mode in the WWE these days —
which is one reason why a lot of marks
StraightFromTheHart.indb 49
10/8/10 5:08:55 PM
♥ BRUCE HART ♥
past couple of decades, bookers and wrestlers have gone to the well too often in that regard. Getting juice should never be construed as a compensation for getting heat or selling, because it’s not.
Since we drew good houses in both Calgary and Edmonton for my debut matches, my dad let me work weekend shots until the end of my university semester in March — which only whet my appetite to go on the road full-time.
After I finished my junior year at the University of Calgary, my dad let me work the circuit, full-time, for the summer. We had several other young guys breaking in at the time, including Afa and Sika Anoia, Gadabra Sahota (a.k.a.
the “Great” Gama), Kim Klokeid, Randy Morse, Ray Stefanko, my brother Smith and Rick Martel. Although none of us were making much money, we probably would have worked for nothing, as it was a great learning environment, in and out of the ring.
One of the guys I really learned a lot from was Dan Kroffat, who was always trying to come up with new angles and concepts; one of his concepts, in fact, was the ladder match, which would go on to become a big thing in the WWE.
A lot of the boys, especially the veterans, couldn’t stand Kroffat. He was pretty cocky and tended to come across as a smart ass, a know-it-all type, but I always found him to have good insights into the business.
On one of the road trips, Kroffat and I were discussing what set the great babyfaces apart from the average ones and he said that he’d never seen a face draw a dime — regardless of whether he was built like Arnold Schwarzenegger, was a world-class amateur wrestler, or whatever else — if they didn’t have two key elements of working down pat: selling (getting sympathy) and being able to come back with fire (intensity). Since that time, I’ve seen (and trained) countless wrestlers and can attest that Kroffat’s hypothesis is bang on; if you don’t have those two elements down, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll amount to anything.
I also learned another valuable lesson back then. When I first started in the business, my matches were always scripted move for move beforehand and I figured I was on the right track. One day though, on the way back from Saskatchewan, I was talking to a couple of grizzled veterans, George Gordienko and Geoff Portz, who told me that scripting was akin to having training wheels 50
StraightFromTheHart.indb 50
10/8/10 5:08:55 PM
♥ STRAIGHT FROM THE HART ♥
on a bicycle and that in order to become a good worker, you needed, at some point, to have enough confidence to “freewheel” or improvise.
Improvising, they pointed out, was what working was really all about, as it enabled the crowd to feel that their cheering, booing or whatever had some bearing on the outcome. Establishing that interactive bond with the fans was what it was all about. Portz, to reinforce his point, icily noted that you wouldn’t find any “paint by numbers” renderings in any museum. When he put it that way, I got his point.
The next time I worked, I eschewed the script and decided to ad lib — charting unknown territory. The immediate feedback was remarkable and convinced me that Portz and Gordienko were right on the money. Since then, I’ve become an ardent advocate of improv.
Scripting, unfortunately, seems to be the mode in the WWE these days —
which is one reason why a lot of marks
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