Bret Hart Refused To Put The Undertaker Over In Front Of Canadian Soldiers

Bret Hart famously refused to lose to Shawn Michaels in Montreal at Survivor Series in 1997. That moment, known as the Montreal Screwjob, lives on in pop culture history at this point. There was another man that Hart refused to put over, and he is also a bona fide legend.

During, Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, Gerald Brisco told a story that has never been heard before. Bret Hart refused to put The Undertaker over in Bahrain, because there were going to be too many Canadian soldiers present.

The Undertaker finally agreed to let Hart win when he wouldn’t lose to him. Then Bret Hart wanted to put the Sharpshooter on Taker, but that was shut down. The Hitman was going to pin Taker, because there was no way the Dead Man was going to submit.

“We were over in Bahrain,” Brisco said. “It’s a little island right off Saudi Arabia. We’re running an outdoor show there. This is probably the same year.  We had a tournament. It came down to Bret and Undertaker as the main event. It wasn’t a title match, it was just a Bahrain tournament. Bret said, ‘I’m not going to drop the match here. I can’t get beat here.’ I’m thinking, we’re in the middle of nowhere. I asked Bret, ‘Why? It’s The Undertaker.’ He said, ‘There’s too many fans.’ Granted, there were a contingent of Canadian soldiers in attendance, so he was right in that aspect. There were some Canadian soldiers, but most of the people were native people there. It wasn’t like there were overwhelming Maple Flags flying there. We’re 10,000 miles away from anywhere, and back in those days, there wasn’t any social media or anything like that. Of course, I made my phone call to Vince. Vince said, ‘Just get the match in the ring.’ When Undertaker comes in, he likes to know what he’s going to do so he can develop a game plan in his head during the course of the event.

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I’ve never told this story before. ‘Vince said talk to Taker. Just get the match in the ring. Do what you have to do, but get it in the ring. It’s the last night of the tour, get the hell out and come home. We’ll deal with it then. I tell Taker what’s going on. He said, ‘He doesn’t want to drop the title to me?’ I said, ‘No, he doesn’t want to drop it. There’s too many Canadians here.’ Taker looked at me with a look of shock with those piercing eyes of his that scared me to the bone. I said, ‘Well, what do you want to do? He said, ‘The hell with it. I’ll put him over.’ That’s the professional that Taker is. I approached Bret and said he’ll put you over. He said, ‘Well, I don’t have to pin him. I can put the sharpshooter on him.’ I said, ‘Well you’re not going to put the sharpshooter on him. You’re going to pin him.’ So we worked out the match for VKM. That was my first example with Bret.”

We’ll have to see if Bret Hart has his own version of this story down the line. Apparently, he had a lot against losing in front of Canadians. Thankfully, The Undertaker is a professional and knew what needed to be done for the betterment of the business.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!

Thanks to Wrestling News for the quote