Before They Were Stars: Bret “The Hitman” Hart Wrestles as “Cowboy Bret Hart” in Britain

Here’s some super-obscure footage of legendary Canadian wrestler Bret “The Hitman” Hart from early in his career. Bret started off working for his father’s Alberta-based promotion, Stampede Wrestling, and since pro wrestling loves its stereotypes, he would often don a cowboy hat and compete as “Cowboy” Bret Hart whenever he wrestled anywhere else. This footage is from he went to the United Kingdom in 1981 and wrestled a match against an Indian wrestler named Tiger Dalibir Singh on the popular sports anthology TV show, World of Sport. It’s interesting to see how different wrestling is in Britain since this match is separated into five-minute rounds and the crowd pretty much sits in complete silence the entire time, except for the odd moment for when they offer polite applause.