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“The first town we were in was Red Deer and then Saskatoon,” Hart said in an interview with RF Video. “(Company official ‘Chief’ Jay Strongbow) called me up and told me I needed to fly to Saskatoon on Monday morning and that I could not change my ticket. ‘Whatever you do, don’t change your ticket. When you get off the airplane, you go straight to the dressing room and you find Vince. He wants to see you.’ ”

2. Moments into his conversation with McMahon, Hart had bigger concerns than a fine.

“He sort of made out like how long I’d been there, how many belts that they put on me already, they had done everything that they could do with me,” Hart said on Ric Flair’s podcast.

“I remember sitting there thinking that Vince was actually going to fire me … Then Vince, I remember, just looked at me said, ‘So we’re going to put the big belt on you tonight.’ ”

3. Fan letters and merchandise sales played a big role in McMahon going with Hart to beat icon and then-champion Ric Flair.

WWF was in the midst of a scandal, with stars like Hulk Hogan, McMahon himself and The Ultimate Warrior being connected to steroid use. The superhero look was out.

“I think Vince felt he couldn’t have a neon sign as champion. Bret wasn’t the first, as Flair was champion, but Flair came in with a huge reputation while Bret was a guy who had mostly been slotted as a mid-carder until beating Curt (Hennig for the company’s Intercontinental title in 1991),” said Wrestling Observer publisher Dave Meltzer in an interview.