Bret Hart has kind, sad eyes, a gentle handshake and an overall mien of melancholy. The long, dark hair that used to whip around his face in the wrestling ring is grey and pony-tailed.

His face looks like the face of someone who's lived a hard and strange life and, after reading his just-published autobiography, Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling, you know it's a face he's earned many times over.

A hard-scrabble childhood in a wrestling family with 11 siblings, the ups and downs of being a WWF superstar, a tempestuous marriage, his brother Owen's death in the ring when he fell 24 metres in a stunt gone terribly wrong, a stroke, the deaths – many due to drugs, booze, steroids – of many wrestling colleagues and friends (Chris Benoit being the latest) and deep family quarrels are all described in detail in the massive tome.

"There were quite a few difficult parts to write. To write about when my brother Owen died was really hard. When I started writing that, it was tough, and when I was done, I was just exhausted mentally and weary of the whole project. It was tough to relive," says Hart, now 50, sitting in his publisher's office.

"And the stroke, to write about how miserable I felt and how broken I was, it brings it all back. In a good and a bad way. You think about all the bad but also that it's over with. You never forget it ... It is the biggest thing I've ever fought. When I think of where I was when I was in the hospital and couldn't turn my hand over and was so devastated by the whole thing.

"But I escaped it all. The bad fate that was set in motion for me."

Does escaping that fate, where so many others perished, bring about survivor's guilt?

"No, no, you can't fall into that. You have to live strong, enjoy every day," he says. "You have to enjoy it all because you never know what's going to happen. My brother Owen was the kind of guy who was always telling himself that tomorrow he would finally get home, everything was for that plan down the road. I feel bad sometimes when I think of all the friends that have died. Many of them, including Owen, should be here. Horrible things can happen, but I don't know what Owen was thinking when he did that stunt."

Professional wrestling is storytelling taken to the nth and violent degree, with heroes and heels and elaborate soap opera-like narratives. Hart was a good storyteller in the ring and moving on to the written word is a natural progression.

"In a lot of ways, it's the same thing. In my case you try to tell the truth, bring out the best and try to find the point. I'm not sure what the point is in my book ... maybe that no one is perfect and that you should watch out for everything that comes, good or bad. I think I was really good at telling wrestling stories. I really understood the psychology of wrestling and had a gift for being able to see it in my head before everyone else. In wrestling there is no rehearsal, you show up and even if you don't know the guy you're wrestling with you have to piece a story together ... very few wrestlers ever questioned me on my storytelling when I structured a match."

"I can remember with Vince McMahon, I started to tell him what I was doing and he'd stop me and say `Don't tell me, I just want to watch.'"

McMahon, of course, is the owner of what was the WWF during Hart's wrestling days and is now the WWE, having annexed other organizations. Hitman, in stores now, chronicles Hart's adversarial relationship with McMahon, a feud that caused Hart to leave the WWF under unpleasant circumstances. The two are now back on speaking terms and Hart isn't too worried that the book will upset McMahon, whom he refers to as "ultimately the biggest wrestling fan of all." Hart doesn't want to revive any quarrel with McMahon as "he has many ways he can stick a thumb in my eye. There's not much I can do to him. Maybe this book is my best and only shot to say what needs to be said and clear the air."

McMahon isn't the only one who is portrayed with a whole lot of warts.

"For the most part, I thought I'm going to write what's necessary. If I hurt a few feelings here and there, as long as I'm not malicious – unless I'm intending to be malicious – I didn't go out of my way to run anybody over. And if anybody got run over that's because it was necessary to the story."

Hart is ready to take some time off once the book tour is over – "just take it easy." And then what with the rest of his life? Where does an old wrestler go? "I don't know. I may go back to film school here in Toronto. I talked to Paul Jay who did the Wrestling with Shadows documentary and we talked about hiring me on to learn the film business." One thing he's not going to be doing is helping his kids get into the family business. His two sons aren't interested, something Hart seems relieved about.

Asked if he's happy, in spite of the losses, in spite of the close brush with that bad fate, in spite of there being problems with his second, and long-distance, marriage, there's a smile.

"I think so. I think I am. I've been through a lot ... but, I'm happy with the book coming out. I'm happy with my life in general, my health. The Calgary Hitmen (WHL hockey club) are rated No. 1 in the country. Life is good. The new Bruce Springsteen came out!"

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

1. What was your first job?

"My first job was selling wrestling programs. I think I was five."

2. What would you have been doing if you hadn't become a wrestler?

3. What's on your iPod?

"Right now I have lots of Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder. I have the new Bruce Springsteen (above) but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet."

4. What's the last great movie you watched?

"I really liked The Departed with Leonardo DiCaprio. I think he's the best actor out there now. I think he's the new Robert De Niro."

5. What TV show must you watch every week?

"That's pretty easy. I have to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart every day. I get kinda grumpy if I miss it."



