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Interview Recap - Gary Hart

Posted in Interview Recaps by Jack at 00:07, Dec 18 2005

By Hunter Shull

Gary Hart was the guest this week on In Your Head available for listening at http://www.inyourheadonline.com
Jack, Incher, and Barbie welcome Gary Hart to the show. Gary
Hart has a dvd out along with Sir Oliver Humperdink,
entitled ?The Art of Managing?. The DVD contains 2 hours
of discussion about the old days when managers were a bigger
part of the business than they are today. Hart isn?t sure
that a lot of young wrestlers could learn much from the DVD,
because the business is so different today. When Hart was a
manager, he took a more active role in the wrestler?s
careers. Nowadays, everything is decided by the bookers. It
was Hart?s job to book his wrestlers in different
territories, take care of hotel rooms and rental cars, and
all of the other outside of the ring aspects of the
business.

When asked what kind of guys he looked for to manage, Hart
says that he didn?t have one particular style of guy he
liked to manage because he was able to adapt to anybody. He
looked mainly for wrestlers in whom the crowd was
interested. As far as giving advice, Hart told his wrestlers
what NOT to do in the ring. If one of his wrestlers was good
at promos, Hart had no problem keeping quiet during the
interviews.

Barbie asks Hart if he still watches wrestling today. Hart
replies, ?Of course.? He was in the business for 30
years, it is impossible for him to stop watching, and he
catches it whenever he gets the chance. He sees a lot of
guys being misused today and wishes he could give them some
help. He feels that Triple H is too giving sometimes and
lays down too often for guys that he shouldn?t. Hart is
also high on Carlito, Chris Masters, The Big Show, and Ken
Kennedy. Hart thinks that Ric Flair would make a good
manager because of his experience, and also because of the
star presence he could lend to any wrestler associated with
him.

Hart is not surprised that managers aren?t used more often
today. He comments that being a manager takes many different
skills. Hart?s philosophy of managing involves looking at
a talent and figuring out what must be done to help that
talent sell tickets. A manager is also responsible for
choosing his wrestler?s opponents and making sure they
have good chemistry together. According to Hart, a manager
must also get his wrestler in the mind set that they
?belong? in the position that they?re in. A manager
cannot make a wrestler into something they aren?t, but
they can help them become who they are and what they SHOULD
be. Hart says that he enjoyed being a manager more than
being a booker, because as a manager he had more power. He
could say no for personal reasons to programs he didn?t
want to do, whereas he couldn?t do this as a booker
because he had to worry about making money.

When asked which wrestlers he felt were good in the ring but
didn?t achieve the success they should have, Hart lists
Nard the Barbarian and Jeep Swinson. Hart says that these
two simply didn?t have the desire to be the best, which is
what a wrestler needs. Hart has great memories of working
with Muta. Even though the relationship ended badly, Hart
has nothing bad to say about the man.

Hart tells a funny story about tricking Abdullah the Butcher
into doing a job by telling him it was a 2/3 Falls match. He
also tells a story which cannot be repeated here about two
wrestlers at a tollbooth, and a story about Dusty Rhodes
leaving Little Tokyo in the trunk of his car.

Hart recounts his partnership with the One Man Gang. He
feels that no one really maximized Gang?s potential before
he did. He totally changed Gang?s look and based the
character on Hart?s own life growing up in Chicago. He
feels that Gang was one of the best big men ever, and was
able to adapt to many different style.

Hart?s favorite gimmicks of the guys he managed are One
Man Gang, The Spoiler, The Great Kabuki, Bruiser Brody, King
Kong Bundy, The Great Muta, and Al Perez. Perez was very
talented, but did not have the drive for the business, as he
had a lot of outside interests.

The NWA in 1988 during Hart?s last run was a total
disaster. Hart feels that management was incompetent, and
that the wrestlers had forgotten that wrestling was a
comradery, and everyone was only out for themselves. He
calls Sting a ?total asshole? at this point. Wrestling
was no longer fun for Hart, so he left.

Hart will be at the Capitol Legends Fanfest from August 11-August
13, in Rockville, MD. Hart would like to thank all of the
fans for their support, and for remembering him. For more information please check out http://www.capitollegends.com/

This is only a sample of the topics that were discussed in
this hour-long interview. All of this, and a lot more,
including why Hart never worked for the WWF, is available
for listening at www.inyourheadonline.com and
www.audiowrestling.com.

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