Earlier this week, WWE removed several documentaries featuring Bret Hart from the WWE Network. Speculation was rife on the reasons why, with some fans suggesting it was due to recent comments where Hart revealed that Triple H and Shawn Michaels bullied The Rock back in his early years. However, the truth is far less exciting, and it was Bret Hart who instigated their removal.
While WWE owns Stampede Wrestling footage, they do not own the footage, which features Bret Hart, and he previously purchased this himself. Hart was fine with WWE using it previously, but after seeing a match of his against The Dynamite Kid on the Network, he contacted Mark Carrano, who is WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Relations. Carrano would disregard Hart’s complaint and told him to contact WWE’s legal department. Hart instead texted both Vince McMahon and Triple H, who promptly had the documentaries that featured his footage pulled.
The ones removed were:
It now remains to be seen whether WWE leave the documentaries off the Network indefinitely, edits out the footage, or agree on a deal with Bret to license it.
