A wrestling group I frequent had a challenge on writing a character's story arc and I thought I'll take a stab at one of my all time favorites, Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
Bret Hart entered a world where he was no longer the best. Surrounded by bigger men, he joined forces with a big man in order to reach the success he thought he deserved. The Hart Foundation was born.
(Photo from WWE.com)
With his technical skills and his brother-in-law's strength, they were successful, but it couldn't last long. Bret wanted to prove he was as good, if not better than the stars of his day, despite his size. He set out on his own, fighting, learning, striving, working hard... he gained championship after championship and found himself being the hero. He bested three different men in one night to win the King of the Ring! He started believing his own boast: best there is, best there was, best there ever will be.
His drive caused friction between him and his talented brother, something he did not want, but couldn't deal with while striving for the best. Despite losing to his brother, he beat the strongest and biggest of them all with grit and determination in the same night and reached the pinnacle of his success.
(Photo from Wrestlemania X, WWE.com)
He was the hero. He was the best... as he believed himself to be.
But the crowd didn't stay with him and he started noticing they were cheering the bad ones: his brother, the upstart heartbreak kid, the cool beer-swilling anti-hero... he started to think that the American Audience was corrupting him, like they corrupted his brother in the past. He saw that they were turning brother against brother, partner against partner. And he has had enough! Bret still thought he was a hero, but the values he stood for weren't the American values. He's a hero for the good values, the real values. The values that the rest of the world wanted. He decided to stop playing to the American crowd and be truer to himself... and his family.
(Photo from pro-wrestling wiki)
The Hart Foundation lived again.
