A Failed Bret Hart WrestleMania 22 Pitch Led To WWE Signing Tyson Kidd And Natalya

When Bret Hart returned to the WWE fold in 2005 to work on his anthology DVD set, there were several pitches to get him on the WrestleMania 22 card. Former WWE writer Court Bauer recently appeared on "Talk is Jericho" and recounted the pitches that he made to Vince McMahon.

"The best idea that I pitched that didn't get used, there was a lot of circumstances that happened," Bauer prefaced. With the news that Hart was slated to headline the 2006 Hall of Fame class, McMahon was seeking pitches to get "The Hitman" on the WrestleMania card. Around the same time, USA Network executives were requesting "more McMahon's."

"'Alright, what about the Hart family led by Bret versus the McMahon family,'" Bauer said during the creative meeting. "So we started looking at that, and it's like, 'Well, you've got Shane, Hunter, Stephanie.' And then we were like, 'How do we fill this out with younger kids?'" Seeing as though it was going to be a brawl-like match without in-ring bumps, the writers had pitched Chris Jericho, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Teddy Hart, and the un-signed Natalya and Tyson Kidd for Bret's team, while McMahon's faction was pitched Shawn Michaels, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, and Bryan Danielson.

"Bret ultimately said, 'Yeah, no,'" Bauer recalled. "I remember Vince saying, 'Hold on, I'll call Bret and pitch it right now.' This is surreal. Last I knew, Vince got punched out by Bret. So then you get to hear Vince pitch a top guy, and those conversations usually happen far away from everyone." Initially Hart agreed but then backed out within 48 hours. "But from that came Nattie being signed, TJ being signed, and a lot of other things that would lead to other great stuff, just not what we had hoped for."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Talk is Jericho" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.