Sometimes, there are hidden gems in wrestling that never really surface despite being urban legends. There are tapes that very few get to see and the world doesn’t. And then there are stories like that of Bret Hart vs Tom Magee – stories that were urban legends and only recently surfaced to the world.
But what is the story of Bret Hart vs Tom Magee? Who is Tom Magee and why is his story one of the most important in WWE history when we’ve not even heard of him before? Let us explain
The background
It was 1986 and despite the fact that Hulkamania was running wild with Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon was actively seeking his next major star, feeling that Hogan wouldn’t be around forever. It was naturally a fair assumption to make and till date, McMahon is constantly searching for the next big star.
Now we all know of how Vince McMahon attempted three different times to get a successor to Hulk Hogan and failed – first with The Ultimate Warrior, second with Lex Luger and third with Diesel. However, not many know that years prior that, McMahon had his eyes on a certain young up-and-coming star – a man named Tom Magee
But who is Tom Magee?
Tom Magee was a wrestler who was primarily trained by Stu Hart in Stampede Wrestling and even had a sting with All Japan Pro Wrestling (thanks to Hart). McMahon reportedly gave Stu Hart the task of finding his next big World Champion and Hart presented Tom Magee – a man built 6’4, 275 lbs and was 2nd place in the World’s Strongest Man competition.
Bret Hart described him as an “Adonis” and that was indeed how he looked. It’s no surprise that McMahon looked at him as his next top star because of how chiseled he was and how marketable a look he had.
The legendary match – 1986
Now, it’s important to note that by no means was this an all-time classic. But it was significant for multiple reasons. Knowing well that Magee had to undergo some trials before being presented on television, McMahon instructed a young Bret Hart that his match against Magee would be a dark one – one to test out whether Magee belonged in the WWF.
Bret Hart spoke to Magee and asked him what his three best moves were. When Magee responded, Hart told him to listen to everything that he said and if it went well, McMahon would have big plans for him. And their dark match went perfect – almost too perfect. The crowd went absolutely wild and got behind Magee quicker than anticipated. Magee won the match via a roll-up and once the match was over, it’s said that McMahon was euphoric, stating “That’s my next World Champion”.
What he didn’t realize was that the match was good not because of Magee, but because of the young Bret Hart. Little did he realize that he was looking at the wrong guy entirely – something he would only come to know years later.
Why didn’t Tom Magee work out?
High on Magee, McMahon very much intended for the Adonis-like figure to be his next major star, even during a time when thinking about wrestling without Hulk Hogan was an impossibility. The biggest problem laid in the fact that Magee was not just green, he was generally a weak in-ring worker with a slow learning capacity.
He would be made to wrestle other names such as Barry O and Terry Gibbs, but people backstage quickly realized that they were no Bret Hart. Bret Hart was the excellence of execution and one of the greatest parts about his in-ring performances was that he would make his opponents look great while also making himself look like a World champion.
Bret Hart wasn’t any ordinary world champion. He genuinely believed that he was the best and he carried himself that way in a standard that nobody had seen before.
Despite the fact that Magee did have a decent match with Ted Dibiase a couple of years later, it was crystal clear that he wasn’t fit for the role. He was under WWE contract for about 3 years, when it was finally accepted that he wasn’t the right fit for the role. For that and a variety of other reasons, Magee parted ways with the company and in the 90s, quit wrestling entirely.
The aftermath
It would take a few more years after Magee left for WWF to realize that Bret Hart was the superstar that they were looking for the whole time. He won his first World title in 1992, but his real coronation began at WrestleMania X in 1994. He would set a whole new standard of excellence and etch his place as one of the greatest of all time.
Hindsight
WWE released a small documentary called “Holy Grail”, where superstars, legends, backstage figures, and other personalities talk about the legendary match that they had only heard of but never seen. It’s interesting to note that the tape was genuinely lost because any developmental superstar can go to WWE and request a certain match – one that can easily be pulled from the library.
However, it was only re-discovered recently and Pat Magee was asked about it too. He ultimately ended up leading a completely different path and doesn’t seem to sad about the opportunity that passed him by. We’re sure that he would always have asked himself “what if”, but some things just aren’t meant to be.
What was meant to be, however, was Bret Hart eventually rising to greatness like he was always destined to.
