Gary Hart, Pro wrestling manager/booker
La N
March 17, 2008
Manager/booker Gary Hart dies
By GREG OLIVER - Producer, SLAM! Wrestling
Gary Hart in 1989 while with WCW. Photo by Greg Oliver
In front of the camera, Gary Hart, who died Sunday, was one of the most vile
and hated managers of all time; behind the scenes, he had one of the
greatest minds for professional wrestling.
"He was a slinky bad guy, ruthless," said World Class Championship Wrestling
announcer Bill Mercer. "I think he was the best of all the managers. With
all respect to the others, God, he could slink around and look like he was
always involved in doing something dirty behind the scenes -- which he did."
Born Gary Williams, Hart broke into the business in Chicago, his hometown,
in 1960.
"I'm a guy from Chicago, I did grow up in a rough area and I learned early
if somebody's got a brick you get a board, if they got a board you get a
knife, and if somebody gets you today, you get them tomorrow. That's always
been my mentality," he told The Missing Link biographer Meredith Renwick.
"I'm a kid from Chicago who worked very hard to make it in wrestling."
His uncle, Billy Gales, was the booking agent for promoter Fred Kohler in
the Chicago area. One night, Angelo Poffo was looking for someone to be a
second to him, as Bronko Lubich had gone to the Carolinas. "I started as his
second. As time went by, he liked me, I became his tag team partner, then I
became his manager."
Hart had made an appearance on Saturday in Allentown, Penn., for a signing,
a story covered by our own Steven Johnson [World Class not a distant
memory].
At the signing, Hart took credit for the legendary Von Erichs versus
Freebirds feud from World Class. "Contrary to what Michael Hayes said, that
was all 'Playboy' Gary Hart. I brought him in, I manipulated him, I
positioned him," said Hart, who ran the office with referee Bronco Lubich, a
10 percent owner, since Fritz Von Erich spent most of his time tending to
other interests. "They [The Freebirds] were great at what they did, but that
was me. I would have never told you that 10 years ago," Hart said. "What
popped Dallas and Texas itself was Kevin, David, and Kerry. They were the
guys that packed arenas."
Other Hart creations? How about naming Virgil Runnels Dusty Rhodes, and
later baptizing him The American Dream.
He had numerous stints as a booker, primarily in Texas, but also in Florida
and Australia. It was a job he took seriously. "I was the booking agent and
I was the producer of the TV and I had a responsibility to World Class, and
I had a responsibility to the other wrestlers in the area to make this thing
work," he recalled about returning to World Class around 1987.
Hart was a house-father the last few years, raising his son Chad, who had
begun his own career in pro wrestling, in Euless, Tex.
He died Sunday afternoon.
SLAM! Wrestling is still gathering information and will have more details
later