Former WWE wrestler Bret Hart as soon as invited a person claiming to be Sammy Hagar backstage at a wrestling occasion and watched him do a lot of cocaine.
Hart, whose 1997 match with Stone Chilly Steve Austin is being inducted into the WWE Corridor Of Fame later this month, tells the story throughout a current look on the Darkish Aspect Of The Ring: Unheard podcast.
“I bear in mind Adrian [Adonis, fellow wrestler] was in entrance of me, proper in entrance of my seat,” he remembers (by way of TJR Wrestling). “And I used to be speaking to some man, he’s sitting proper beside me. He had on type of like a rock ’n’ roll jacket, nearly like one Jimmy Hart would’ve worn. He’s all excited, he goes, ‘You guys are wrestlers, aren’t ya? WWE wrestlers.’
“I’m going, ‘Yeah, we’re wrestlers,’ and begin speaking to him about wrestling. I requested [what he did] and he goes, ‘I’m a rock’n’roll singer. I’m Sammy Hagar.’”
Hart admits that, whereas he was considerably acquainted with the then-Van Halen frontman’s music, he had no thought what he regarded like. The story continues on a limo journey that the wrestler and his tag crew accomplice Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart have been taking to legendary New York area Madison Sq. Backyard. Someway, the imposter Hagar blagged his method into the automotive.
“I’m sitting beside Jim, and Jim stored going, ‘That’s not Sammy Hagar,’” says Hart. “I’m going, ‘What do you imply it’s not Sammy Hagar? It appears like… it might be Sammy Hagar. Why wouldn’t or not it’s Sammy Hagar?’ ‘It’s not Sammy Hagar.’
“I mentioned, ‘Have you ever ever seen Sammy Hagar?’ After which Jim goes, ‘Effectively, have a look at his watch.’ He’s bought a Timex watch. He goes, ‘Sammy Hagar wouldn’t put on a Timex, he’d be carrying a Rolex. It’s not him.’”
Regardless of Neidhart’s doubts, ‘Hagar’ was permitted backstage at Madison Sq. Backyard. The wannabe’s cocaine-snorting talents subsequently fooled everybody into believing he was the actual deal.
“Adrian passes a greenback invoice to Sammy Hagar,” Hart continues, “who snorts an enormous line of cocaine within the dressing room. There’s individuals attempting to get within the room, we’re like, ‘Go, go, go!’ and he’s snorting this massive line of cocaine.
“And I bear in mind as quickly as he snorted it, he checked out me and Jim and this little trickle of blood got here down his nostril. And I bear in mind Jim checked out me and he goes, ‘It is Sammy Hagar!’”
Although Hart’s story ends there, the pretend Hagar was in a position to sustain the con to the purpose that he was allowed into the ring that night time. Viral footage on YouTube reveals veteran announcer Howard Finkle introducing ‘Sammy Hagar’ to the viewers, just for a person who appears nothing just like the Van Halen man, and who has a British accent, to march into the ring and shout into the microphone.
Hagar joined Van Halen in 1985, changing unique frontman David Lee Roth, and left in 1996. He had one other quick stint within the band from 2003 to 2005. He was inducted into the Rock And Roll Corridor Of Fame in 2007 and, these days, leads the supergroup Sammy Hagar And The Circle.
Hart’s match with Steve Austin will likely be inducted into the WWE Corridor Of Fame at a ceremony on Friday, April 18, on the Fontainebleau lodge in Las Vegas. It’ll be the primary WWE “immortal second” to be inducted and can make Hart a record-setting three-time WWE Corridor Of Fame inductee. He was inducted as a solo performer in 2006 and for his tag crew work with Neidhart in 2019.
The Corridor Of Fame ceremony will precede WWE’s greatest annual occasion, Wrestlemania, which this 12 months will happen at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, on April 19 and 20.
