The internet is buzzing with the news that Bret Hart and Vince McMahon sat down this week to discuss a Bret Hart DVD project. The myth is that they have had eight years of enmity before this history making summit but in reality they have been on speaking terms for some time. Various ideas have been discussed but Bret – who always had too much self-respect and too much money to do whatever Vince wanted – would never agree to the plans. From wrestling Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania XX to punching Vince McMahon live on Raw, Bret wasn’t interested in WWE’s ideas. But now he’s prepared to talk to them (and have them acknowledge that he’s talking to them) in the hope that his long and frequently glorious career can be properly documented.

Bret’s legacy is in Vince McMahon’s hands. Bret has been working on his autobiography for several years now but the trend in wrestling books is clear – anything backed by the WWE hype machine does well (there are different degrees of "well" but a badly-selling WWE book is almost always a long way ahead of a well-selling non-WWE book). But while his words could be printed without WWE’s help his matches are locked away until such time as McMahon green-lights them. So it makes sense for Bret to at least hear what WWE have to say.

It probably didn’t have any impact on Bret’s decision but the past couple of weeks have seen rumours surfacing that a DVD devoted to The Ultimate Warrior will be coming out before the end of the year. It would be hard to think of someone less suited to a WWE anthology DVD set – imagine six hours of Warrior matches and promos. He’s hardly in the same category as Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair or Mick Foley when it comes to longevity or variety. You could argue his matches were no more one dimensional than those of the Road Warriors and the latter resulted in a well-received DVD but the Road Warriors had such a varied career, worked with some of the greatest teams of all times and helped revolutionise the business. The Warrior, while he had decent matches with the Hogans, Rudes and Savages of this world, was a derivative flash in the pan who didn’t deserve the success he had. And he’s bonkers. The DVD will, so the story goes, focus on that insanity as it rips the Warrior to shreds. No one knows what will be on the disc yet (aside from the obvious choice of the only four good matches Ultimate Warrior ever had) but it is rumoured that his every peculiarity will be mocked and his every insanity will be highlighted thanks to the joys of selective editing.

All of which sends the message that WWE will produce these DVD sets because they sell well and the profit margin is high (there are no "repeat fees" in wrestling – they can use your footage without paying you for it because they own it outright). How they choose to play it is entirely up to them. Homage or hatchet-job, that is the stark reality. Bret knew that anyway – he didn’t need the threat of Triple H doing an impression of him and a montage of whining promos to tell him that Vince McMahon is an egotistical bully first and a smart business man second.

Assuming this comes to pass and the Ultimate Bret Hart Collection is released in early 2006 (just in time for his Hall of Fame induction), what should be on it? Personally I think his career fits into three neat eras – perfect for a three disc set. The Ric Flair collection was around ten hours which suggests that three to three and a half hours per disc is possible without sacrificing picture quality.

Disc One – the Early Years

WWE either owns the Stampede Wrestling library or can get their hands on the tapes easily enough. The Hart family is splintered but if the the video library rests in the hands of anyone it is someone who is very pro-McMahon. So we could see a collection of early Bret matches from around Canada. Perhaps even around the world as WWE licensed Japanese footage for the Chris Benoit set and could do so again. A Bret vs. Dynamite Kid or Bret vs. Tiger Mask match would be a major selling point of the set. Ninety minutes of matches and highlights would be a great way to introduce us to the young Bret Hart.

Disc One – The Hart Foundation

There is no doubt that the Hart Foundation was one of the greatest teams in WWF history. An amazing achievement considering that half the team was made up of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, a painfully average worker at his best. Obviously, you concentrate on the feud with the British Bulldogs as it was the tag team feud of the mid-80s. Only the Rock’n’Roll Express vs. Midnight Express feud comes close for quality but neither of those teams could boast a Bret level worker and certainly neither had a Dynamite Kid. It’s often been said that the best Harts vs. Bulldogs matches took place at house shows with no cameras (and thus no strict time constraints) but enough were captured on TV or home video for them to form the bulk of this section. They also had good matches with the Rougeaus, Demolition, Strike Force, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson and more. A relatively easy two hours to fill.

Disc Two – the Singles career

Bret won the Intercontinental title from Curt Hennig in the summer of 1991. His major programmes were with Roddy Piper (with Piper actually agreeing to lose cleanly to Bret) and Davey Boy Smith. The latter was the legendary Wembley Stadium show and the match drew damn-near eighty thousand fans. Bret lost that match but three months later he won his first WWF title from Ric Flair. There is so much to cover in this time period – his feuds with Shawn Michaels (the first feud that is), Jerry Lawler and Owen Hart were all classics. There was however an awful lot of crap because Bret was often second fiddle to Michaels, Diesel or Yokozuna( Doink, Isaac Yankum, Jean Pierre Lafite (a good worker but the feud started because he was a pirate and therefore a thief and he stole Bret’s coat), Sid and more). This is the glory period of Bret career and a bit of research really takes some of the bloom off it. Had there been a brand extension in the mid-90s Bret would’ve been much better served. He wouldn’t have been stuck in crappy feuds so as not to risk out-shining the Clique. That said, matches with Hennig, Piper, Davey, HBK, Lawler and especially Owen Hart would make this a must-see two and a half hours.

Disc Two – The Hart Foundation II

I would split this from his main WWF run because it was my personal favourite Bret era. Bret’s heel turn breathed new life into the character and, had it not been for Shawn Michaels, could’ve lead to several fresh years at the top. It started before Bret turned heel with his match against Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1996. Bret won but it was obvious that Austin was the new man to watch. Five months later they had their re-match at Wrestlemania and Bret turned full-fledged heel. Between those two bouts Bret teased turning bad with well planned flickers of frustration. He swore on Raw before such things were allowed. He shoved Vince McMahon when announcers weren’t touched and Vince was just an announcer. Bret was losing his cool and finally, at Wrestlemania XIII, he lost it completely. Far from ending the Bret-Austin feud, Wrestlemania poured fuel on it and it became a war. There was such raw emotion and shockingly real violence at times that you couldn’t help but get sucked into it. The night Austin attacked Bret in an ambulance will stick in my mind for as long as seeing Ric Flair’s belt on Wrestling Challenge for the very first time or the hell-frozen evening that Eric Bischoff debuted on Raw. The feud had a unique dynamic because in the USA it was Austin the babyface and the Harts Foundation (now comprising Bret, Owen, Davey Boy Smith, Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart) were the heels. In Canada however it was the exact opposite. The Harts were loved and Austin was hated. And the cleverest part about it was that it made perfect sense both ways and neither side had to act any different to get their crowd reactions. It peaked at the Canadian Stampede pay-per-view in front of the hottest crowd I can ever remember seeing. Match-wise this wasn’t a strong period and it would be best represented as a one hour collection of highlights, angles and promos.

Disc Three – Montreal

WWE wanted (or still want) to do a whole DVD about Montreal. There already is one – it’s called "Wrestling With Shadows" and I guarantee it is better anything WWE would produce. But it was the single most significant part of Bret’s WWF career so an hour of before, during and after footage is justified. We will never know the truth of what happened. Only different people’s opinions and every opinion will have to go through the WWE sausage factory for it to appear on one of their DVDs.

Disc Three – WCW

Bret spent two years in WCW and was simultaneously wasted to an almost unbelievable degree and involved in so many angles that it is impossible to keep track of them all. He turned almost every month, he headlined major pay-per-views, he was held down by Hulk Hogan, he had a great match with Ric Flair, he was the future of the company, he was yesterday's man, he was world champion, he was every other kind of champion and he saw his career end thanks to a reckless kick from Bill Goldberg. It would take a lot of editing to try and make sense out of the period but it was two years of his life – two years which made him more money than the rest of his career put together in all likelihood – and deserves to be recorded in his life story.

Disc Three – An Owen Hart Tribute

What happened to Owen Hart shouldn’t be mixed up with everything else that happened in a wrestling career. It absolutely should be included in the set (because there is no where else that it could be released without it looking exploitative) but in a separate programme to celebrate his life and help immortalise him to future generations. Let Bret Hart sculpt his brother’s tribute from all the material available and produce the accolade Owen deserves.

WWE DVDs – great though they are – tend to offer a sixty to ninety minute "documentary" (too many on-staff talking heads for my liking) plus a dozen matches as extras. I’d prefer they see it as seven different sub-projects within the set. I would rather see a well produced package of highlights from Nitro than a couple of full matches with no explanation and a few minutes of Gerald Briscoe telling me how bad WCW was and that "Mister Mac-man" kicked their butts. WWE DVDs also appear to have one eye on a sequel (the Ric Flair set certainly has that feeling) so they never give you everything you want. On the one hand that’s smart business but on the other it leaves you a little frustrated. But that said, ten hours should be enough to satisfy the Bret Hart fan while leaving plenty still in the vaults for release on "Greatest Tag Teams of the 80s", "Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 90s", "Pain! The Greatest Leg Locks in History" and "WWEcrap – the Worst Gimmick Wrestlers of the 90s".