By his own accounts, Bret “The Hitman” Hart and André the Giant got along very well during most of their shared time in the wrestling business. The same, however, couldn’t be said about Bret’s oldest brother, Smith Hart, who, as the supposed “black sheep” of the iconic wrestling family they came from, was a bit of a wild card back in the day, including when the Hart brothers were still competing in their father Stu’s Calgary-based promotion, Stampede Wrestling.
As Bret related in his autobiography, “Hitman,” André fell out with Smith after the latter put his life in extreme danger, all because he was so determined to get him to the Calgary airport for a flight to Montana that was due to leave in less than half an hour. Normally, this would have been a 40-minute drive, but Smith was confident he could make it on time. “That’s when I buckled my seatbelt,” Bret wrote. “Smith drove like an absolute lunatic at speeds in excess of a hundred miles per hour through city traffic.”
Bret, Smith, and André survived the wild drive to the airport, but not without a quick brush with the law. While Bret convinced the officer not to arrest his older brother for speeding, André was understandably annoyed with the Hart brothers — and Stu himself for allowing Smith to drive him to the airport. And while it took a few years, André ultimately forgave Bret for the incident when both men were already working for the WWF.
