The one match in WWE that has been talked about for the last 30 plus years has finally seen the light of day. For those that do not know, it is the infamous Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee match from 1986. The match was taped, but it never aired and the only people that has seen it were the ones that were in attendance that night, and the people who were behind producing this match. In fact, several WWE Superstars that were training in different developmental territories requested to see the match as well, but they could not because WWE believed to have lost the match. It was not until March 27th of this year where we found out that the master tape of the match exists.
Twitter user and photographer Mary-Kate Anthony had possesion of the tape and as she said on the “Holy Grail: The Search for WWE’s Most Infamous Lost Match”, Mary-Kate has had the tape for some time and she noticed that she had it when she was checking her VHS collection to convert them to DVDs. Once that photo above was posted, many disputed if it was the right match and she posted only one short clip from the match that also had commentary as well. This match was planned to be screened at Starrcast (a wrestling convention in conjuction with AEW’s Double or Nothing) along with Bret and Tom talking about the match, but WWE caused for plans to change with that event. Instead, WWE aired this match after last night’s Raw with a documentary as both Bret and Tom along with David Hart Smith, Sean Waltman, Sam Roberts, Tyson Kidd and Kassius Ohono talk about how tape trading was a big deal at the time and the stories about the lost match.
The story about Magee is that Vince McMahon was looking for a successor to Hulk Hogan in 1986 and he thought that Tom Magee had the look of a mega star. Tom stayed with WWE until 1990 and he wrestled in Japan and other promotions after his time with WWE. It is crazy to think of what would have happened if Vince McMahon would have giving Tom Macgee the rocket ship to Hulk Hogan level of stardom. If that would have happened, would Bret Hart would have been the face of the company in the mid 1990’s?
The match itself is actually pretty great. Although Tom got the win, Bret made him look great the whole time during the match. Tom Macgee also showed great athleticism during the match and he won the crowd over many times during the match as well. For a WWE match that took place in 1986 and despite that Bret Hart had to carry him, this match still holds up and it would have worked in today’s standard television match for Raw or Smackdown.
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