Wrestling legend to make hit on Timmins
BY VINCENT MAN -TIMMINS DAILY PRESS

The best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be is coming to Timmins.

Professional wrestling icon Bret "The Hitman" Hart will visit the City with a Heart of Gold in late April for an autograph session.

The appearance will take place at the annual Schumacher Lions Club Sportsman Show at McIntyre Arena on April 27.

Blood Sweat and Ears North representative Mike Patry told The Daily Press in an exclusive interview Friday night that the autograph session, which will be Timmins' third of this year, will be the biggest one yet.

"This will blow the roof off of the other (meet and greets)," said Patry, referring to other sessions which have brought in Total Nonstop Action superstars Kristy Hemme, Gail Kim, Traci Brooks and Samoa Joe.

"(Hart)'s the guy if you ask anyone out on the street, 'Which Canadian sports icon would you want to meet?' (Wayne) Gretzky is No. 1, but next would be Hart."

A press conference in the following week will reveal further details of Hart's visit, Patry said, which has been nearly a year in the making.

"It has been a long process since June of last year," he said. "It was never that he didn't want to come," but it was just finding the "perfect time."

Other Canadian wrestlers who have appeared in Timmins with ties to Hart include Christian Cage and Lance Storm. Patry said that Timmins has a good reputation among such wrestlers, which helped entice Hart into agreeing to come to Timmins.

Hart is best known for being a seven-time world champion with World Wrestling Entertainment.