Holy Grail: The Search for WWE’s Most Infamous Lost Match

Holy Grail: The Search for WWE’s Most Infamous Lost Match

Kassius Ohno says Tom Magee vs Bret Hart is the holy grail of wrestling tape trading. Sam Roberts says it remains folklore.

They talk about Vince McMahon thinking Tom Magee might be then next Hulk Hogan. Bret Hart puts him over and says he's a real specimen. X-Pac talks about him being in the World's Strongest Man and him being able to do backflips. Tyson Kidd says he was supposed to be the next Hulk Hogan. 

Sam says they couldn't put Tom on TV as he wasn't ready so they put him in a match with Bret Hart that as never aired. Ohno says Bret was told it wouldn't be aired. Sam says Tom had the match of his lifetime. 

Bret says the place was rocking and he knew him from Calgary. He says he asked Tom what his 3 best moves were. 

Bret says he told him to follow everything he told him to do. Bret says he remembers hearing Vince went crazy and said Tom is their next champ. Ohno says the company thought they were looking at their next champ and they were, but they were looking at the wrong guy. 

X-Pac talks about a Magee vs Dibiase match that he thought was one of the best matches of the night when he went to the show. He says Tom could have made it and said he would have if he fought Dibiase, Hart and similar guys every night for a year. X-Pac was sure they'd see him on TV by the following week but nothing happened. 

Harry Smith says it's weird to have matches like that they were filmed with commentary but didn't get on TV. Harry and Tyson say Bret showed the match at a party. Harry says he asked Bret about it and says Bret would show him the next time he came. He says he'd go back and ask but Bret didn't know where it was and couldn't find it. Tyson says he would ask for the match when he was in developmental, but they couldn't find it.

Sam says he was a big tape trader but only a few people even knew about Bret vs Magee. X-Pac says the match was talked about in tape trading communities. Ohno says it never aired and said it was thought to be lost to time. Sam says it was a match nobody cared about and didn't know it would become historic. He said WWE had no benefit in keeping it either.

Tyson says Bret had all of his matches on VHS and says his secretary, Mary-Kate Anthony ended up with it. Mary says she's been a fan since she could remember and says you could see her with her Bret Hart signs. Ohno says she's a big fan and supporter. Mary says she had 2 bags of matches that were collected and converted them to DVD. She was then told to keep the tapes and thye just sat there.

Ohno says people didn't think it was legit as the wrong date was on it and Magee's name was spelled wrong. Mary says she didn't know how serious this match was and never knew they had it. 

Sam says the story was Magee would be the next big star and was everything WWF could dream of. He says it took them years to realize Bret was the guy they were looking for the whole time. Tyson says it's part of Bret's long story. X-Pac says Bret was good as he said he was. Sam says people are still catching up to how good Bret was. 

Sam says it took Bret to so long to become the top guy because he made others look like the top guy. Ohno says this is supposed to be Bret's masterpiece. Tyon says 5 years after this, Magee was nowhere to be seen and Bret was the champ. 

Ohno says 3 years later in 1989, Magee was still working with WWE but they parted ways. He says Magee then left wrestling. X-Pac says they'd see him at Gold's Gym. Kidd says he has no idea where he was. Harry says he met Magee and says he was nice, but not interesting wrestling anymore. X-Pac says there's a market for Magee meet and greets as he says there's demand for The Shockmaster.

Ohno says he wonders if Magee knows the legend of his match and says hopefully someone will reach out to him. He says maybe it would make him happy to know that people haven't forgotten about him.

Tom Magee then comes in. He says he was happy with the match and says it was a good wrestling experience. He says he can remember it being insane and says he remembers flashes of Bret's pink uniform. He says it was euphoric. He says his title of being the next Hulk Hogan is quite a title but he never heard it. He says life is full of opportunities and tragedies. He says whatever life he is in, it's still his experience of life. 

Tom says Bret was an amazing athlete and entertainer and thanks him for having a great match with him. He says he read about people's take on the match long afterwards. He says he's not surprised it resurfaced and he's happy people want to see it and care. He says he has never seen the match and doesn't know if he will be impressed or not.

Bret is asked if he wants to see it and asks if they've got it. Tom is asked if he wants to see it and he does too.

WWF 10/7/1986 - Tom Magee vs Bret Hart

We join this in progress. Bret side headlocks him and punches him. Tom blocks a boot and trips him. Tom cartwheels and backflips then armdrags Bret into an armlock. 

Tom armlocks him then armdrags him into an armlock. Bret backs him up in the corner and hits punches. Bret headbutts him. Tom moonsaults over him off the top. Tom hits 2 dropkicks and Bret is sent out. 

Bret goes to leave. Bret eye rakes him and clubs him. Bret atomic drops him. Bret elbow drops him. Bret chokes him on the ropes and sends him backwards. Bret slams him and legdrops his head. Bret stomps him and bangs his head off the buckles. 

Bret chokes him in the corner and boots him. Tom sunset flips him for 2. Bret stomps him in the gut then backbreakers him. Bret hits a 2nd rope elbow drop. Bret snapmares him for 2. 

Bret is sent into the buckles chest first. Tom back elbows him th

en cradles him for 2. Tom rolls him up for 2. Tom misses a dropkick when Bret holds onto the ropes. Tom is thrown out.

Bret tries to suplex him in from the apron. Tom back rolls him and pins him.

Thoughts: I never thought this quite lived up to the hype as the greatest bout ever but it was a fun jobber style match. Tom didn't get a lot in on this one and mostly did what he was supposed to. Tom oddly hit almost no strikes here and mostly just stuck to armlocks and a few dropkicks. I think if Tom had had a little more experience he could have done even better here as he really needed to hit some more moves on Bret before finishing this one off.

Overall thoughts: This was a cool mini-documentary. We got to see one of the holy grail matches in wrestling and they managed to get Tom on it, which really added to this. I thought they did a good job of explaining the match and Magee to viewers. It's too bad Vince wasn't on this as I think he could have really added to this by sharing his POV. I liked the match but it was similar in quality to something you'd find on television at time and it didn't quite live up to its hype as an all-time classic. I think this is a fun watch and worth a look but without living through all the hype of finding it, you might not appreciate it as much.