One of wrestling's biggest stars arrives in Newcastle on Sunday for a grappling extravaganza. Paul White talks to Bret "The Hitman" Hart.

FIVE-time World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart is widely recognised as the greatest ever technical wrestler. Little more than a year after bad concussion forced him into retirement, the 44-year-old speaks almost quietly about the days he dubbed himself "the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be".

And far from damning his egotism, many of those in the business believe this label to be the truth.

Hart started training at an early age in the famous Hart Dungeon, a training facility run by his father, Stu, at their home in Calgary, Canada.

"I did that my whole life until I was 18," he says. Wrestling his brothers, he eventually joined the amateur circuit, and collected countless titles, until, at the age of 20, he turned pro and joined the World Wrestling Federation.

He'd watched and admired legends such as Bob Backlund and Harley Race - he eventually beat Backlund for the WWF title - but the plan was not initially a career in the limelight. "I actually thought pro wrestling was an opportunity to travel a little bit and see the world before I settled down to the home, job and wife and everything. But once I got in, one little door after another seemed to open."

His five WWF heavyweight titles were complemented by two Intercontinental title reigns and, as one half of the Hart Foundation - with his brother-in-law Jim Neidhart - two world tag championships.

Accolades followed, including "Europe's most popular athlete" (1993 and 1994), "most popular wrestler in Japan" (1994) and "most popular wrestler in the US" (1993 and 1994).

In 1997, he joined World Championship Wrestling after a bust-up with WWF president Vince McMahon, and twice captured heavyweight titles before his retirement.

But Hart's popularity stretches out of the ring: he's appeared in various films and television programmes, and has even had his home town ice hockey team, the Calgary Hitmen, named after him.

His career high-point was not a championship win, but a match in which he lost the Intercontinental belt to English brother-in-law "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith at Wembley Stadium, in 1992, in front of 82,000 people. "I knew that I had a really huge following in England and so did the Bulldog. When we walked out there was sort of an electricity that I've never felt in any other situation. I was absolutely the best in the world walking out to the ring that day - winning or losing that match had no bearing on me."

But when his WWF career ended, the feelings were bitter. A very moral man, Hart had been unhappy with the "lewd" direction in which the WWF was heading, leading to his fall-out with McMahon. "Pulling your crotch, all this perverse violent sexual soap opera that we see, lost its appeal to me a while ago," he admits, referring to the federation's Degeneration-X faction's gesticulations.

While the many highs of Hart's career have been world-dominating, the lows have been tragic. He almost hung up his boots when his WWF superstar brother, Owen, plunged head-first to his death as he attempted a spectacular ring entrance, swinging down from the arena rafters for a match in 1999.

"I really had to strongly consider whether or not I wanted to go back. It just seemed really hard to make any kind of wrestling story seem important when something like that's just happened. But I reached a point where I did decide I didn't want to end my career on that kind of note and that I wanted my career to end on a better note than a tragedy."

And he did, winning his second WCW world title before his career ended defending that championship against Bill Goldberg. "He kicked me - like a horse kicks somebody - in the brain," he recalls.

Alienated from the WWF and unfit to wrestle, he joined the fledgling World Wrestling All-Stars as commissioner, a role which sees him arranging matches and fixing bout stipulations, for a recent tour of Australia. He will reprise this role when the WWA arrives in the North-East on Sunday.

Alongside Hart on the WWA tour are fellow ex-WWF stars Road Dogg, Ken Shamrock and Jeff Jarrett. But looking at the industry he has spent all of his life battling in, Hart believes the showmanship and storylines that have dominated its development must give way to a return to more straightforward wrestling.

Having just watched two top industry names singing songs on television, Hart asks: "What happened to the wrestling? From what I can see, the ratings for wrestling are dropping at a staggering rate - that's probably as good a reason as any for the downturn. "I think the real wake-up call is that they have to remember that all wrestling fans like wrestling. I think it will shift back to the way it was."

* WWA are at the Telewest Arena, Newcastle, on December 9. Call the box office on 0870 707 8000.