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http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Hitman/2004/05/01/443758.html

Canada needs Cherry's opinion

By BRET HART

In 1995, I was approached by some old-school hockey guys, along with
Theo Fleury and Joe Sakic, with a proposal to bring WHL hockey back to
Calgary. I said count me in and was beyond flattered when they named
the team after me and used the colours of my wrestling gear as the
team's.

At the press conference announcing the team's debut, we unveiled a
cool, edgy logo. However, a handful of local media types proclaimed
the logo too violent. It was replaced by a logo so wimpy the team
couldn't give merchandise away.

After one season, it was quietly retired in favour of the original
logo, which the team still sports today.

During the height of the logo controversy, I couldn't help but smile
when I was kicking back watching Hockey Night In Canada and Don
Cherry, whom I'd never met, brought it up on air.

He defended both the logo and the team's association with me. He saw
anything that promotes junior hockey and brings in new fans as a good
thing. It meant a lot to me when he defended me and I never forgot it.

Now it's Grapes who is under fire -- again. My view is Cherry is meant
to entertain us and he does it very well.

His down-to-earth delivery is a breath of fresh air. They're his
opinions. He's talking for himself and, like anyone else, we're not
going to see eye to eye on every point. So just agree to disagree.

I've met Cherry on a few occasions now and he's just like the guy on
TV. What you see is what you get. The real deal.

Some say making money is Cherry's obvious motive and allege he doesn't
care what you or I have to say about him because he's laughing all the
way to the bank.

Let me tell you a little story: When Wrestlemania came to Canada for
the first time in 1990 at Toronto's SkyDome, the WWF invited Cherry to
be on the show.

Despite the fact there was big money on the table and it would have
been an easy payday, Cherry declined.

Not that he has a problem with wrestling, he just felt he'd stick with
what he's known for and does best -- hockey. It was a classy decision
that only begins to define a man who is tirelessly involved with
charity causes.

The Rose Cherry Foundation, named after the departed love of his life,
assists sick and dying children. He donated all the proceeds from a
recent reprinting of his biography to research on liver disease.

Cherry is at times brash, abrasive, arrogant and controversial but he
is a part of Canadiana -- love him or hate him -- and we're better off
with him than without him.


--- Internet Rex 2.29