By James Caldwell, PWTorch.com assistant editor

Former WWE star Bret Hart says his favorite time period as a wrestler used to be the Hart Foundation heel run in 1996 and 1997, but now he looks more favorably on his first WWF Title run in 1991 as the babyface hero.

Hart tells Christopher Smith of The Mirror in the U.K. that he looks fondly on being greeted by fans in the hotel lobby, then having the respect of the wrestlers in the locker room for holding the title.

Hart makes it clear that his ultimate goal was to be respected as a genuine hero to wrestling fans. "It was cool being Bret Hart," he says in Part 2 of his video interview with The Mirror.

Hart says his eventual heel turn the late 1990s was necessary as the U.S. wrestling fans began to shift in their attitude. He says Vince McMahon convinced him of something he thought he would never do.

"It was a necessary change. The audience I really was wrestling in front of was shifting and changing," Hart says. "When Vince called me to turn me heel, I remember thinking, 'Not a chance.' Making too much money on my royalties with t-shirts."

Hart says it didn't take long for McMahon to convince him why he needed to turn.

"I got to the building and it took ten minutes. Vince is the world's greatest car salesman. He sold all that on me," Hart says smugly. "I realized I needed to do something different."

He adds that the difficult choice was losing his merchandise sales as a babyface, but he had more fun playing into the heel U.S. audience's new attitude.

"I always reasoned that it was more fun being a bad guy. I always made more money as a good guy," Hart says. So, you have to weight it - fun or money."

Hart says it was difficult to think about not being a hero to his fans outside of the U.S., but he figured they would still cheer him.

"Trying to be a hero - I found it harder and harder. When Vince laid that all that out, I thought 'Yeah, I might as well be a bad guy, but my fans will forgive me,'" Hart says. And they kind of did forgive me."

Reflecting on the heel turn angle more than a decade later, Hart says the tone of the storyline was perhaps too smart for a wrestling TV program and for the fans. In hindsight, though, the U.S. vs. Canada storyline stood the test of time to where it's still talked about today.

"It was a smart angle in wrestling. I always thought even when I said a lot of stuff about America - like gun control - when I watch it back now, that stuff was too smart for a wrestling show," Hat says. "It wasn't just a bunch of babble that you get from wrestling sometimes."

Link: The Mirror blog with Video of Part 2 of Hart's interview.

RELATED STORY at PWTorch.com: Part 1 of Hart's interview on "The Wrestler."

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