WWE History: How the missing tape of the infamous Bret Hart vs Tom Magee match was found after 3 decades

On Tuesday, Twitter user @MaryKayfabe posted a photo of a tape box. Written on the side were the words "09/19/89 Bret vs Tom McGhee". The post quickly caught a lot of attention and was believed to be the infamous match between Bret Hart and Tom Magee.

Which one of you were looking for this??! @Stuttsy @Statmark @davidbix @MikeEpsenhart ??!! pic.twitter.com/O8xZxJzqbz

— Mary-Kate Anthony (@marykayfabe) March 27, 2019

For those of you who are wondering why this match is so special, let me explain. Tom Magee was a Bodybuilder/Strongman with movie star looks and a black belt in karate. He was having a tryout with the WWF and he had a match with Bret Hart.

Apparently, this match was so good that Vince McMahon declared that Magee would be his next champion and a big star. Wrestling fans' fascination with the match stems from the fact that Magee turned out to be a terrible wrestler and Bret had performed a "minor miracle" by having a good match with him. For years people have wondered how Bret managed to drag this dud to a good match.

WWE records everything for safekeeping and future use. They are great at preserving and releasing old footage.

In 2016, footage of the lost "Last Battle of Atlanta" cage match was found and uploaded to the WWE Network.

However, this match seemed to have been lost somewhere along the way. Colt Cabana had asked for a copy of the match while he was in WWE developmental, but he never got to see it.

Many fans were skeptical about the validity of the tape. The date of the match written on the box was wrong and Magee was also spelled wrong. However, former WWE wrestler, Tyson Kidd (member of the Hart Family), vouched for it and said that it had every chance of being the actual match.

Bret had sent these tapes to Mary-Kate for conversion to DVD, and she has had the tape for the last decade.

I don’t doubt the legitimacy of it at all

— TJ Wilson (@TJWilson) March 27, 2019

Mary-Kate didn't have a VHS Player on hand and didn't watch the tape till yesterday. It turned out that the tape did in fact contain the infamous match between Bret Hart and Tom Magee from 1986.

I have the VCR. Tape is in and I’m watching it. pic.twitter.com/Im7FUa90OA

— Mary-Kate Anthony (@marykayfabe) March 29, 2019

POST MATCH PROMO pic.twitter.com/B9yhUZKCcw

— Mary-Kate Anthony (@marykayfabe) March 29, 2019

This is a great find for those interested in wrestling history. Fans have been asking if the match will be uploaded to YouTube or another site eventually so that everyone can witness one of Bret Hart's greatest achievements. If the match is uploaded, I will update this article with a link to the video.

To get a real sense of what Tom Magee was like, here is his only WWF match that was aired on TV.