Bret Hart On Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, And The State Of Pro Wrestling Today

WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show to discuss several topics, including if he ever thought a time would come when Vince McMahon wasn’t running WWE.

Hart said, “No. I feel that, as great as he was as far as ideas and imagination…in a lot of ways there is nobody like him. At the same time, I feel that he kind of governed things in a shady way. He didn’t care necessarily about the craft. I always thought about what he did to me. I like to think that I was his greatest artist and in the end I was just another [wipes hands] ‘Get rid of him. He’s done.’ As much greatness as Vince brought to wrestling, he always brought a lot of negative and corrupted thinking to it. It’s kind of hard to explain, but there is a little more integrity right now and the guys being pushed are being pushed because they’re talented and not because they are Vince’s favorites.”

On Hulk Hogan’s comments about him:

“I heard something a few months ago where Hulk Hogan was talking about me. He said, ‘The problem with Bret Hart is he really does think he was the greatest wrestler of all time.’ I remember thinking and going, ‘Yeah. Maybe.’ That might be the most truthful thing he’s ever said.”

On if he still watches today’s pro wrestling:

“I try to. I try to watch the pay-per-views. I find, in a lot of wrestlers, and I won’t name anybody, but I find the wrestlers are more actors pretending to be wrestlers today than actual wrestlers. I miss the ruggedness of the characters. Guys like Curt Hennig, myself, Dynamite Kid. That whole era of wrestlers that broke into the business in the late ’70s and early ’80s. We were from the Harley Race, Terry Funk generation, trying to copy them or mimic them. That’s why I think the ’90s was the best era of wrestling. When I watch some of that old ’90s wrestling, it was really good stuff. I find that today’s wrestling is a little bit more about promos and your character on TV and not so much your work rate. I like guys that throwback a little bit more to the work rate. Roman Reigns is a guy that tries really hard to earn the respect of my generation and be more realistic and more credible and believable, not so much an actor. I find that, especially AEW, I find they are mostly actors trying to pretend to be wrestlers and they gotta get on with real wrestling and quit acting so much.”

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