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

Bret Hart in WWE
Bret Hart | WWE

WWE Hall of Famer Bret โ€œThe Hitmanโ€ Hart appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show to discuss several topics, including if he ever thought a time would come when Vince McMahon wasnโ€™t running WWE.

Hart said, โ€œNo. I feel that, as great as he was as far as ideas and imaginationโ€ฆin 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 didnโ€™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] โ€˜Get rid of him. Heโ€™s done.โ€™ As much greatness as Vince brought to wrestling, he always brought a lot of negative and corrupted thinking to it. Itโ€™s kind of hard to explain, but there is a little more integrity right now and the guys being pushed are being pushed because theyโ€™re talented and not because they are Vinceโ€™s favorites.โ€

On Hulk Hoganโ€™s comments about him:

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

On if he still watches today’s pro wrestling:

โ€œI try to. I try to watch the pay-per-views. I find, in a lot of wrestlers, and I wonโ€™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 โ€™70s and early โ€™80s. We were from the Harley Race, Terry Funk generation, trying to copy them or mimic them. Thatโ€™s why I think the โ€™90s was the best era of wrestling. When I watch some of that old โ€™90s wrestling, it was really good stuff. I find that todayโ€™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.โ€

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