Bret Hart’s disdain for Hulk Hogan is nothing new, and the topic came up again this week during an interview with the WWE legend’s hometown newspaper.
Hart took part in an interview with the Calgary Sun in advance of his December 17th induction into the Canadian Walk of Fame. During the discussion, Hart was asked about his influence on future generations of wrestlers. Of course, the topic of Hogan came up.
“I think it all goes back to when Gorilla Monsoon called me the ‘Excellence of Execution.’ I was just a guy who did everything right. I remember when I started wrestling, I knew how everything worked. I knew how to take turnbuckle (hits to the chest), I knew how to body slam. When you want to watch how to do something in wrestling, you watch my matches back. You’ll learn how to do a Sharpshooter. That’s how you do it. Want to learn how to do a standing suplex? That’s how you do it. I was always that guy,” Hart said.
“He didn’t know a headlock from a headlamp. He didn’t know very much.”
– Bret Hart on Hulk Hogan
He continued, “And all the Canadian wrestlers like Natalya or Edge were influenced by me. I think if you look back at wrestling when it was the Hulk Hogan show. He was six-foot-eight and a one-out-of-three wrestler. He didn’t know a headlock from a headlamp. He didn’t know very much. He knew how to do a clothesline and maybe a body slam. He was very limited.”
Bret Hart was crowned WWE Champion in October 1992. The World Wrestling Federation was undergoing a dramatic change during this period. After an era of larger-than-life muscle-bound champions, the Hitman ushered in a new era of technical excellence.
“Vince McMahon took a chance with me and made me that champion. It meant so much to me that I think I tried to live up to be that champion. It was about being the best wrestler. I gave so much as that wrestler. I was a good role model in the dressing room. All that means a lot.”
The SummerSlam Main Event That Wasn’t
Hart’s dislike for Hogan goes back to 1993 when the Hitman claims that Hogan was slated to drop the WWE Championship to him at SummerSlam in Detroit in a passing of the torch moment. Hart had lost the title to Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX earlier in the year, and Hogan came out to assist the injured Hart on the outside of the ring following his controversial loss. It was at that time that Mr. Fuji challenged Hogan to face Yokozuna; Hogan won the WWE Championship in less than one minute.
That eventual Hart vs. Hogan match never occurred in the WWE. Hart wrote in his 2007 autobiography that Hogan refused to lose to him because of his size.
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