Bret Hart has never forgiven Bill Goldberg for the career-ending kick at Starrcade 1999 and the wrestling legend continues to be outspoken about his issues with the former rival. However, there are always two sides to the story, and the former NFL star has broken his silence on the continued prosecution.
The former WCW star recently spoke to Tim Green for his Nothing Left Unsaid podcast. He discussed things such as his issues with Triple H, Asuka breaking the record for his undefeated streak and more.
When asked to speak on the Bret Hart story, Goldberg mentioned how he was very green at the time he was paired with the Canadian Star and he learned a lot from him:
“Bret Hart, I was a baby in the wrestling business. I was in WCW. They had a rocket in my butt as far as trajectory is concerned character-wise. Bret Hart had just left WWE and we all know about Bret Hart being one of the best wrestlers in the history of the world. I obviously was looking for as many mentors as humanly possible.
This guy was, he was one of the best ever and so I was enthralled with him. I didn’t idolize him by any stretch, I don’t idolize anyone, but I put him up on that pedestal as to be someone to very much learn from. They put us together and I did learn a lot from the guy. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.”
It Was A Complete Accident: Goldberg
Speaking about the infamous incident, Goldberg took the blame for the accident but noted that he would never do something like that intentionally. The WWE Hall of Famer also objected to the continued animosity from Bret Hart and explained that he can only be remorseful for so long:
“Then we had a match and unfortunately, during the match, something went wrong. I kicked him in the head. It was very stiff, and it was an accident. I never maliciously would try to hurt anyone. Well, let me rephrase that. I would never hurt anyone in a situation like that where they give me their trust.
Because wrestling is like a dance. You can’t perform properly if both people aren’t doing their thing and I didn’t do the thing right. He caught it in the head and it ended his career. I’ve never lived it down. I’m not a malicious person and I would never take advantage of anybody, especially in a physical sense like that.
So it was a complete accident, but to this day, he thought or he thinks that either I did it on purpose or I was so horrible at what I did that it just happened. So that’s the Bret Hart story. I’ve heard it for 15 years and I’ve heard about him bitching and moaning about me kicking him on the head. I can only say I’m sorry so many times and I can only be remorseful for so long. So that’s where we are. I still want to kill him.”
You can check out Goldberg’s full interview where he talks about his time in Japan, his football career and much more below:
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