Bret Hart Believes WWE WrestleMania 11 Match With Bob Backlund Was His Least Greatest Match, Blames Vince McMahon
"I don't blame Bob, I don't blame myself. I blame Vince."

Apr 15, 2025
Bret Hart recently appeared on The Ringer's Masked Man Show, and spoke about his WWE WrestleMania XI match against Bob Backlund.
The match featured an 'I Quit' stipulation, and saw Bret triumph over Backlund in under 10 minutes, although Backlund didn't specifically say 'I quit', instead making an unintelligible noise into the microphone.
On the bout, Bret stated:
"I love Bob Backlund, he’s one of my favorite guys, but the match I had with Bob Backlund, the 'I Quit' match I had with him at WrestleMania 11, I knew it was going to be a disaster and I always thought that was my least greatest match. I don’t blame Bob, I don’t blame myself, I blame Vince, the guy who came up with the concept for the match. It was a dud before we walked out. I feel bad we didn’t have a great match.
"In fact, I love the match I had with Bob Backlund at Survivor Series. If people question my greatness, I’d like to have seen Hulk Hogan wrestle Bob Backlund. I’d like to have seen Shawn Michaels wrestle Bob Backlund or Triple H wrestle Bob Backlund the way that I did. Throw anybody you want in there, put them in there with Bob Backlund, and see what they can do. That’s not a knock on Bob. Bob was just a very old-school, a champion wrestler and great wrestler, but try to find the right balance of how to wrestle Bob Backlund. I don’t think very many guys could pull off the match I did with Bob Backlund.
"It was a beautiful match. I love Bob and the fact that I gave him that moment. It’s just one that I think you can name all kinds of wrestlers, throw them in against Bob Backlund, and see what they can do. Bob was a challenge to figure out the right ingredients and measures to tell a story and have a great match. I think we did that, and I’m very proud of that match."
You can find out where WrestleMania XI ranks in our updated ranking of every single WrestleMania event now.
H/T to Fightful.