Bret Hart Shoots On Vince McMahon & Shawn Michaels Being Lovers, Sheamus' Punches, Hulk Hogan, Dislike Of Low Blows

Bret Hart is famous for being outspoken within the world of professional wrestling and The Hitman made his thoughts on the industry today and much more clear during a 90-minute discussion with the Johnny I Pro Show on the anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob.

While reflecting on the screwjob, Hart admitted that he believes Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels were lovers during the 1990s.

"I really look at it and go, 'I'm really proud of myself.' When I look back on it more and more, I'm really proud of every single thing I did. Really, for probably a year, they were f*cking with me. Like just tearing me down. When I think about that time, Vince was such a slimeball, just a crook. He really was. Tell you one thing and then do another and tell you another thing. I kept my integrity. I was honest in every conversation I ever had with Vince. I always spoke the truth to him, told him what I didn’t like or what was going on or this happened," Hart said.

"Of course, we're here to talk about the screwjob. I really think, and I'm not trying to be so much controversial. I did realise a long time ago, I thought about it in 1997 when it was all happening. I remember going when Shawn, if you remember, forfeited the belt on Monday Night Raw and retired to go and find his smile somewhere. Really, when all that happened, I remember in the dressing room when Vince told everybody that Shawn was going to forfeit the belt because I think it was his knee. And I remember when Shawn, he was crying in the ring, and the tears were in his eyes and all that. I was watching on the monitor in the back with Vince, and me and Undertaker looked at each other and he rolled his eyes that this whole thing was a bunch of bullsh*t and that there was nothing wrong with Shawn. Especially when Shawn, if you remember, he went to the corner and did a standing backflip after he forfeited the belt. I'm going, he can't do that with a bad knee. This is all bullsh*t. Undertaker looked at me and pulled his eyelid down. The thing is is that Shawn came back and I remember Vince crying," he continued.

"When Shawn was in the ring talking about he lost some part of himself or he was going to find his smile, I remember Vince had the tear roll down his cheek. I remember watching it and going I think there's more going on here between these two guys. Honestly, I'm just being honest and blunt, but I suspected and now I really have serious, I think that Shawn and Vince were sleeping with each other. I'm just telling you, I think I'm very close to the truth here. Shawn and Vince were lovers. I'm being dead honest. When I look back, I got caught between two lovers and I got shafted and screwed over. And Shawn was so envious and jealous of my position that he finally had to sleep with Vince to get it. I would say it to Shawn if he was right here. I would actually really like to have Shawn come clean and say, ‘Look, we were lovers.’ Because I’m sure they were. If I saw Vince or Shawn here I would say, ‘I think you guys were lovers.'"

Hart doesn't watch much of today's pro wrestling. The Hitman instead believes the industry today is too fake, notably taking issue with Sheamus' worked punches.

"I'll be honest, I have a hard time watching today's wrestling. I just can't really watch it. It's too fake to me. I love watching the old 90s wrestling. I really do. When I watch my matches back or even like obscure Stampede Wrestling matches, there's something about the realism, the punches and the kicks, and even just the way the presentation is, it just seems to me to be more onus put on the workmanship of learning the craft of being wrestlers," Bret began.

"I think today's wrestlers are actors. Most of them are actors pretending to be wrestlers that don't actually know how to wrestle. They don’t know what a headlock is. Everything is a high spot. Everything is high spots, like I want to get my move in. I always thought wrestling needed to pretend to be wrestling. I miss the wrestling aspect and the psychology of the 60s and 70s wrestling. Just the presentation of pretending that it’s a real sport," he continued.

"Wrestling today is I see guys throwing punches and they open their hand at the last second and slap the guy and then close it by the time they pull back. What’s that Irish guy? Sheamus? He does those all the time and I remember I see him, and I’m like, ‘Why don’t you take 10 minutes and go down and have someone teach you how to throw a punch instead of throwing that embarrassment of a punch?'"

Such is Bret's lack of awareness of today's pro wrestling that he doesn't remember who MJF is, despite working a segment with Maxwell Jacob Friedman at AEW Double or Nothing 2019.

"MJF? Who is that? I'm just curious, who is it? AEW wrestler? As you can tell, I don't watch a lot anymore."

Hart also revealed his dislike for I Quit matches. While discussing his Submission Match with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13, Bret added:

"It's an I Quit Match or whatever and I was like those are the worst matches. It's like you take all the pinfalls out and then it's just submissions. How many submissions are there? There's Boston Crab, Figure-Four, Sharpshooter. There's like less than 10 anyway. I told Vince this is like sabotage."

The WWE Hall of Famer also isn't a fan of the uppercut low blow:

"I know Ric Flair likes to do that ball shot where he hits the guys between the legs and all that. Just so you know, I'm sure most people know, you're never going to win a fight doing that. It's just such a lame move. I've never ever understood why on your knees doing this [uppercut] is supposed to hurt. Stupid move, but for some reason wrestling fans buy it all the time."

For a low blow, Bret instead prefers the move where an opponent is on their back and the wrestler spreads their legs apart and kicks down. Bret noted he was inspired to use the move due to a confrontation he had with a woman at a Sir Rod Stewart concert when Bret was 18 years old. Hart ultimately knocked out the woman, which left Stewart mortified.

Bret noted:

"I remember telling Steve [Austin] in the dressing room. I said, 'The way we should do a ball shot from Calgary, Stampede Wrestling, we spread your legs apart and kick you, but we don't kick you in the jennies.' Kick him in the bottom basically.'

"Let me put it this way, I was at a rock concert one time, a Rod Stewart concert in Calgary. I was up really close to the stage and there was some girl about 6' 5" standing right in front of me, and she had a little girl friend with her that was just bopping around. Kept elbowing, and bumping into me, and bashing into me, and I’m just trying to watch the concert. I was about 18.

"Anyway, she finally got so mad she turned around and pulled my glasses. She scratched my face because I kept pushing her head. She turned around and clawed my face and knocked my glasses off my face. I remember I was like, 'This lady is driving me nuts, I don’t know what to do with her.' We were so close together if she had just kneed me she could have kneed me in the groin. She instead tried to kick me in the groin, and that’s where I got this move from. I swear to God.

"She was so close to me she kicked me right in the ass. Then I was mortified at what could have happened because she was out to really bring me down. Anyway, I won't go into all the rest that happened, but she had a shiner at the end of the night. I couldn’t do anything else, but I finally just had to knock her out.

"This is nothing to do with wrestling but I remember Rod Stewart saw the whole thing and he was mortified, looking at me through the concert like, 'That guy just knocked that girl out.' Anyway, that’s where that move came from."

Bret also still has strong feelings about Hulk Hogan despite The Hulkster's passing, calling Terry Bollea one of the "biggest pieces of sh*t in wrestling", along with Jake Roberts.

Reflecting on his match with Roddy Piper over the Intercontinental Title, Hart said:

"Roddy was really the first guy to reach down and pull somebody like me up to the next level and pass that torch. In contrast to guys like Jake Roberts and Hulk Hogan who never passed the torch to anybody. All they did was take and take and take and never ever help anybody. Two of the biggest pieces of sh*t in wrestling." 

Bret Hart wasn't completely negative about pro wrestling, however, and he put over Rey Mysterio, calling the luchador "maybe the greatest wrestler of all time."

"When I met Rey Mysterio, I still say this, Rey Mysterio is one of the greatest wrestlers, maybe the greatest wrestler of all time. Nobody can lace Rey Mysterio’s shoes up. He was such a great wrestler, a great athlete. He was just so good and such a smart wrestler and so amazing….Maybe when I was in my late 20s I would have loved to wrestle Rey Mysterio. By the time I was in WCW, it might have been hard for me to do the kind of match I would have loved with Rey Mysterio." Hart added.

Bret was also positive about John Cena and working with the 17-time world champion during his 2010 run in WWE.

"John Cena, can you imagine John Cena with the US-Canada thing I had going? Hypothetically, if the Screwjob never happened and I was still in WWF, that would have happened. I would have worked with John Cena and we would have done amazing stuff. I've always been really impressed by John Cena. I'll just say this, when I was back there in 2010 when I wrestled Vince and all that stuff, I found John Cena was very comparable or similar to me in the sense he was a serious professional. He was a detail guy that went over every little detail in the match. I remember watching him go over the match with different wrestlers and sort of just being around him, I remember going like, 'That's what I used to do.'"

Hart was so positive about Cena that he believes the 48-year-old is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

"I would think so. I mean, he's been around long enough to be a GOAT. He's been a great wrestler for a long time so I think he's up there, for sure."

A Bret Hart interview also traditionally includes a shot at Goldberg and this one was no different, with Bret saying:

"I would like to wrestle Brock Lesnar. I've always understood that Brock Lesnar - I heard that he wished he had wrestled me one time. I've always heard from different guys that Brock is a professional, like he's really good. He's not like Goldberg. He knows what the wrestling is all about and he does it right. Some guys like Goldberg never understood it ever."

If you use any quotes from this article please credit the original source and give an H/T to Cultaholic.com.