Wrestling veteran reflects on Bret Hart's disappointment with 'a corporate run wrestling industry'
Bret Hart was an influential household name in the wrestling industry in the 90s. The wrestling legend's trifles with the then Vince McMahon's WWE resulted in his controversial departure from the company in 1997. Recently, Jeff Jarrett shared insights on his conversation with the 65-year-old in WCW around the transformation of his former company.
Following the incident at Survivor Series during his match against Shawn Michaels, Hart made it prominently clear that he was heading to WCW. During that time, a few other notable names in the industry had branded themselves with WWE's rival promotion.
On the latest edition of My World with Jeff Jarrett podcast, the AEW executive recalled his conversation with Bret Hart in the WCW locker room. He spoke on how they felt about the difference in the atmosphere between the two promotions and working under their former boss in WWE and in WCW:
"You immediately knew you weren't working for Vince McMahon. You're not working for any one boss. You're in a corporate environment. There's things candidly, the right hand doesn't talk to the left hand and there is no Vince McMahon, there is no Pat Patterson there is no machine. (4:08 - 4:26)
Jarrett further added that Bret Hart worked hard, but a corporate mentality seeping into the wrestling industry made it difficult:
"I'll say Bret (Hart), we were like that not only just disappointed, and just kind of the air out of the room, it's just like, 'well, all we can really do is well we can do, we can only take care of what we only take care of.' But that conversation was there. And so, you know, Bret's a professional and busted his a** and did what he could do. But we both knew that a corporate run wrestling industry is just very, very difficult." (5:06 - 5:36)
Check out the interaction below:
Bret Hart did not 'impress' AEW's Tony Schiavone as a singles competitor
Despite having a five-time WWE title reign amongst other championships, Bret Hart was not 'as great as Ric Flair' in Tony Schiavone's eyes. The AEW personality was associated with WCW for the majority of his career and worked with many notable names in the industry.
In a recent edition of his What Happened When podcast, he cited that Hart did not appeal to him as a singles competitor as much as he did in the tag team division alongside his family members.
11/9/1997
Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart by "submission" to win back the WWF Championship at #SurvivorSeries from the Molson Centre in #WWEMontreal, Canada.
#BretHart #TheHitman #ExcellenceOfExecution #HartDynasty #ShawnMichaels #HBK #HeartbreakKid #WWE #WWETitle #WWEHistory https://t.co/nmbcF8xJzw
The Hitman has made sporadic appearances on WWE television years after the controversial incident. He also appeared on an edition of AEW Dynamite last year to promote the inaugural Owen Hart Tournament.
Would you like to see Bret Hart potentially take on a mentoring or administrative role in WWE? Sound off in the comments section below.
While using quotes from this article, please add a H/T to Sportskeeda and credit My World with Jeff Jarrett podcast.