I've always had a lot of respect for Bill Goldberg - Bret Hart
Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart
WWE Hall of Fame Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart talks about CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan, tag teams in the WWE, wanting to wrestle John Cena and more in this latest interview.
Thoughts on Daniel Bryan and CM Punk: “I think it’s great. I think he’s [Bryan] a great wrestler. I think CM Punk’s a great wrestler. I’ll say this much. I think if you watch the wrestlers today, you know that they weren’t watching Hulk Hogan. They were watching Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Wrestling has gone in the right direction as far as it’s about the wrestling. A lot of people today don’t like the wrestling for the wrestling. There’s not enough wrestling, you know? The reality of it to me, watching it, I think Punk and Bryan Danielson and Randy Orton and a lot of guys, they’re every bit as good as all the wrestlers I worked with years ago. They’re really late on the line. There’s some great innovators that are coming up with new moves and things.
“Like, when I retired from wrestling I really felt like everything had been done. There’s not much left to do that I can think of. I couldn’t come up with a lot of new scenarios or new moves and stuff like that. Although I did always come up with a new one all the time. But in watching the wrestlers today, I’m very impressed with how many of them can come up with new moves and new ideas. If you really look at wrestling, it’s just a square and some ropes. It’s the same square for the last 67 years. It’s a very limited stage. You have maybe some stairs on each side, and a valet maybe, a manager, a referee, and some tables and some railings. It’s pretty limited what you can do in a wrestling ring.
“Everyday these young wrestlers today are creating new stuff. They’re coming up with new moves and really complex moves. The rings are better today and they’re not having to take the falls like guys like me and Jim took a lot of hard falls. The rings were a lot harder, the schedule was a lot harder. But I tip my hat to all the young wrestlers today.”
Wanting to face John Cena at WrestleMania: “Bret the Hitman Hart from circa, say 1997, the US bashing Bret Hart, would have to lay a beat down on John Cena I think. I think everyone would want to see that. To be honest, I really think John Cena’s character and Bret Hart’s, my character from wrestling, would have been a great [fit]. John’s a great wrestler. He doesn’t get enough credit for being a great wrestler. But he’s a really hard working, as hard a worker as there ever was in wrestling.”
Vince not liking tag team wrestling: “My understanding is that Vince McMahon himself doesn’t like tag team wrestling. He’s grown bored with it, or tired, doesn’t like it anymore. I love tag team wrestling and it’s different than all the other matches. I think it’s a real shame that they don’t do more to build the tag team divisions in wrestling because when you think over the last 30 or 40 years of wrestling, there’s so many infamous tag teams, great tag team wrestlers that were different. There’s a whole different thought process that goes into developing the tag match. I hope that they bring it back the way it was. I think there’s still some great tag teams in wrestling, but they’re not getting the highlight that they should.”
His relationship with Goldberg: “I’ve always had a lot of respect for Bill and I know that what happened with me and Bill, like when he hurt me with the kick in the head and all that, I know Bill doesn’t got a mean bone in his body and whatever happened with me and him was just, it’s part of the job. I do wish he’d be a little more careful. He’s a great guy. We’ve always been good friends all through the years. A lot of people think there’s a lot of bad blood between me and Bill, but there’s never been any bad blood. We’ve always been really good friends.”