"Nobody saw any potential in me" – Bret Hart explains the struggles at the start of his wrestling career
In an interview with Calgary Sun, WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart said he faced a lot of judgment at the start of his wrestling career.
Bret Hart is one of the finest wrestlers to work for Vince McMahon's company. Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 and 2019 (as part of The Hart Foundation), and his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin is remembered fondly by fans. Hart was also a feature in the infamous Montreal Screwjob of 1997, considered one of the biggest betrayals in wrestling history.
During Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels at Survivor Series 1997, Vince McMahon changed the script of the bout, awarding the win to Michaels after he locked Hart in the sharpshooter even though Hart did not submit.
In the interview, Bret Hart said he was written off immediately after joining WWF in 1984. The Hall of Famer said he modified his wrestling style a lot to please the higher-ups:
"I went into a lot of detail to make my wrestling style and wrestling matches believable. I got to tell these great stories as a wrestler. When I went to WWF in 1984, nobody saw any potential in me. I was destined to be a guy that went nowhere. I wasn’t big enough. I wasn’t charismatic enough. I was a guy, in reality, who was going to change the course of wrestling back to when wrestling was about wrestling and not about how big your arms were or how many muscles you had."
Bret Hart speaks about the match that took a lot out of him
Speaking about his match against Stone Cold Steve Austin at the 1996 Survivor Series, Bret Hart called it one of the toughest of his career.
During an episode of WWE The Bump, Bret Hart reflected on the match at Survivor Series and said his body went through a lot during the encounter. According to Hart, it took him around two months to fully recover from the match against Stone Cold Steve Austin:
"I wanted to come back and pick up where I left off. I'll be honest, this match really took a lot out of me. It took me a couple of months to get back. I really was in a lot of physical pain because of this match at the time...maybe within about two weeks of the WrestleMania 13 match, it took me that long to iron out all the kinks and the pain. I was feeling this match for probably two months."
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