Bret Hart has earned his accolades as a two-time WWE Hall of Famer, spending decades in the world of professional wrestling and becoming one of the most notable names in WWE history.
His time in the ring is long done, however, and he doesn’t seem to be a fan of the changes that have taken place in wrestling since his retirement. Speaking in a new interview with HNLive, Hart recalled sitting front row for Clash at the Castle, WWE‘s first stadium show in the UK since 1992. He said he was “embarrassed” to watch wrestlers slapping their legs during matches and has a hard time reacting like a fan to modern wrestling.
“I went to a show not too long ago in Cardiff, a pay-per-view, it was embarrassing to sit in the front row and watch all the kids in the audience slap their leg as the wrestlers slap their leg in these kick spots where they pretend to kick each other with shin pads and slap sounds over and over. To realize that the crowd is in on it, the entire floor is clapping and slapping their leg. I’m going, ‘we used to try and make it real, what happened?’ Everybody is in on it. It’s a big giant charade.
“I had a hard time feeling the fan part of me come to life. When I watched Dungeon Wrestling and I’m watching this young girl [Zoe Sager] wrestling, just watching her take someone over in a headlock and having a real headlock on was so much more than anything I saw in Cardiff with the wrestlers over there.
“It goes back to simple art. Wrestling is an art form. ‘All art is simple.’ Wrestling is a simple art that is really just storytelling or good vs. bad, most of the time, anyway, and it’s an easy story to tell. Wrestlers have been doing it for decades and wrestlers from 2005 up don’t know anything about telling stories or what headlocks are.”
“It’s Just Stupid” – Bret Hart On Why He Wouldn’t Take Chops
One of the bouts at Clash at the Castle featured Sheamus and GUNTHER going head to head for the Intercontinental Championship. The match was a hard-hitting affair, with both men left scraped and bruised in the aftermath. Sheamus in particular showed off the effects of GUNTHER’s brutal chops, leaving his chest red and bloody.
Despite the match receiving high acclaim from fans and critics alike, Bret Hart doesn’t believe chops have any place in wrestling, and continuing in his interview, he explained why.
“When I see wrestlers today just slapping and the crowd going, ‘wooo’ and everyone keeps slapping, one after another and these guys have welts all over their chest and blisters and their chest hurt that night and they go, ‘Geez, I was an idiot tonight and let somebody slap me on the chest as hard as he could 500 times and my chest is killing me.’
“That’s what they used to do to the jabronies back in the old days, they would chop them, beat them, and slap them. I would never let a guy slap me and chop me. Ric Flair is the only guy that ever chopped me. He usually got to me in the end where I would tell Ric, ‘you can give me one chop in the match to get it over with,’ but as far as the match goes, I’m not going to sit there and stick my chest out for some guy to slap me on the chest for an hour.
“That’s not what wrestling is. It’s not about hurting yourself. It’s not about coming back to the dressing room and feeling…everyone knows that it’s not real, right? They all know what’s going on. So why are you letting someone slap you and chop you and whip you across the chest and hurt you and you’re in pain all night and you wake up the next day with blisters all over your chest and then do it again the next night. It’s just stupid.”
h/t Fightful