Gunther respects the legacy of Bret Hart but refuses to acknowledge anything more than that.
WWE presented Clash at the Castle at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff Wales in September 2022, the first time a stadium show had been held in the UK for more than 30 years. The Hitman, who headlined SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium in London in a match against The British Bulldog, was sat in the front row for the show.
The match of the night and one of the matches of the year was the very physical clash between The Ring General and Sheamus over the Intercontinental Championship. The bout received high praise from fans and was rated 5* by Dave Meltzer. However, Hart was critical of the match and found it embarrassing.
The Intercontinental Champion was asked about the Hall of Famer’s critiques while appearing on The Bump. Gunther stated that Hart had a big following in Europe but refused to add any positive comments on a personal level:
“I think it’s obvious that, in-ring, he’s one of the best to ever do it. Very enjoyable. He was very popular in Germany and Austria. He was a big superstar there. I don’t forget, and that man sat at my match in Cardiff and was not mentioning nice things after that, so he’s not going to get anything nice with me. Too bad he’s not in the state anymore to settle this in the ring. It would be very interesting.”
Ludwig Kaiser, who sat alongside Gunther, added that his father beat Hart multiple times when The Hitman was starting out.
The Intercontinental Champion’s next title defence has been confirmed as a new WWE Championship match has been confirmed for Survivor Series.
What Did Bret Hart Say About Gunther’s Match?
The Excellence of Execution took issue with the multiple leg slaps seen during the night and how the audience was joining in throughout the match:
“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,”
H/t to Fightful.