Though Hulk Hogan is maybe best known for his feuds with Andre The Giant, The Iron Sheik, and “Macho Man” Randy Savage during the golden age of WWE – aka WWF – one of the performers who still holds a grudge with him to this very day is none other than Bret Hart, the Canadian “Hitman” who has never missed an opportunity to talk some trash on a rival.
Discussing why Hart has violently disliked him since the early 1990s and has gone on to hold a vocal grudge against the “Hulkamaniac” to this very day, Hogan declared on the Full Send Podcast that “The Hitman” felt as though he tried to “sabotage his career.”
“The only other person was Bret Hart, who thought I basically sabotaged his career because Bret thought he should have been the greatest wrestler that ever lived. He said it was my fault,” Hogan said via Fightful.
Asked why, Hogan admitted he wasn't sure exactly but noted the situation surrounding WrestleMania 9 that spurned on the hurt feelings.
“I don’t know. It’s just different. Some guys see things differently. Like the Bret Hart thing, I really didn’t understand because when he got pissed at me, I won the belt from Yokozuna at a WrestleMania, where Bret lost, and Bret told me to go in the ring and wrestle, and then I won the belt right after Bret wrestled. The deal was for me to drop it back to Yokozuna. Then Bret got in my face, like, ‘hey, you were supposed to drop the belt to me.’ I said, ‘no, I’m not.’ He goes, ‘yeah you are.’ I said, ‘let’s talk to Vince, then.’ So we both went in and sat down and talked to Vince, and Vince looked at Bret and said, ‘Bret, that’s what you thought you heard.’ Ever since then, he hated my guts and wanted to kill me,” Hogan said.
“Then when Eric Bischoff asked me if I could work with him at WCW, I said, ‘h*ll yeah, bring him in. I can work with anybody.’ All of a sudden, we had about eight or nine great matches. We got along great, we traveled together, we had eight or nine good matches, and then when WCW’s over, he hated me. I said, ‘okay, whatever.’ But it’s just stuff like that.”
Is Hogan being completely honest here? Did he genuinely have no issues with Hart and opted to simply do the job Vince McMahon asked him to do, or was there some backstage politicking that saw the Hulkster tell Vince McMahon that he wouldn't drop the strap to Hart and thus, forced his boss to book something else for King of the Ring 2023? We may never know, but based on Hart's recollection, the latter is certainly a possibility.
Jim Ross backs up Bret Hart's claims about Hulk Hogan.
Discussing WrestleMania 9 on his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross noted that he, too, felt as though Hulk Hogan didn't want to drop the belt to Bret Hart and instead had Mr. McMahon book him to lose the belt to Yokozuna instead.
“You can’t say it was because, well, Hogan didn’t want to lose the title to a lesser guy,” Hart said via E Wrestling News. “There’s no way you can call Bret Hart a weak successor. It was the right thing to do, he [Hart] was the hottest thing we had. But, for whatever reason, Hogan didn’t want to lose the title to Bret, and I have never understood that. It’s just illogical.”
JR then went on to explain just how much of WWE's booking decisions at the time were centered around keeping Hogan happy, with the 1,000-plus day champion refusing to do the job to guys he felt were lesser even when it made the most storyline sense.
“[McMahon] made [Hogan] rich and famous. Everything [in WWE] was built around Hogan. Why aren’t you professional enough to do the right thing for the business?”
Who to believe, who to believe? On one hand, Hogan has been accused of not doing business for literally decades, with the multi-time World Champion initially leaving WWF after having a disagreement with Vincent J. McMahon over filming his “Thunderlips” scenes for Rocky III. On the other hand, we have Hart, a performer who has kept his feud with Goldberg alive for the better part of 30 years despite the WCW streaker wanting nothing more than to never discuss their final match together ever again. Though we may never know who is right, it's safe to say Hart will continue to talk about it for years to come.
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