Bret Hart has surprisingly revealed that Vince McMahon didn’t know the finish to his legendary showdown at SummerSlam 1992 against the British Bulldog.
During his Hall of Fame career, Bret Hart garnered a reputation as one of the best technical wrestlers in the world. With it often being said that The Hitman could put on a great match with the proverbial broomstick.
A match often cited to show Hart’s legendary prowess between the ropes is his clash with the British Bulldog at SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium. In the match, which many regard at the best of the Bulldog’s career, Hart and the British legend put on a wrestling clinic. A clinic largely credited to Hart’s ability to lay out and craft a match.
Speaking in a new interview with CBC’s Q Podcast, Bret Hart explained that it was this approach that earned him the trust of not only his fellow wrestlers, but also the WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon. This led to McMahon trusting Hart with the finish of one of the most famous matches in SummerSlam history.
Hart said that McMahon, who would be sitting ringside on commentary, told him not to reveal the end of the match ahead of time.
“Before I was ever champion, most wrestlers would sit down and go to me, ‘What are we doing?’ And I would tell them what we’re doing,”
“And I was a guy that was [that way] even with Vince McMahon. When I think of wrestling the British Bulldog at Wembley Stadium. I remember telling Vince. I said, ‘Do you want me to tell you the ending?’ And he goes, ‘Don’t tell me the ending! I want to watch it.’”
The match which ended with the British Bulldog lifting the Intercontinental Championship in front of 80,000 fans in London was arguably the high point of his career. A career and a life that was tragically cut short in May 2002 when he sadly passed away, aged just 39.
Although Bulldog died of a heart attack, it has been suggested that years of abusing steroids and pain medication ultimately led to his death.
Hart said that it was sad to watch his brother in-law go down the path that he did.
“Watching what happened with my brother-in-law, the British Bulldog, was really sad,” Hart lamented. “To see him go down the way he did. Some people are more vulnerable than others and he was one of those guys. He was just very vulnerable to that and it brought him down and he could never get off. And it proved to be his demise. And that’s happened to quite a few. But I just – I don’t think of myself as better than them necessarily. Just that I was more careful.”
Bret Hart went on to win his first World Championship just two months after defeat in London defeating Ric Flair.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.