Ever since the controversial ending to WrestleMania 9, WWE Hall of Famers Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan have not been on good terms.
At WrestleMania IX, Yokozuna challenged Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Hart had a fight on his hands as he was clearly at a disadvantage against the 500-pound sumo.
The Hitman seemingly had the match won as he locked Yokozuna in a Sharpshooter, but Mr Fuji interfered and threw salt into the eyes of Hart. Yokozuna took advantage and pinned the champion to claim the title.
But that isn’t the controversy. Earlier in the night, a returning and mysteriously black-eyed Hulk Hogan challenged for WWF Tag Team Championships with Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake. The Mega-Maniacs lost to Money Inc. via DQ, however, that wasn’t the last the fans would see of Hogan that night.
As Hart lay defeated, Hogan came out to help his “friend”. Mr Fuji began berating Hogan on the microphone calling him a yellow belly because he was afraid of Yokozuna. Hogan accepted the challenge when Fuji put the belt on the line. Twenty-two seconds later, Hogan was champion and the place came unglued. Despite the fans’ reaction, it hampered the promotion – which was ushering in a post-Hulkamania “new generation.
The result made both Hart and Yokozuna look weak, which is something that has never sat right with Hart who wrote about the occasion at length in his book, “Hitman”.
“As scripted, with my face buried in the crook of my arm, I waved him to avenge my loss. “Go get ’em, Hulk!”
I was really thinking, Go ahead, Hogan, take from me what I worked so hard to get. We’ll see just how long you last! Hogan was champion again without even having a match—and before I’d even made it backstage. He simply ducked the powder Fuji threw in his face, clotheslined Fuji and dropped his big leg on Yoko. I could hear the one . . . two . . . three, the roar of the crowd and Hogan’s music thumping. I couldn’t help but stare at the TV monitor watching Hulk Hogan work the crowd with the same old posing routine, a hand behind the ear, shaking the World belt in the air as if to say it belonged to him all along.”
Hulk Hogan Spoke About His Long-Running Heat With Bret Hart
The Hulkster was a guest on the Full Send Podcast, where spoke about the wrestlers he had real-life heat with and of course, mentioned his rivalry with the Hitman.
“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 went on to talk about their feud that stemmed from the controversial WrestleMania 9 angle.
“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.
Then when Eric Bischoff asked me if I could work with him at WCW, I said, ‘Hell 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.”
H/T Fightful