Bret Hart secured his spots in the pro wrestling history books more than two decades ago. Many believe Gunther has already earned his spot as one of the all-time greats. The mat technicians have shared the WWE ring, but obviously never done battle, and now Hart has made surprising remarks on how he really feels about the international phenomenon.
The Ring General headlined Night One of WWE’s inaugural two-night SummerSlam. After a grueling 30-minute slugfest, CM Punk nixed Gunther’s second reign with the World Heavyweight Championship at just 53 days, fueling rumors on a possible hiatus for the 37-year-old Austrian. Punk and Gunther traded countless brutal knife edge chops at MetLife Stadium, but Gunther’s signature chops inflicted enough damage so that Punk was easy prey for Seth Rollins, who shockingly cashed in his Money In the Bank briefcase to capture the strap.
The Hitman appeared at Summer Bash 2025 from NYC’s Gramercy Theatre for a live recording of The Ringer’s Masked Man Show, hosted by Kazeem Famuyide and David Shoemaker. Held the Thursday before WWE SummerSlam, the hip-hop-and-wrestling event was created by WaleMania producers. In discussing today’s pro wrestling, Hart shared his thoughts on selling, and said the best in-ring work looks real but is far from it. He also recalled meeting Gunther before taking shots at the use of knife edge chops.
“I don’t want to… I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn all the time, but the best wrestling has to pretend to be real. That’s what I did, I tried to make it as real as I could, and contrary to that Gunther guy, who seemed like a nice guy when I met him, but I hate wrestlers that hurt each other on purpose. I hate it when you’re out there getting beat up and hurt by a guy, for real, and everybody thinks it’s… like chops, whoever won a fight with a chop?,” Bret Hart asked.
RAW on September 9, 2024 was held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Hour two kicked off with Wade Barrett interviewing Bret Hart in the ring. After comments on what championship material means, Hart was interrupted by then-World Heavyweight Champion Gunther.
Bret Hart Recalls Brutal Conversation With Gunther
Gunther began his promo by naming Bret Hart as a childhood hero. However, the Imperium boss went right to trolling and insulting Hart until Sami Zayn came out to defend his fellow Canadian as part of the build to his unsuccessful title shot the following month.
The Excellence of Execution continued hurling verbal jabs at Gunther while Zayn got physical. In his tirade against the use of the knife edge chop while appearing on The Masked Man Show, Hart continued and labeled the move a waste of time.
Bret Hart then shifted to Ric Flair’s success with the chop, and recalled how his legendary father Stu Hart felt about the strike. The 7-time WCW champion admitted to being in pain the day after a match with The Nature Boy.
“You know… what a waste of time. I don’t know, Ric Flair’s famous for bringing the chops to where they are now, but I remember my dad used to tell wrestlers in Stampede Wrestling, he said, ‘Nobody ever beat anybody with a chop!,’ And it’s true… they hurt, they look like s**t, they make a big slap sound but they hurt. When you get chopped by someone like Ric Flair, in a 30-minute match, and he chops you 15 times in the match, your whole chest the next day is just bruises, and it hurts to even put a shirt on, and I’m always going, when I used to wrestle Ric Flair, and I used to wake up and go, ‘Why am I hurting so much?’ And then it’s like, ‘Doesn’t Ric Flair know that it’s a show?’ [everyone laughs] It’s not supposed to be real, I’m not supposed to really wake up with a really sore chest the next day,” Bret Hart said.
Hart continued and doubled down on his stance, announcing that he has no respect for wrestlers that are known to hurt each other in the ring. The 1991 and 1993 King of the Ring then recalled a night where he confronted the 2024 KOTR.
“So, I have no respect for guys that hurt each other all the time. It’s just, to me, lazy s**t wrestling when guys like that Gunther keep… and I’ve told him this to his face: it’s bulls**t. Like, when you’re hurting somebody for real, you’re unprofessional, and I wrestled guys and never hurt anybody. When I used to come back to the dressing room, my kicks, my stomps, when I jumped off and hit… you know, all the stuff I did, the beauty of what I did is that it looks like it really hurts a lot, but I never hurt anybody, ever. I could’ve done the same stuff to my mother,” Bret Hart said.
Bret Hart and Ric Flair shared the ring around 60 times from 1991-2000. Out of their 52 one-on-one encounters, Flair won just four times: their first-ever match by count-out on WWE Superstars in November 1991 for Bret’s Intercontinental Championship, then three count-out wins on the 1992 European Rampage tour to retain the WWE Championship. The last Hart vs. Flair match took place January 6, 2000, with Bret headlining a WCW house show in Roanoke, VA by retaining the World Heavyweight Championship.