Back in November Road Dogg sparked outrage across social media by claiming that he didn’t see what the big deal was around Bret Hart. He added that Hart wasn’t a great wrestler, and that he was a better sports entertainer.
These comments drew significant backlash on social media, not only from fans but wrestlers past and present who pointed to The Hitman’s catalogue of classic matches. In attempting to clam the storm, Road Dogg said that he had merely expressed an opinion, but importantly, he stood by it.
Road Dogg Comments On Bret Hart Criticism
Speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, Oh… You Didn’t Know, Road Dogg again addressed the situation, recalling a conversation with Bill Apter. The WWE Hall of Famer explained that he feels bad about how the situation went down.
“There was a lot of people upset about my comments about Bret Hart. And look I actually did an interview with a gentleman you know, Bill Apter, who called me last week. I was actually in the office in Stanford, and he called me and so we spoke a little bit. And he said, you know, I just want to do a piece about what you said, and do you think you misspoke? I said, yeah, look, maybe in retrospect, I could have changed some of the language, but the message would still stay the same, you know what I mean? And so that’s what I was talking about when I removed the word sports.
This is how I framed the argument, if me and Bret had to go out and tomorrow night in whatever building we were in, and we had 10 minutes to do something to entertain them, Bret would have to wrestle for those, you know what I mean? Like if I had it, I could do a couple more things is all I’m saying. Actually, I look, I’m still taking the p*ss a little bit, and just having fun with this. And can I be honest with you about something? This is from the bottom of my heart.
By the way, I was gonna say something different, and now I changed my mind saying the message. No, this is what I really wanted to say today. I really did too, I have been thinking about this a lot. I wanted to say it for two weeks, actually, but we haven’t recorded.
So I leaned into the Bret thing, you know what I mean? I leaned into it a little more than normal to get a bite to get a nibble. Holy crap, I got my boat so full of fish had to go to shore. So I was just looking for, you know what I mean, some steam, just looking for a little gravel, little something to sink my teeth into. And man did that happen.
But then I got to a point where I felt really bad inside my own head and heart and I had to do this conversation in my head like, Okay, you did that, but you did it for ratings. Is it really how you feel? How far did you go? Where was your real line at? You know what I mean?
And I kind of still feel the same way, but I leaned into it stronger than I should have by design, and it made me uncomfortable, to be quite honest with you. It made me uncomfortable for two or three weeks now. I don’t like the heat, I’ll say that. I got it, believe me, I got it and I felt it. And when I felt it, I didn’t like it. You know what I mean?
So that’s so that’s, it was an experiment to see like, okay, what you know, and so it was an exaggeration of my true feelings, but not too much. You know what I mean? Like I may have leaned on the fact that and, you know, when I said like, oh, well, he’s a good wrestler, or whatever, you know what I mean?
So I was doing things that were, I feel, I feel like they were disingenuous. And that’s why I feel like I’m guilty now. It was just, I just went a little over the top with it by design, and I didn’t like the repercussions that I felt. But I deserve them, so you’re welcome, if you needed that.”
Road Dogg’s initial comments came after he was questioned about the impact of Bret Hart leaving the WWF in November 1997. The Canadian famously left the company in the wake of the Montreal Screwjob after already agreeing a switch to WCW. Following his departure, Hart wouldn’t work with WWE again in any capacity until 2004.
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