Bret Hart speaks about his relationship with Vince McMahon and where he believes it all landed by the end of McMahon's tenure with WWE.
Bret Hart and Vince McMahon have had a roller-coaster relationship through the years. By the time Bret Hart became a five-time WWE Champion in 1997, he was one of the longest-tenured competitors working for WWE. He had even been a champion McMahon was proud to call "a real champion" in hindsight.
Still, three months after he captured his last WWE Championship, Hart competed in his last full-time match for WWE, the Montreal Screwjob at the 1997 WWE Survivor Series where McMahon personally went against the agreed upon finish for the championship match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels and told the referee to ring the bell to ensure that "The Hitman" would lose the WWE Championship in his last match. This incident would lead to Bret Hart punching Vince McMahon in the locker room that night. A punch that he is still proud of today.
Bret Hart returned to WWE in 2010, feuding with Vince McMahon on camera. Hart is still a part of the WWE family, but Vince McMahon is no longer part of WWE. He resigned as chairman in January 2024 after a lawsuit was filed by former employee Janel Grant accusing McMahon of sex trafficking and sexual assault.
In a recent interview, Peter Rosenberg asked Hart where he believes his relationship with Vince McMahon landed after all those years and how he feels about his relationship with WWE now that McMahon is no longer around. Hart believes he may have more respect in WWE now and may have been vindicated after all these years.
"I'll be honest, I feel like I have a little more respect now. I think people are kind of going, 'Maybe Bret Hart was right all along.' I've always been kind of banished and a little bit punished for all [that happened.] 'What do you expect? He punched out the boss.' I knocked him out cold in the dressing room. So it's always been kind of a black spot, and maybe still is, too. You can't really get away with, you know, I can't see Wayne Gretzky doing that," he said. "I just kind of always felt that I was less appreciated and maybe untrusted, like where I wasn't utilized as much as I maybe could have been or should have been. In my own heart of hearts, I would never change anything that I did. I did the right thing that day, and I feel like there's been a bit of an upswing, or a certain sort of an appreciation, more for my work rate and how hard I worked, and what I contributed to the business."
The legendary Submission Match between Bret Hart and Steve Austin at WWE WrestleMania 13 will be the first match inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as an "Immortal Moment."
This will be Bret's third time being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Learn more about the induction here.
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