Who are you to doubt El Dandy? Bret Hart doesn't.
Bret "The Hitman" Hart's WCW run isn't fondly remembered by the man himself, but let's not take away -- there were some great moments. An amazing match at Kemper Arena to honor his brother, another with Booker T on Nitro, and the now-famous steel plate that knocked out Goldberg. During that period, Hart also got to show his comedic chops that we didn't really get to see during his WWF run outside of his episode of the Simpsons.
Enter El Dandy.
During a feud with Dean Malenko, Hart proclaimed that Malenko didn't deserve a United States title shot. Instead, Hart stated that perennial job guy El Dandy or cruiserweight standout "Hypnosis" (Psychosis) deserved shots. Interviewer "Mean" Gene Okerlund scolded Hart, who replied with "Who are you to doubt El Dandy?"
The interview has lived on for over two decades since.
"I’ve always loved the El Dandy interview. It’s one of my favorites," Hart told Fightful. "I think ‘cause Gene Okerlund, I can’t remember exactly, but I’m not sure there was any rehearsing for that. We didn’t even talk about it. They just came off that way. Gene was such a good guy to play off of. I’ve watched it back many times. Sometimes I’ll watch it back with my youngest son, we’ll put it on and we’ll just start laughing. It’s one of my few happy memories of WCW times. I remember I did some interview with WCW where I said, ‘What am I talking about? What do you want me to talk about?’ It’s like, ‘We don’t know, just go out there and talk.’ It was one of the things in a lot of ways, that slowly deteriorated my stock in a sense."
El Dandy wrestled for WCW between September 1997 and March 2000, winning only eleven matches during that period. He met the most success teaming with Silver King, picking up a half dozen wins and actually leaving WCW after the team won four matches in two weeks. According to Hart, his line may have been in jest, but he maintained actual respect for El Dandy and others.
"No (he didn't approach me about it), but I did actually have a lot of respect and high regard for all the Mexican guys. They worked so hard. In those days they were the backbone of WCW in the sense that they worked all the house shows. They worked on the road. Guys like me and Hogan and the guys that were making the money all the time we worked, shit, I worked once every couple of weeks sometimes. Less than that even. So, in those days, even Benoit and Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, all those guys worked so hard. Guys like me were just getting paid the big money and working once every couple of weeks. It was never fair. So, I had a lot of respect for those guys. I appreciated how hard they would work. I think he, and I’m guessing, but I’m sure he probably appreciated that I gave him a plug. I would’ve gladly worked with him as opposed to Goldberg," Hart said.
Hart and Dandy never had a match, but Dandy continued to wrestle in Mexico for years after, last competing in 2019.
Bret Hart appears on a new episode of Corner Gas Animated on CTV Comedy on Monday, October 26. In America, you can see the first two seasons of Corner Gas Animated on IMDBtv. Our full interview with Bret "The Hitman" Hart is above.
