Bret Hart has taken plenty of punishment throughout his legendary career, but one match from 1989 still stands out for all the wrong reasons. Looking back on it now, Hart says he came frighteningly close to suffering a career-ending injury after taking a move from One Man Gang.
Speaking to Inside the Ropes, Hart reflected on his days teaming with Jim Neidhart as The Hart Foundation and remembered a match against The Twin Towers, where One Man Gang was wrestling as Akeem.
Hart explained that One Man Gang told him to go for a sunset flip after hitting the ropes. Bret did exactly that, but instead of taking the bump as expected, the much larger wrestler dropped his full weight directly onto Hart’s chest.
“One Man Gang threw me in the ropes. Funny, I just watched this at home a few days ago, but he threw me in the ropes and told me to sunset flip him. And so, I sunset flipped him, and he did one of those where he almost fell down, like almost falling, and then he just kicked his both legs out and sat on my chest. And not a good move.”
Hart estimated One Man Gang weighed around 600 pounds at the time and said the impact immediately left his entire body numb. Lying in the ring, he genuinely believed he’d come incredibly close to being paralyzed.
“I think I came maybe like a hair close to paralyzing myself, and it’s like a 600-pound guy sits on your chest from about that high and just drops. I had this numb feeling over my whole body like I was paralyzed. I was lying in the ring going, I think that’s about as close as you can get to being paralyzed. Like, he almost broke—he almost paralyzed me.”
Despite the terrifying moment, Hart doesn’t look back on the match with any bitterness. In fact, he said it was the only match The Hart Foundation had against that version of The Twin Towers, and he still remembers it as a good one.
“But that was just one match… but it was a great match. And we loved working with him.”
Hart has always been open about the physical toll wrestling took on his body, but this is one of the few moments he says genuinely made him think his career could have ended in an instant. Looking back decades later, it’s a reminder of just how dangerous even a routine spot can become when something goes slightly wrong.
What’s the scariest in-ring moment you’ve ever seen a wrestler survive? Let us know in the comments below.
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