Bret Hart is still not letting Hulk Hogan off the hook for one of WWE’s biggest missed dream matches.
During his conversation with Inside The Ropes, Hart looked back at the fallout from WrestleMania 9, where he lost the WWF Championship to Yokozuna before Hogan came out and walked away with the title moments later. Bret made it clear that whole situation left him angry, especially because he felt Vince McMahon had been telling him something very different for months.
Hart said he believed Hogan was never going to survive the schedule he had been working as champion. Bret also said he started putting the pieces together in his own head and figured WWE had to be heading toward Bret Hart vs. Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam. Bret said fans were already comparing the two, and in his mind, the match made too much sense not to happen.
“I remember figuring it out in my head. It’s like I’m probably going to wrestle Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam.”
“The fans are going to make Vince put Hogan against me cuz it’s the one everyone wants to watch.”
Then came the phone call. Hart said Vince McMahon called him before King of the Ring and laid out the plan. According to Bret, this wasn’t some vague idea being kicked around. Vince told him he was going to face Hogan at SummerSlam, lock him in the Sharpshooter, and make him tap out in the middle of the ring. Hart said he immediately knew how massive that call was.
“Vince tells me within about 2 minutes that he’s going to have me wrestle Hogan at SummerSlam and I’m going to put him in the Sharpshooter and he’s going to tap out right in the middle of the ring.”
“I remember looking at my wife and going this is like a big call.”
Bret said Vince told him not to say anything yet because he still had to speak with Hogan. That is where the whole thing blew up. According to Hart, Vince called him the next day and told him Hogan had shut it down cold.
“Vince calls me the next day and says you’re never going to believe what Hogan said.”
Bret claimed Hogan refused to work with him, refused to drop the title to him, and dismissed him as not being on his level.
“Hogan said word for word is that I was never in his league and that he wouldn’t drop the belt to me under any circumstances and that he wouldn’t even work with me period and refused to work with me.”
Hart said that was especially ugly because Hogan had already told him backstage after WrestleMania 9 that he would return the favor. Bret said he did not buy it even at the time.
“The first thing Hogan said to me in the dressing room was uh just want you to know I’m happy to return the favor.”
“I looked at him and said I’m going to remember that Terry. I’m going to remember that.”
Hart said Hogan’s decision did more than kill a major SummerSlam match. In Bret’s eyes, it changed the course of his career. Bret also made it clear there was real money attached to that spot. He said the world champion was the highest-paid guy in the company at the time, and holding that title finally had him making the kind of money he had been chasing his whole career.
“Hogan refused to work with me, refused to put me over, refused to do anything with me and basically changed my destiny.”
“The world champion at that time was the highest paid guy in the company. He got the biggest check every week, whoever the champion was.”
For Bret, the issue was not just that Hogan walked away from a match. It was that Hogan had a chance to help launch him as Vince McMahon’s next top guy and chose not to do it. In the end, WWE fans never got Bret Hart vs. Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam with Hogan tapping to the Sharpshooter. Instead, Hogan dropped the title back to Yokozuna, and Bret had to wait to get back to the top of the company.
Do you think Hulk Hogan should have put Bret Hart over at SummerSlam, or was WWE right to go in another direction? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.
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