Goldberg previously admitted he’s spent years feeling remorse over the kick that ended Bret Hart’s career. It doesn’t sound like that’s changed anything for “The Hitman.”
While speaking to Inside the Ropes, Hart was asked why the infamous Starrcade 1999 incident still bothers him all these years later. The interviewer even wondered if part of the issue was that Hart doesn’t believe Goldberg has shown enough remorse. Hart’s answer was as blunt as it gets.
“Um, I carry grudges.”
Hart admitted he’d like to say he’d made peace with what happened, but quickly corrected himself. He said the frustrating part is that he actually wanted to work with Goldberg and believed he could help turn him into a much better wrestler.
“I want to say I would have been okay with that. Like, you know, that I’m not… No, I’m not okay with that. But I tried really hard to help Bill and looked forward to working with him. And I knew he was green and all that and that he hurt a lot of guys, but I was like, ‘I’m going to try to teach you.’”
According to Hart, his goal wasn’t simply to have a good match. He said he genuinely believed Goldberg had the tools to become an even bigger star if someone could teach him how to work safely and understand what professional wrestling is supposed to be.
“I’m going to try to really educate you, take you up way higher than you are, and really teach you how to work. Because Bill was one of those morons that thought that wrestling was real, that he was really winning all these matches because he was such a phenomenal tough guy. Um, I’m not kidding.”
Hart then explained why that mindset has always bothered him. He said wrestling is built around protecting the person you’re in the ring with, even though the goal is to make everything look as violent as possible to the audience.
“Like, I think when I hear him talk about this stuff today, it’s like, doesn’t he know that it’s all pretend? Like, wrestling is not real. Like, we’re not really hurting each other. We’re out there, we do hurt each other, but we protect each other. And it’s a performance. Wrestling is a performance art.”
Hart also made it clear that his attempts to help Goldberg didn’t begin right before their infamous match. He said he’d been offering Goldberg advice from the very first day they met because he’d already seen several wrestlers get hurt while working with him.
“And, um, I did talk to Bill from the day, the first day I met him. I was always trying to give him advice and help him out. And I really wanted to teach him and sort of, because I know he hurt so many guys before he ever worked with me.”
Hart pointed to several examples that still stick with him today. He named Curt Hennig and Haku while claiming Goldberg had already injured multiple wrestlers before the two of them ever shared a ring.
“He hurt Curt Hennig. He almost broke Haku’s neck. He hurt five or six guys in very serious ways where they’re like career-ending stuff.”
One memory, in particular, has never left him. Hart recalled watching Curt Hennig struggle just to make it back to the locker room after getting hurt.
“And, um, and I watched him hurt guys, and I watched guys crawl back. I watched Curt Hennig crawl on his stomach to the dressing room because he got hurt by Goldberg.”
Despite all of that, Hart said he actually liked Goldberg back then. That’s why he wanted to help him become a safer performer, believing it would benefit both Goldberg and the wrestling business as a whole.
“And I liked Bill, and I was trying to help him. And I thought he was a guy that, um, could be a good, um, like a big star in the business, and it would be beneficial to everyone if someone could teach him how to wrestle and somehow explain to him that it’s not real. But he was too stupid.”
Hart has never hidden how he feels about the incident that ended his career, but these latest comments reveal why the resentment has lasted so long. From his perspective, the biggest disappointment isn’t just the injury itself—it’s believing the opportunity to prevent it was there long before they ever stepped into the ring together.
Do you think Bret Hart and Goldberg will ever put this behind them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
