Bret Hart’s road to becoming a singles star in WWE apparently required more than simply waiting for Vince McMahon to keep his word. The Hitman says he eventually threatened to walk away from the company after becoming convinced that another promised push was about to disappear.
Speaking to Inside The Ropes, Hart recalled WWE promising him a major singles run after the Hart Foundation dropped the Tag Team Championships. The problem was that Hart had heard similar promises before, only for nothing substantial to come from them.
“Vince McMahon had then promised me that they were going to give me this big push. They’d been promising me this big push many times. They were going to make you a big star, and then they didn’t. Nothing ever happened the way they promised me.
And so then, when they told us that me and Jim were going to lose the tag belts, they were going to take the tag belts off us, and they were going to give me this big singles push.
I remember Vince going, ‘This is the real push, the real one that everyone dreams about. I’m going to push you to the top.’
So I got pretty jacked up and pumped up. I was really excited about this. I was going to go singles, and Jim was going to go into commentary.”
Hart said things immediately started looking suspicious after the Hart Foundation dropped the titles to the Nasty Boys. When he arrived at the next television taping in Las Vegas, he was determined to make sure WWE actually followed through this time. That’s when Hart learned that WWE wanted to put him against Mr. Perfect almost immediately. Curt Hennig had only recently regained the Intercontinental Championship, and Hart figured there was no chance WWE was already planning another title change.
“I ended up getting my push. We ended up dropping the belts to the Nasty Boys, and I got my push the next day after that.
Oddly enough, I know this isn’t the question, but I got to the TV tapings in Las Vegas after we lost the belts to the Nasty Boys, and I get to the building, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to hold them to it this time. This time, you better give me the real push.’
And if you remember, Curt Hennig had just won the title from Kerry Von Erich the night before at WrestleMania. So he was a new champion.
And I knew how to figure these things out. Like, Curt just won the belt back for the second time, and there’s no way they’re going to change the belt again for at least a couple months. I thought in my head, ‘SummerSlam. They’re going to change the belt. Not right now.’
So I’m like, ‘Hopefully, maybe he’ll get me ready for Curt at SummerSlam.’ And Vince called me in the room, and he goes, ‘We’re going to put you with Curt tomorrow, like right away, right after WrestleMania.’
And I remember saying, ‘Well, who’s going to win?’ He goes, ‘It doesn’t matter,’ or something like that. And I’m like, ‘It matters.’ Anyway, there was no title change planned for me and Curt.”
It absolutely mattered to Hart. From his perspective, immediately losing to the Intercontinental Champion would leave fans thinking he couldn’t get the job done, which was hardly the massive singles push McMahon had just promised him. So Hart decided to push back hard. He told McMahon that he was done and would simply go home rather than watch WWE repeat what he believed had already happened to him multiple times.
“And I’m like, ‘So you’re going to do the same thing to me that you did before. You’re going to put me in a match with a guy that I don’t win and I can’t win.’
And then I come up short, and everyone goes, ‘Oh, well, Bret Hart can’t get the job done.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m done. I’m going home. I’m not sticking around for this.’ Like, you guys promised me a big push, and a big push isn’t losing to Curt in my first match.
And I said, ‘You guys did this to me the last time. You did it to me the time before that.’ And I said, ‘I’m going home,’ which was a bluff, but I held him to it.”
Hart admitted the threat was actually a bluff, but he didn’t back down. WWE ultimately changed direction, gave him another opponent and began building him up instead. And Hart believes making that stand may have been the moment everything finally started moving in the direction he wanted. He correctly suspected that his path would eventually lead back to Hennig at SummerSlam, where the promised payoff finally arrived.
“And I remember that day, they finally came up to me and said, ‘Okay, we’ll put you with, I think I worked with Barbarian or somebody, and won.’
And they started to build me. And I could almost tell that by making that stand that day, I remember just telling myself, ‘I’ll probably get the belt at SummerSlam from Curt,’ and that’s what happened. That’s when I finally got my push, but I had to put a gun to their head, kind of thing.”
Hart’s story makes his eventual singles breakthrough sound a hell of a lot less inevitable than it looks in hindsight. The Hitman may have been bluffing about going home, but he was willing to gamble on himself rather than accept another direction he believed would leave him spinning his wheels.
Do you think Bret Hart threatening to walk away forced WWE to finally take his singles push seriously, or would his rise have happened anyway? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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.
