Bret Hart Gives Modern Wrestling A “Fail”, And Here’s Why

Bret Hart is not afraid to speak his mind and now the WWE Hall of Famer has laid bare his issues with modern pro wrestling.

Bret Hart is considered one of the best technical wrestlers of all time by many with a career spanning decades that saw him win the WWE Championship on five different occasions.

Hart’s in-ring career was ended prematurely in WCW due to an errant kick by Goldberg and over the years, the hatchet has remained well and truly unburied between both men.

Speaking to Fox Sports Australia, Bret Hart had his say on modern wrestling and the things he’s not a fan of including chops and wooing – which might not be much of a surprise considering his opinion on Ric Flair:

I find a lot of the wrestlers today are like, when they land where they land, they realise 30 seconds later that they’re in the wrong spot, and they start wiggling all the way across the ring to get in the right position. That’s a fail. You get an F in my wrestling academy when you do stuff like that.

And when these guys dive over the top rope onto the 20 wrestlers on the floor – they’ve gotta stop doing that. It’s just not real … and with the chops, and everybody chopping themselves. What a bunch of baloney. Nobody ever won a match with a chop. All the wooing. It’s really taking away from the beauty and the art of great wrestling.

Bret Hart Reminds Wrestlers They’re Not Supposed To Get Hurt

Bret Hart continued that while there are many great wrestlers out there, there are too many relying on cheap heat and moves that actually cause their opponents pain, something he calls “Bill Goldberg wrestling”:

There’s a lot of great wrestlers out there that can deliver great matches. But there’s so many wrestlers out there that are subpar in my opinion, that don’t know what they’re doing out there. And they allow themselves to rely on things like chops, which I think is sort of like cheap heat – you get a reaction, but what’s your reaction? You’re whipping a guy across the chest with your hand? Okay, so you’re hurting some guy for real, for some stupid reason. And the crowd sort of reacts to it.

In my understanding of pro wrestling, anytime anyone does anything to you that hurts, for real – chopping, putting blisters on your chest when you go to your room or bed, anytime anyone does things to you for real, they’re in the wrong business. They’re doing it wrong. Because you’re not supposed to get hurt. You’re not supposed to come back to your dressing room that night, or to your hotel room and have a big lump on your head and a black eye and your teeth are knocked out. That’s Bill Goldberg wrestling. That’s not how it’s done.

The Hitman was a big fan of one modern match as Bret Hart called a show-stealing bout in AEW a “masterclass.”