Why Hulk Hogan Stopped His Friendship With Bret Hart
Bret Hart has pinpointed when his friendship with Hulk Hogan ended and claims Hogan was nothing but a roadblock in his career.
On July 24th, the news broke that WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan had died aged 71 following a cardiac arrest at his Clearwater, Florida home.
WWE has paid tribute to Hulk Hogan several times on TV, but Hogan’s legacy is a complicated one, as referenced by Cody Rhodes during his own tribute to The Hulkster.
Recordings which emerged a decade before Hogan’s death heard him claim to be “racist to a point” before using several racial slurs. And when it comes to other sides of Hulk Hogan, perhaps no one has seen such a stark difference in Hogan than Bret Hart.
Bret Hart Claims Hulk Hogan Halted His WCW Career
Appearing on The Ringer Wrestling Podcast, the usually forthright Bret Hart claimed Hogan never helped other wrestling stars reach new heights and noted that when he became WWE Champion, Hogan was never friendly with him again:
Hulk Hogan never did that for anybody. He never looked out for anyone but himself.
I always thought the day I won the belt Hulk Hogan would come up to me and pat me on the back and tell me how glad he was I was the guy that they picked to pull the sword out of the stone for him. And unfortunately, that’s not how it was. The second I won the belt, I was the enemy. And I had what he wanted, and we were never really friends again after that.
Hart then claimed that Hulk Hogan had trouble telling the truth and blamed Hogan directly for his lack of success when he made the jump to WCW in late 1997:
When I was a little kid, you go to school, elementary school, there’s just always some kids that are bullsh******, that just tell bulls***. Classic bulls*******. That’s just the way they are…but I think Hulk Hogan was a bullsh*****.
I will always shake my head and wonder why he was such a roadblock for me. He wouldn’t do anything for me. And he made sure, and I know this as a fact, he made sure that when I was in WCW he made sure that they didn’t do anything with…’Don’t do anything with him. Just leave him. Have him sit on the bench in the dressing room.’