Bret “The Hitman” Hart originally retired from pro wrestling in 2000 after suffering a concussion from a thurst kick delivered by Goldberg at the 1999 Starrcade event. He came back to the WWE in 2010 and wound up competing in 11 matches, which included a WrestleMania match with Vince McMahon and an unorthodox United States Championship reign before once again hanging up his boots in 2011. But even at 65 years old, “The Hitman” admits he’d happily get back in the ring if not for his health issues, including the stroke he suffered in 2002.
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If I had no issues with my concussion and stuff. If I never had a stroke, maybe. Let’s just say I was healthy, at my age, I’d go back. I would have taken it pretty seriously. I would have wrestled a lot more over the last ten years if I hadn’t been hurt. All of the dream matches that everyone talks about, I would have loved to done all of them. Daniel Bryan [Bryan Danielson], CM Punk, Roman Reigns, John Cena, Randy Orton,” Hart said during a K&S Wrestlefest signing (h/t Fightful).
Elsewhere in the same signing, Hart talked about which opponents he would’ve loved to wrestle — “Kurt Angle would’ve been one of my primary guys [to wrestle]. I know he always wanted to work with me and I wish I could’ve worked with him. I would love to have worked with Brock Lesnar just because I always heard he was a good pro in the ring — opposite of Goldberg. Another guy that I wish I could’ve worked with would’ve been Rey Mysterio because Rey was really as special or unique as Andre The Giant was in a different way. There’s only one great masked wrestler in the history of wrestling that was really great, and that’s Rey Mysterio.”
Bret Hart’s Animosity for Goldberg
You likely noticed the shot Hart took at Goldberg in the quote above. He later went so far as to say the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion should be pulled from the WWE Hall of Fame.
“I always thought that if Goldberg got into the Hall of Fame then Horowitz should’ve gone into the Hall of Fame. Horowitz can actually wrestle. Goldberg never could. I think he got in there for hurting everybody he worked with…They should [on being told that WWE should put Horowitz into the Hall of Fame]. They should take Goldberg out.”
