Bret Hart’s legendary in-ring career was cut short during his forgettable run in WCW after getting kicked in the head by Bill Goldberg during a match.
During a recent episode of his “My World” podcast, Jeff Jarrett reflected on “The Hitman” having his career cut short after the Goldberg match in WCW, as well as the state of the wrestling business back in October of 2000.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the episode where he touches on this topic with his thoughts and memories.
On the state of the wrestling business in October 2000: “Because when you brought it up just a second ago, you brought that up in October of 99, they went public. Right. And how was I feeling? And to give a quick recap to get us from October of my first year in WCW, time after time after time, it was so obvious that, look, there were a lot of folks that contributed to it. But at the end of the day, Vince McMahon built this company starting in the early 80s, and he seized the moment at the end of 98 going into 99 because it took about that long. We’re going public. And with his leadership, they went public and forever changed the course of his family, his kids and grandkids and great-grandkids, you know, just changed the course. But it was on that his vision and his leadership flip going to WCW. And I’ve covered this so many different times and so many different angles, but at the very core of it. Get there. Russo’s in. Russo’s out. Eric’s in, Eric’s out. Committees in. Committees out. Just the corporate-run versus the strong visionary leader. Run. It just became so obvious. The rudderless ship. That’s why a lot of folks. And it’s fun on social media. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Or this was the first nail in the coffin, or this was the last nail in the coffin. I think at the end of the day, by design, it was set up to fail. Now, did it have to fail? No, but not just in the wrestling business. Any type of entertainment company.”
On Bret Hart’s severe concussion: “I remember when this kind of thing went down. A couple of factors went into my thinking, like okay, wow, he’s injured and that is obvious. Tabled as a cost-cutting measure. But is Bret done forever like? It was surprising. I think it was surprising in the locker room. And also I thought and. Partly known, read a long time, my own relationship and my relationship in that. Wow. He went from, we’ll call it, the Montreal Screwjob situation and it just really went south. I can’t say from day one, but his WCW career never followed. So it was one of those things that I remember in the whole timeline of WCW, that just massive disappointment in what it takes. Creative and talent. If you don’t have both, you are a rudderless ship, and it’s just disheartening.”
