Bret Hart Bashes WrestleMania 32, Praises NXT
Prior to WWE’s biggest show of the year, WrestleMania 32, Hall of Famer Bret Hart called the card “the worst in history.” It doesn’t seem like Hart has changed his mind that much since the event took place.
In his latest podcast for WrestleZone Radio, TheSharpshooter Show, Hart revealed his thoughts on each match of the WrestleMania card, and while he praised the Brock Lesnar versus Dean Ambrose match for being at least somewhat believable, Bret didn’t necessarily agree with WWE bringing in former wrestlers such as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Mick Foley and his longtime nemesis Shawn Michaels to steal the spotlight from the current superstars on the WWE roster. Hart also feels that the segment in which The Rock appeared just had no natural feel to it whatsoever.
“For me, I think it was another case of a bunch of dweebs sitting around a table going ‘you know what I think this is what we should do.’ Again there’s no reality to it. Rock suddenly has his trunks on under his sweatpants like the whole thing was staged. That’s what killed it for me, as soon as I saw him pull off his sweats it’s like ‘this is all set up’.”
Bret also commented on the paycheck that The Rock likely received for his WrestleMania 32 appearance, and also brought up the inclusion of Shaquille O’Neal, who will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame this September, as a participant in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
“The truth of it is probably Rock picked up more money, got a bigger check than all the wrestlers in that battle royal, except for Shaq. I don’t know what he got but he definitely didn’t get what Rock got. All the Cody Rhodes, and all the girl wrestlers, all the rest of them you could stack their paychecks one on top of the other and they’re not going to make anything close to what Shaq made, they’re not going to make anything close to what The Rock made, and they’re the ones that are on the road 300 days a year.”
Hart also had some pretty harsh things to say about the seven-man ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship.
“It’s just a prop match. That’s all it was. Just a bunch of stupid spots with the ladders where people are hitting each other and doing stupid stuff with the spots. I know there’s a lot of hard bumps in there. I never thought any of it made any sense. There were times when guys were walking up the ladder, climbing up the ladder, like at a snail’s pace waiting for someone to come pull them down. Then of course when Zack Ryder won it he just whips up the ladder like it’s nothing. I was really disappointed with the whole thing.”
“I thought that [Nakamura vs. Zayn] was the best match of the whole WrestleMania. And think the other match with the two girls, Asuka and Bayley, that was a better match than any of the other matches, men included, at WrestleMania. I would have paid to see just those two matches…. the WrestleMania card was all glitz, there was no real wrestling on it. All the real wrestling – the kind of wrestling that I like, that goes right to my heart – was in those two matches.”
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