It’s been years since their shared heyday in professional wrestling, but Scott Hall and Bret Hart still don’t like each other. That was very much apparent when Hall spoke with British publication Total Wrestling Magazine and covered several topics for its print edition.
The animosity between Scott Hall and Bret Hart dates back to the 1990s, when the former was part of the backstage faction known as “The Kliq,” while the latter was embroiled in an intensifying real-life feud with Kliq leader Shawn Michaels. Speaking to John Pollock of The Fight Network in 2015, Hart recalled that The Kliq was a “ cancerous ” group of individuals. While he acknowledged how Michaels has been genuinely remorseful for a lot of his actions back in the day, the “Hitman” added in quotes published by Cageside Seats that Hall remains a “train wreck” to this day and was quite unpleasant to deal with back when they both competed in the then-WWF.
“Scott Hall, all you have to do is just look at him. He’s a train-wreck with his own life and he was a malcontent, or a guy that when you were close to him long enough you started to feel the same way he did…. He was a guy that was infectious with his bad, bad sort of moods and bad unhappiness in his own life that would spread to all the other wrestlers.”
By the looks of things, it seems Scott Hall has similarly negative remarks about Bret Hart, even if it’s been years since they were both in the prime of their careers, standing out as two of the brightest stars in what was then known as WWF. As he spoke to Total Wrestling Magazine (quotes c/o Wrestling Inc. ), Hall recalled his match against Bret at Royal Rumble in 1993, where the Hitman defended his WWF Championship against Hall, who was then wrestling under the name Razor Ramon.
That match ended with Hart retaining his title, but the execution left a lot to be desired, according to Hall. Specifically, he accused Hart of not making him look good enough in the ring, as Bret had allegedly no-sold his moves. In wrestling parlance, no-selling refers to a wrestler refusing to acknowledge that an opponent’s moves had hurt them.
“I’m not a Bret Hart fan. To me Bret’s really selfish, if you watch, there’s points in that match where I’m hitting Bret with what’s regarded as a hell of a working punch, I’m hitting Bret and he’s not even moving, he’s not even registering it. It was what it was, he was the new champion and he needed a win, which he got.”
Scott Hall also refreshed fans’ memories by retelling the story of how the Razor Ramon character came about, and how WWE Chairman Vince McMahon thought it was a brilliant gimmick, despite never watching the film Scarface . Hall had based Razor Ramon on Al Pacino’s role as Tony Montana in said film, with Razor’s catchphrase “say hello to the Bad Guy” a twist on the Montana character’s famous line, “say hello to my little friend.”
“(McMahon had) never seen Scarface , so when I came out doing the Scarface gimmick, he thought I was a genius, I never told him. I don’t know why they don’t introduce new characters with vignettes like that anymore.”
Was Bret Hart really that “selfish” in early 1993, and selfish to a point where he refused to make Hall look good in the ring? This is a topic that could potentially push the Hitman’s buttons, but it bears mentioning that Hart did apologize in October for making inflammatory comments about wrestlers such as Triple H, Seth Rollins, and the Fabulous Freebirds, as Forbes had noted. He hasn’t taken to the verbal warpath since then, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the often-outspoken WWE Hall of Famer has something to say about Scott Hall and his recent “shoot” comments.
[Featured Image by Larry Busacca/Getty Images]