Bret Hart Says “Loser, Maggot” Eric Bischoff “Killed the Wrestling Business”

Bret Hart was on the Sam Roberts Podcast earlier this week and ranted about Eric Bischoff:

I think WCW will kill any kind of joy in your life. I think I started to hate money. The money they paid me was insane. I’d fly down in a first class plane and luxury car and then Eric Bischoff would tell you you’re off tonight. I flew all the way down here for what? I didn’t go there to dog it. I came here to work. I want to tear this place apart. Let me wrestle. Give me something.

They were so bad. They’d kill any hope in anybody. They’d destroy anybody. I don’t have a good thing to say about Eric Bischoff or anything he ever did. Talk about the Midas touch, he was the opposite. He could kill your career, he was too stupid to know what a career was. If you had a passion for your matches and a genius for wrestling talent, it didn’t mean anything to Eric Bischoff. He was the worst loser, maggot that ever got into wrestling. He was just the worst. He’s a nice enough guy, but he was just the worst. I feel so bad. I went to WCW really wanting to make a difference. If you look at WCW, all the names they had. They had everything. All they needed was somebody who knew what to do. Someone with half a brain.

Speaking of Bischoff, I’ve heard his quote, which is why I get pretty hostile about him, about how when Bret Hart came here, he was like a broken toy who didn’t have the same fire. I could strangle him when I hear him say that. That is so not true. I was on fire. I wanted to take the world on. I wanted to take that whole company, I wanted to kick Vince right in the teeth. Give me Booker T, give me Benoit, give me Sting, give me Hogan and we’ll get this thing really rocking here. And he was such an idiot. I mean, I would say that right to him if he was sitting here. You are an idiot and you cost everybody… You look at wrestling today, it’s a monopoly. The wrestlers themselves have no leverage of any kind. Like ‘oh, if you don’t pay me, I’m gonna go to WCW’ like the old days. That was so much better for the wrestlers because then we have a bargaining table. Today, no. And that’s all Eric Bischoff’s fault. He killed the wrestling business.

I mean, I like Eric. He was always nice to me. There’s things he did, like he flew me home after my brother Owen died. And paid me the whole summer and whole winter, a ridiculous wage. He did a lot of good things like that, but at the same time, he lied to me and just killed my career.

Audio starts around the 52 minute mark:

Bischoff’s Response

Eric Bischoff appeared on the Sam Roberts Podcast yesterday and responded to Bret:

I didn’t listen to your show with Bret. I’m generally aware of the kinds of things that Bret said, because he’s been saying them for years. He’s just a miserable guy. He’s the type of guy that’s got a giant hole in his soul and he’s gotta fill it with hate for somebody. When he came to work for me, he hated Vince McMahon, he hated everybody in the McMahon family. He hated Shawn Michaels. He didn’t want to work with Hulk Hogan. He hated Ric Flair. He hated Kevin Nash, he hated Scott Hall, he hated everybody, and I had to listen to that.

Bret showed up in WCW and it makes me laugh how he says he doesn’t like how he was treated because we paid him a ton of money, we treated him extremely well. He would show up 45 minutes before TV started, looking like he’d been sleeping in a gutter for 3 days. He had no energy, no desire to integrate himself. He wasn’t at all passionate about anything he did from day 1.

He was a shell of his former self from WWE and if Bret was really honest about it, he’d look back and see that he didn’t put the effort into it. Talk to people who worked with him at that time. It’s not just my opinion.

He has a hole in his soul that requires him to hate someone: Happy to help him deal with his day. https://t.co/mHaYysuD0p

— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) October 7, 2017

One of the most depressing/negative people I've ever met. Hope he finds a way to be happy. https://t.co/xTTXuOTXDi

— Eric Bischoff (@EBischoff) October 7, 2017