Road Dogg on Being a Better “Sports Entertainer” Than Bret Hart & Online Backlash

A recent episode of the Oh You Didn’t Know podcast featured co-host Brian “Road Dogg” James’ thoughts on him believing that he was a better “sports entertainer” and performer than WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart. James also stated that he never viewed Hart as someone who was a great wrestler nor very important to WWF during the famous Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW in the 1990s.

“For me, personally, and that’s all you’re gonna get from me ever is because that’s all I got. It’s my only reference point. I never saw what the big deal was with Bret Hart as a performer. I never understood it. He was a great worker, and I thought about saying good, but he was a great worker. He worked better than me, 10-fold. Worked circles around me. Don’t ever think that I’ve told anybody I was a good wrestler, because I haven’t, and if you’ve listened to my podcast, you know that’s true. I don’t think I was a good wrestler. I don’t think Bret was a great wrestler. I think I was a better sports entertainer than Bret was and I think that’s where the money is.

So I always thought that he should have done business and done what was right. You know what I mean? But I never looked at him like if we lose this guy, we lose the war. I never thought that for one moment. Now I can understand people who are huge Bret Hart fans going, screw you Road Dog. You suck. Okay, screw me and I suck. Okay, like now what? We still get to my feelings, which is I never thought he was that great to begin with so it wasn’t that great a loss when we lost him for me personally. That’s professionally, really, not personally, because I didn’t have any personal feelings about it one way or the other. I just didn’t think we were sunk because he left. I thought we got a lot more to offer than that. I didn’t think we were sunk. I thought now we can catch our breath and move forward.”

In a follow up video on YouTube, James responded over the idea by others that he was just trolling when he made his comments about Hart.

“You know, I didn’t mean to stir it up. And that’s the truth. People are saying, ‘He’s just trolling, he’s just trolling.’ No, Glenn Gilbertti, Disco Inferno trolls. Like, I’ve seen his Twitter account, he trolls. These are my legitimate feelings that I thought I put out there as honestly as I could,. but it’s apropos that this may be out on election day, because like this go-around with the midterms, everyone’s going crazy. And I feel like it’s bled over into Wrestling Twitter as well.”

James also clarified about his claims that Hart was not a great wrestler.

“That is fair to say [that he said that]. I feel that way today, even though everybody has been really angry at me on Twitter. I still feel the same way, but it — like I said, it’s just my opinion. Like, it’s not meant to take anybody’s business… I didn’t mean to take anybody’s livelihood away from them, or hurt their feelings or offend anyone. But look, that’s the that’s the — hyperbole is the verbiage of of the day. And everything is the best or the worst, and and today I’m the worst and so I’m sorry. I’m sorry I shared an opinion on a platform I was given to share my opinion.”

James also clarified about him being a better “sports entertainer” than Hart ever was.

“I just think as an entertainer, if you asked me to go out there and entertain a crowd, I would have different ways to do that than grappling and wrestling. That’s what I meant by that. And I stand by that right now. And if you disagree with that then cool, we can have a conversation. I don’t think it’s an argument worth having because nobody wins or loses, but it’s just my opinion. And I’m sorry that my opinion has caused me to trend on Twitter, but the one thing I can say is, thank you for listening because surely you listened to the entire — what was it, hour and 45 minutes of every word I said to make sure you understood my message clearly. Surely you listened to it before you commented on Twitter. Oh, you didn’t and I should stop calling you Shirley? Got it.”

James also gave his comments about the online backlash he has received over his comments towards Hart.

“I said a lot of things on this podcast that I feel like if people gave it their time — and look, I’m not giving you clickbait, don’t click, I don’t give crap. If you’re interested, which you’re taking time out of your day to comment on social media about how stupid I am, well that’s cool. I am pretty stupid, I’ll be honest with you. I did a lot of dope and got hit in the head with chairs a lot. I don’t have very good common sense. However, I’ve been doing this a minute, and I feel it’s okay for me to share my opinion. But if it’s not, please let me know. But you took the time to comment on Twitter. Give it a listen. Give that one he mentioned a second ago, go back in the archives and find out the Montreal Screwjob episode, and give it a listen. Look, you’re going to disagree with a lot of things I say. But surely you’ll understand and identify that I’m saying it with respect and from an honest place. if you don’t, you’re the bad guy in this situation, not me. I just shared my opinion. If you ain’t down with that, I got two words for ya, suck it.”

Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co, 411Mania.com