Hulk Hogan Says Bret Hart Was A Cheap Champion

For a guy that has been retired for over a decade (somewhat), Bret Hart continues to stay in the wrestling news. Whether he ripping one of his former WWE colleagues or being ripped, his name won’t go away and the latest to bring it up is his former buddy Hulk Hogan.

[adinserter block=”1″]Hogan and Hart have had an on again off again friendship for years. The most famous story regarding these two is that Hogan didn’t want to pass the torch to Hart back when they were in the WWF together. Hogan refused to work with Hart at a SummerSlam, thus creating a rift that just won’t seem to go away.

Hart has been much more outspoken about Hogan over the last decade than vice versa. Hart never passes up a chance to take a cheap shot at Hogan or his in-ring abilities. This time it was Hogan taking a cheap shot at Bret…literally.

Hogan gave an interview to Fighting Spirit Magazine out of the United Kingdom. The magazine released an excerpt online in which they ask Hogan about Bret. As you’d probably expect Hogan was of course critical of his fellow ex-WWE champion but this time it was for a reason that really doesn’t make much sense if you break it down. Hogan’s beef with Bret was that Bret worked to cheap for Vince McMahon when he was champion.

“The main-event guy made the most money when he had the belt,” Hogan explained. “When I was the (WWF) champion, I made the most money. It was an old rule that Vince (McMahon) Sr. had that, thank god, was passed on for quite a while. That changed when Bret Hart became champion; he’d work for a lot less than anybody else, so it changed everybody’s pay.”

I see where he is coming from but he is completely off base on this one. As Dave Meltzer points out in the newest Wrestling Observer newsletter, this is just flat out wrong.

“Given that the champions were then, and to this day still are now, paid based on their position on the show, what the show draws and merchandise as opposed to a flat salary, that’s just crazy. The fact is the champions who drew the worst, like Yokozuna and Kevin Nash, would have made far less than the champions who drew the best. If anything, when Hart in 1996 signed a $1.5 million per year guarantee, he was the first guy, champion or not, who actually got a seven-figure annual guarantee from WWF.”

Dave is right in that Bret was the first to get that big guaranteed money deal so in hindsight, Bret should be commended for getting that ball rolling. I think the biggest issue Hogan has with Bret is that he is two-faced, and I have heard others say this about Bret before. Bret ripped Hogan for years but when he got to WCW he was a big fan, same with Ric Flair. Hogan mentions in the interview that the last time he saw Bret that he was playing with his kids in the pool.

[adinserter block=”2″]At this point I think Bret really needs to choose his battles. He is coming off as a bitter, soured ex-wrestler lately with his recent attacks. I don’t blame Hogan for responding since Bret has consistently put it out there, yet criticizing him for driving down salaries is without merit. The big key there is if Bret was making less, he was drawing less, which nobody should understand more than Hulk Hogan.

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