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Bret Hart Rips Vince McMahon in Scathing Rant

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Xaiver Aguiar | Last updated Apr 1, 2025 9:30 PM ET

Bret Hart has never been afraid to speak his mind. By any metric, The Hitman is one of the best technical wrestlers of all time—he's earned his right to be hypercritical of the business and those in it.

Hart infamously left WWE at the end of 1997 and was the victim of the infamous Montreal Screwjob. The architect of the dastardly scheme was Vince McMahon, who recently was ousted from the promotion he helped create, which has directly led to a modern golden age for the company. Hart pulled no punches when talking about his former boss's exodus.

During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Hart went on a scathing rant about McMahon and his shortcomings as a booker and person. "I think as much greatness as Vince brought to wrestling, he also brought a lot of negative and corrupted thinking to it," Hart said. "There's a little more integrity right now. The guys that are being pushed are being pushed because they are talented and not because they are Vince's favorites."

For the last decade and a half of McMahon's tenure running the ship, the product was rarely good. Most of the bright spots were when he had to listen to fan sentiment and propel the likes of Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, and Jeff Hardy. A majority of the guys he earmarked as future stars during that era flopped.

McMahon had a monopoly on the industry, so weekly television didn't have to be engaging. He was allowed to go through the motions with little to no consequences constantly.

As Hart alluded to, Triple H, the current head of creative, has far more imagination and respect for the audience's intelligence. Hart probably didn't go hard enough at the disgraced 79-year-old rapidly falling into obscurity.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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