Hulk Hogan-Bret Hart Verbal match continues!

Hulk Hogan ripped on Bret Hart in the new issue of Fighting Spirit Magazine, a U.K. publication. Hogan claimed that Hart drove down the salaries of future WWF champions by agreeing to work for less money. 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. “The main event guy made the most money when he had the belt. When I was the champion, I made the most money. It was an old rule that Vince Sr. had that, thanks 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.” His other comment on Hart was, “The last time I saw (him), he was flying around in my Lear jet with me and playing with my kids in the pool. Then, all of a sudden, we’re not cool.” Hogan and Hart, like many in wrestling, have had issues on-and-off dating back two decades. The two always got along when Hogan was the big dog and Hart was a mid-carder. But things changed in 1992 when, due to bad publicity stemming from steroid use in the company in the wake of the Zahorian trial and with Vince McMahon being investigated by the government, and having fired Ultimate Warrior and Davey Boy Smith (two of the company’s top babyfaces) on the same day. This was at a time when Hogan was on a one-year sabbatical with the idea of taking him out of the picture because he was a lightning rod for bad media publicity stemming from lying on the Arsenio Hall show when he claimed to have only used steroids three times in his life, all to heal injuries. So they needed a new top babyface in a hurry, so McMahon made the call to have Hart beat Ric Flair to win the WWE title immediately, a moved that shocked almost everyone at the time. In 1993, when Hogan returned, McMahon’s idea was to have Hart lose the title to Yokozuna at WrestleMania, and then have Hogan immediately beat Yokozuna in an impromptu match to end the show. This was to build to Hart beating Hogan at SummerSlam with the idea that it would solidify Hart as the company’s new top star, and Hogan would stay in the Bruno Sammartino role as top attraction and biggest star without the belt that Sammartino had in the Pedro Morales and Bob Backlund title period. But in those days, everyone had the mentality about size, bigger the better. Hart, at 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds was considered by the old guard to be too small (although he was about the same size as Roddy Piper and Randy Savage). Hogan instead gave notice, and dropped the title to Yokozuna. Hart resented that Hogan wouldn’t pass the torch to him and was negative about Hogan for years, until they had to work together in WCW and then Hart patched things up with Hogan and Ric Flair. But the old wounds came out and after WCW, Hart was negative toward both, and both have been negative toward him. The strange one in WCW was when Hart first arrived, Hogan was the king in the sense when he headlined on PPV, the numbers were far bigger than on shows he didn’t headline. But when Hart arrived, a Hart vs. Flair PPV main event did Hogan-like numbers on a show Hogan sat out. One would think that was a good thing, but instead, the Hart vs. Flair program was dropped and both were taken off TV for retooling and downplayed.