Bret Hart, Brian Pillman and Owen Hart are three guys I wish had longer careers, at least that they could have went out on their own terms. Rick Rude and Curt Hennig too.
Read an article about Mike Webster, who Shane mentions, needing to use super glue to seal his skin when it broke open because it wouldn't heal. Dude had LOTS of health issues after his NFL (Steelers) career.
The BS of it is how Bret has flip flopped about it so many times. Being upset about the kick and how it impacted his career is understandable but he’s documented himself that after the match he told Goldberg that it was an accident and to move past it. For a large chunk of years he said Bill never intentionally hurt him, that it was an accident and that he didn’t hold Bill responsible. Bill has apologized tons of times for what amounted to an accident from a guy that was rushed into the spotlight and never fully adequately trained while the NWO guys fucked with his head and made him paranoid instead of guiding him. And while Goldberg hurting him is clear, we can never truly know if that alone ended Bret’s career because instead of notifying everyone he was hurt and getting medical treatment as well as proper rest which may have saved his career he took headache meds, went to bed, and kept working probably with the old school mindset of working through it. Following Starrcade in the following 21 days he had nine more matches, including a hardcore match and a match with Nash where he took further impacts. We all know now that that exacerbates the severity of the condition and we can never truly know what impact his decision post match had on the long term outcome. It also wasn’t Bills fault that WCW chose to slash him loose like they did. Bret consistently forgave him until Bill made his return and once the word of the truckload Bill was making came out suddenly there were all these issues, it was all bills fault, and even stating how Bill should feel bad and be paying him some of the money he earns now. And that’s BS - you openly acknowledged it was an accident and that Bill wasn’t properly trained. Bill apologized over and over and you gave him forgiveness and then reneged on it. Being disappointed is fair but holding it over bills head for decades and flip flopping on him that it was accidental and there’s no grudge to now it was seemingly malicious and Bill should live in shame just isn’t it. Can’t say I wouldn’t feel the same way but doesn’t make it right either.
It wasn't just the kick. Bret hit his head outside the ring while doing the figure 4, and that blow was harder than the kick. THEN Bret wrestled matches against Sid, Kevin Nash, and Terry Funk - matches that all led to additional concussions. If you know anything about concussions it's repeated concussions that cause the kind of problems that Bret suffered. Had he taken a month or six weeks off Bret may have still been able to continue his career. Bret never takes responsibility for continuing to wrestle when he knew how bad the concussion was.
We have to remember Bret has been dealing with mental health issues since that kick to the head. I feel bad it's causing him to hyper focus on this one moment in his career. He doesn't even have this kind of animosity about Owen. He could blame the cabling company,vince, etc.
Goldberg didnt end Bret's career, he wrestled for several months after and theres ZERO evidence of Goldberg's kick causing Bret to have seizures. Theres no doubt Bret suffered multiple concussions over his career and blaming it all on Goldberg is just pathetic and dirty. Bret is just jealous because Goldberg had more success, more money and a better career than Bret ever came close to. Bret blames all his problems on everyone else because he has a sensitive ego and is a narcissist.
Bret doesn't talk about how he decided to keep wrestling right after the Goldberg match. He even had a hardcore match with Terry Funk! To be fair they didn't know about concussions then what we know now, but If he had taken several months off maybe he could have returned later.
He has tbf. For weeks he told WCW medical staff he felt like absolute crap but they basically told him to get on with it as that kind of thing wasn't treated seriously back then. It wasn't until he himself sought a doctor specialising in concussions that he was diagnosed with a severe concussion and a torn muscle the size of a quarter in his neck as a result of the kick. Around two years later he fell off his bicycle compounding the concussion and resulting in his stroke.
Obviously wrestling several matches after the Goldberg kick didn't do Bret any favors. Impossible to know if he would have healed and his wrestling career would have continued had he taken the time to recover after that kick. Although that kick itself was brutal enough to have caused enough damage. Like you said back then they didn't enough about concussions to protect athletes from further damage. Either way, that kick was so carelessly done, and hit with such force that it did a lot of damage. Ended up costing Bret a lot of suffering, the end of his career, and lost a lot of money in future earnings.
accident's happen, droz got injured by d-lo. droz was unable to walk and died without any bad thing to say about d-lo brown. i hope bret can find peace with goldberg as he did with vince and shawn
While you are right, the Dlo/Droz botch was more a freak accident while Goldbergs kick, while unintentional, was mostly the result of him not being trained enough and careful enough
@@GameTime-yj6qv you just said it was unintentional. If he wasn't trained enough, it wasn't his fault, it was the company's decision to do it. Goldberg has said he was sorry but the point of my comment is, I hope they find peace with one another because life is short
@@MarkVersion1 WCW had some blame for not training him enough. But Goldberg shouldn't have attempted that kick in the first place. In the ring you have to feel comfortable enough with your moves to know you can protect your opponent. Otherwise, don't try that move. I do agree life is too short to hold grudges though.
I used to feel bad for Bret until I found out he had a concussion from a motorcycle accident prior to the match with Goldberg. It wasn’t the kick that “ended” his career it was the part where he slammed his head onto the concrete. And Bret had many matches after that incident so he was able to perform. Goldberg apologized to Bret so many times that he just gave up because Bret is just bitter. Bret didn’t have an issue with Goldberg until Bill returned to the WWE. Let that sink in
That's not correct. It was a bicycle accident, not a motorcycle, and it was in 2002 - two years after he retired. The concussion had already ended his career, the bicycle accident then gave him a stroke two years later.
That's the thing I love about it: sincere or not, it's total carny. People love to rile him up about it and he *knows* people love to rile him up about it.
@@brycemcneil4404 he making the people rile up! He’s talking to Owen and laughing about it. If Owen were alive, he’d be making money off marks still too
Could Bill have been more careful with opponents or was it his style? I personally go along with he wasn't properly trained and didn't learn enough and I think he was reckless more than going out to hurt someone, I'm a Hitman fan.
@@tonyslicer7399 he has had his share of botches and injuries t be honest, mistakes do happen your absolutely right, to make it worse it likely could have been avoided. I understand Bret bring pissed off about it with Bill not getting in touch aswell. Do you think it was due to his style and physicality or just a bad mistake?
As a preteen during the new generation era i rooted for the bad guys Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude,HBK and of course Owen Hart i was on the king of harts side in his fued with his brother...but i always noticed that Bret always delivered the best matches on ppv... anyway "the kick" from Goldberg looked like it didn't even connect but i wasn't in the ring so what do i know
Bret didn't have issues with Goldberg till a few years ago, former wrestlers love to find ways to work fans and stay in the spotlight - I wouldn't be surprised if Bret and Bill are working the fans like Angle and the Iron Sheik did.
This is beyond silly. It's more likely Bret deals with severe depression an other mental health issues. He is hyper focused on this one moment in his career.
What makes a “good wrestler” is several factors and I’m afraid Bret benefitted from that mantra when the belt was put on him despite his smaller size. Goldberg was/is a brilliant wrestler. Is he a great “technical wrestler”? No, but neither was Andre The Giant who I’d also rate as one of the all time greats. Goldberg is a huge star which is why he’s been relevant for 30 years. Many have tried and failed to replicate him.
@@GameTime-yj6qv He dropped both Haku and Jimmy Hart on their heads in the same short match in 1998. There is something wrong if a guy Goldberg's size cant safely press slam a guy Jimmy Hart's size.
Good training, bad training, ZERO excuse for ANY wrestling to be so careless and dangerous as to throw a reckless kick to another wrestlers head like that. NONE.
Bret was my hero growing up, and I think he has a right to be pissed off about what happened... but I think he needs to drop it, at least publicly. It doesn't help anyone to dwell on what was clearly an accident, especially after all this time. Bret's energy should be going into preserving his legacy in the ring, not wasted by harping on this one mistake. Makes me sad that he continues with the bitterness, I'd hoped he could've let it go by now.
I'm on Brets side on this one. It was obvious to my friends and I in the late 90s that Goldberg was a legit football explosive athlete. We used to comment on how moves like his spear were close to shoot football tackles. Bottom line someone as big and quick as Goldberg was too explosive and shootish for pro wrestling and the Hart head kick was just another example of a green horn too stiff.
Bill Goldberg was all speed and power with no finesse . Top Hands are usually spared the damage of working with big green powerhouses due to them having a litany if prior injuries accumulated over a career . Bill was too damned green to be working with the top draws .
A couple things. First, Goldberg held back on that kick. Watch it. He never fully extends his leg. There is no follow through. The WCW ring was smaller than the WWF ring was, and Bret was already concussed from hitting his head outside the ring while doing the Figure Four on Goldberg from outside the ring post. Bret didn't react as quickly to the impending kick as he should have, but being concussed already, and the smaller ring not being as familiar to him, he didn't react quickly enough. SECOND, Bret continued to wrestle over the next week, and has actually admitted to getting repeated concussions in matches with Sid, Kevin Nash, and Terry Funk. It was those additional concussions that ended his career, not the match with Goldberg. With concussions it's the accumulated damage from repeated concussions that causes permanent damage in most cases. Had he taken 4-6 weeks off he probably would have been able to continue his career and been able to wrestle for another 10-12 years. Bret shares a lot of responsibility here, but he never accepts it. That's my problem with Bret constantly badmouthing Goldberg.
@@erikrupp692you make great points, we just have to consider that hindsight is 20/20. I'm sure looking back Bret knows he shouldn't have wrestled for some time after the Goldberg match. But at least part of the reason he did was because at the time concussions and their long term consequences were poorly understood. Think of all the football players that go back into games just minutes after getting a concussion. If it happened today, Bret wouldn't have been allowed to get in the ring until after after he was cleared by a doctor. So it's hard to blame Bret for the ignorance surrounding concussions that existed at the time. What he knows for a fact is that had that kick didn't happen, his life would have been very different.
@@GameTime-yj6qv - The idea that people didn't know how bad concussions were in 1999, and what the long term consequences could be, simply isn't true. In 1996 San Diego Chargers QB Stan Humphries had his third concussion in a year and had to retire. Three in 12 months. Bret ended up with 4 in a week because he didn't say, "I can't go." As far back as 1979 people knew consussions were a problem in sports. Roger Staubach retired that year after having his third concussion in a year. They knew, even back then, that repeated concussions were very bad. So by 1999 it was clear that you don't put yourself in a position to get re-concussed until you've had a significant amount of time off (at least a month, if not 6 or 8 weeks).
While some concussion symptoms are felt immediately, others emerge later. Bret, having have had his bell rung plenty of times during his career, including I'm sure previous conclusions, may have thoughts his initial symptoms would go away. Once they didn't he did seek his own medical treatment which is why he stopped wrestling. We also have to consider the time frame, back then concussions and their long term repercussions were poorly understood. Today, even if an athlete feels fine, they would not be allowed to compete after a concussion until they pass concussion protocol
I believe you are quite intentionally missing the point here… We all know the focus isn’t wether it was intentional or not but careless. Comparing it to a mistake that occur with someone the quality of Steamboat was insulting frankly. Accidents can happen in wrasslin but this oaf was reckless!
I don't think Goldberg is a terrible guy, but he was a mark for himself and thought he could kick everyone's a@@ in real life. I get why Bret is still bitter because it changed his life and he was still a pretty young guy at that time.
As much as I love Bret Hart, he truly needs to get over this issue and pettiness he has towards bill Goldberg. First it was the Montreal screwjob, now it's this anger he continued to have for Bill Goldberg. Despite everything that he has went through, neither of those incidents can change what he has contributed to the wrestling business in general. Bret Hart will always be remembered as the goat, but he's destroying his legacy by carrying on this type of grudge he has ball inside his soul, let it go Bret. And let God. You're still the best there is, the best that was, and the best you will ever will be.
Bret's real loud about what a terrible wrestler Goldberg was, yet will go on and on about how safe and amazing Owen was despite Owen injuring SCSA and Dan Severn with the same botched move. He also conveniently forgets that he continued to wrestle, including hardcore matches, after the kick. He's just bitter.
Its weird how Brett blames Goldberg for so much now yet fails to mention he continued to wrestle for several months after that kick and also the massive yead trauma Brett suffered from his bike accident..or the thousands of head shots he took over the years from literally being a child to a guy in his 40's.... But yea that one kick from Goldberg caused everything.
Bret was almost right. I still think Warrior is slightly worse than Bill. But they're both bad. Currently listning to the audiobook version of Brets book and its an interesting read for sure. He will always be one of my 2 favorite wrestlers all time (the other being Flair).
I recently watched the match between Bret and Goldberg again. Goldberg really beat the crap outta Bret in that match, and that kick was just the icing on the cake.
Bill Goldberg was dangerous no doubt but as concussions go they accumalate and that kick was likely just the last straw for Brets brain . I am a huge Bret Hart fan but his 150% in ring energy comes with a cost. Also people need to keep in mind that brain injuries damage not only your quality of life but also elements of your personality
I'd be pissed if he signed my picture that way, especially if I'd paid for the photo. After fifteen years of wrestling, I can't believe the Goldberg kick was the only factor in Hart's disability. The last straw maybe, but not the only one. Shane notes his previous concussions here, and this is the first place I've heard of them.
yeah im not saying that it didnt effect him badly but to blame goldberg for it all is pretty weak considering he had been wrestling consistantly both amateur and pro since the 70s! Maybe bills kick was the one that toppled the mountain but there were a good deal of hits through the years to weaken it!
Shane really needs to stop acting like Flair really did him wrong. Comparing his beef with Flair to Bret's with Goldberg really shows how nonsensical this has gotten in his head. Goldberg ended Bret's career and seriously impacted his health for the rest of his life and Ric lied about watching some of Shane's matches. If you think those things are remotely comparable, you are insane. I have always been a Shane Douglas fan, but nothing makes me think less of him than the pettiness of his feud with Flair.
No Shane, you can't walk into the ring with the safest wrestler alive and get hurt, because Bret Hart was THE safest wrestler and never hurt anybody. In his whole career. Yeah, shit can happen, but not like that. If you can't do a kick safe, don't do it. He kicked Bret full force in the head, I mean, come on, what are we doing here? Goldberg was a mess, he couldn't execute half of the moves he was doing safe, and he wasn't even a wrestler who loved pro wrestling. F*** Bill Goldberg he is/was what's wrong with the wrestling business. He robbed us of years of one of, if not THE greatest wrestler ever, Bret "Hitman" Hart.
Goldberg wasn't trained at all that's another layer of problems with Goldberg he was learning on the fly in the ring so I have to disagree with Shane with this one.
I doubt Brett signed that but if he did then I can understand but at the same time me being a fan of them both its not ballet it's Pro Wrestling these things happen! Anything coming from Goldberg is going to be explosive & Powerful!
Sounds like Brett needs to be pissed at the so called sports doctor's that WWE had , that cleared him to wrestle and quit dwelling on an accident !!! Goldberg was a lot bigger draw than Brett at that time and he couldn't stand Bill for it !! Brett screwed he chances up by dwelling on the screw job from WWE !! He always had something to blame on somebody else !! I really liked Brett until he started the poor me I got screwed !! Really hope he let's all this go and lives his life out without dwelling on everything !!! Rant over lol !!!
@@TahjaiBassum Bill Goldberg could've kicked the shit out of most of the locker room. Not anymore of course. At the time absolutely. Other than a few exceptions maybe (Steiner, Meng, Regal, Finlay and maybe Giant for his size)
This business is in fact fake fighting. When a wrestler ends another wrestlers career with a real punch or kick the said wrestler should be banned for life. The wrestler that got hurt for life and the money he or she has lost because of this should be paid by the wrestler that hurt he or she. When Goldberg ended Harts career with a real kick Goldberg should have been banned for life. Goldberg continues to make good money while Hart sits at home and makes nothing. Goldberg should be made to pay Hart for every penny he has lost because of that real kick. Not only that Goldberg seems to have very little remorse for ending another mans career. Goldberg has the attitude of hurray for me and f__k you.
So should Bret's brother Owen been banned after he nearly paralyzed Austin. Should D-Lo have been banned for paralyzing Droz for life. I don't hear Bret mentioning those two incidents.
Goldberg's fuckup robbed Bret of his ability to do the one thing he loved to do more than anything else and what he'd dedicated his life to and also his ability to properly retire the way he wanted to. You can't blame him for hating Goldberg for life.
Hey marks, it’s Brett responsibility for his own safety. He is bitter. Brett didn’t draw money. He really is lucky Vince gave him a chance. To this day WWE fans still don’t care about wrestling , they love storylines. It’s a shame he is this bitter after a 25 year career and over 20 years later. Just sad.
