WWE's Road Dogg: "I Don't Think Bret Hart Was A Great Wrestler...I Was A Better Sports Entertainer"
Innovator of the Shaky Leg Kneedrop offers his thoughts on the 'Excellence Of Execution'
Road Dogg's been on.
The former WWE Tag Team Champion and current Senior Vice President Of Live Events offered a take hotter than half of his career during a recent edition of the "Oh You Didn't Know" podcast, noting that based on his parameters, he was "better".
He did try and cover his ass before he called somebody, but (a lot of) words spoke for themselves. As he put it (h/t Wrestlingnews.co);
"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...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."
He clarified his thoughts further, adding;
“I apologise, but I want everybody to understand. I don't dislike Bret Hart. I just don't think he's that great of a wrestler and I'm sorry if that hurts anybody's feelings, his especially, because I'm not trying to do that. I always thought Shawn was the better sports entertainer and I still believe that to this day. I mean, that's controversial to some, but I don't know why. It's how I feel. You know what I mean? I don't know why my feelings are so controversial. You know what I mean? The person who has the opposite side of the argument, you're allowed to have that side...One of my great friends was a huge Bret Hart fan, and yet, I'm not going to tell him Bret sucks. You know what I mean? I'm not gonna tell him I don't like Bret. He loves Bret. I'm just saying cool, love Bret. But you're asking me about my feelings and they're asking me questions about how I perceive things. I told the truth, and I will do it again. I agree that if you think he's on the side of great wrestlers, okay. I'm not gonna debate that because he is a really great wrestler. But where I draw the line is there ain't a dime in wrestling and that's how I feel...We're gonna get a lot of questions and comments about this just because of the stuff I said about Bret. Again, I don't dislike the guy. I respect him a lot. I have a ton of respect for him and his whole family and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. We have a difference of opinion when it comes to professional wrestling. I say there isn't a dime in wrestling and that's a lie. There's money in wrestling. I just feel there's more money in sports entertainment and that's why I think the way I think.”
His comments were sure to drum up debate - not least because several of them are objectively inane - but the aftershock was seemingly also felt on last night's AEW Dynamite. Dax Harwood countered Austin Gunn doing Road Dogg's wacky dance with a Sharpshooter during their eight-man tag opener.