You can listen to Bret “The Hitman” Hart’s comments about concussions, sports related injuries, Marty Jannety’s current health and more in the embedded audio player below. Some of his comments have been transcribed below it:
On whether he would want his sons Blade & Dallas getting in to pro wrestling knowing what he knows now about injuries and the toll the business takes on your body:
BH: Wrestling, like football today. You look at football and you see the concussions football players have and you hear them say they don’t want their sons playing football. There’s a lot more reservation about wanting their kids to follow in their footsteps. In wrestling, I’m glad my kids aren’t doing wrestling. I think it can be a great life. I enjoyed the traveling and the money was pretty good. In the end there was nothing by way of pension. When your knees are breaking and your neck is broken and your fingers are all broken you need a lot of medical. I’m just glad I live in Canada where we’ve got health care. If I lived in the United States I’d be broke. I have had so many surgeries the last few years. I am just lucky I live in a country where we’ve got health care. I scratch my head all the time and say, “I cannot understand why they put up so much of a fight that they don’t want healthcare.” Who the hell doesn’t want health care? I don’t understand it. Every country in Europe’s got health care. England’s got health care. Australia’s got health care. Every modern country in the world has health care. You have all these yo-yos that don’t want it. They are going to put Obamacare out as soon as they get in to power. I just scratch my head and go, “Are they that stupid that they don’t want health care?” It really ceases to amaze me. I am so lucky I live in a country where I have health care and I’ve got medical coverage for anything and everything. It’s really a blessing. For my kids getting in to wrestling? I don’t see it. It’s a tough life. There’s a lot of fun and excitement and great memories I’ve had being a wrestler. In the end, the damage and the pain you go through. The injuries that you have to live with after your career. WWE doesn’t do anything for those wrestlers. They pretend they want to believe that they do. WWE is all about, “What can you do for me now?” And it’s like, “I worked for you for thirty years.” Like Marty Jannetty. I saw Marty Jannetty a few years ago and his ankle was completely broken on one side. He could barely walk and he’s got no coverage. He told me it would cost $70,000 to get a new ankle. I asked, “Will WWE help you?” He said they won’t even return his calls. I just find it really sad that there are so many wrestlers out there who are beat up and crippled and injured and, “That’s too bad for you.”
