Seth Rollins was hurt by Bret Hart‘s comments regarding his in-ring style.
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth “Freakin” Rollins recently sat down with Alex McCarthy of Daily Mail to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about Bret Hart’s comments about him being unsafe in the ring several years ago, Rollins admitted when they were said at the time, they really hurt his feelings, but he’s talked with Hart about it, and they’ve been friends ever since.
“I love Bret Hart, I’ll preface this. Bret didn’t really critique me, he called me ‘unsafe,'” Seth Rollins said. “Bret’s going to spit the truth, he’ll tell you from what he saw he thought I was an unsafe worker, and I would say anybody I’ve ever been in the ring with would tell you the exact opposite, including the guys who have got injured during matches with me – that’s a fact I think.
“To finish it up nicely, I did approach Bret at a Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Bret was backstage and we ended up in the catering line together and I said ‘Hey man’ and he said ‘Hey’ and I just said ‘I wanted to tell you as somebody who looked up to you lot and still does – it really kind of hurt my feelings.’
“I felt bad and I don’t say that often. Bret was a hero of mine when I was growing up and so to have someone like that criticize you and your work and your work ethic and your empathy towards other people, that really is painful. So, I expressed that to him and I don’t think he knew that I had that feeling towards him, I don’t think he knew I cared about him that way and it hit him in a spot and he apologized and we have been friends since then and we’ve had good conversations. I’m happy we did do that as Bret is still someone I look up to to this day.”
For those unfamiliar, these comments from Hart came back in 2016 after Rollins accidentally hurt Finn Balor with a buckle bomb on the barricade in their match for the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam. Hart issued a statement to Nick Hausman of WrestleZone at the time of the incident and shared his feeling about Rollins injuring Balor.
“I take no great pleasure in saying, “I told you so,” but if you’re a professional wrestler and you keep hurting opponents and or yourself, clearly you’re doing it wrong,” Bret Hart said. “I wrestled a very realistic and physical style and not once in 23 yrs did I ever hurt one opponent ever. Seth Rollins needs to improve his technique and become the safest wrestler in the business.
“I have great respect for Seth. I believe he’ll improve and hopefully stop hurting the talent before someone gets killed. Wrestlers have to trust one another. If a wrestler holds the life of another wrestler in his hands for the sake of his family, wife, or children, you plain and simply cannot drop it!”
You can read more of Bret Hart’s comments from 2016 here.
What do you make of Seth Rollins’ comments? Are you happy to hear that he and Bret Hart have buried the hatchet? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
