WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart recently shared a pivotal moment from his career, revealing the game-changing advice he received from Vince McMahon shortly after winning the WWE Championship from Ric Flair in 1992. The advice fundamentally altered Hart’s approach to his role as champion and his interactions with other veteran performers. At the time, Hart believed that Flair was intentionally having lackluster matches with him, possibly to sabotage his reign before Flair’s impending departure for WCW. This perceived disrespect led Hart to seek counsel from McMahon, who provided a new perspective on the power and responsibility that comes with being the top champion in the company.
Speaking at a Gold Standard Grading Q&A in Germersheim, Germany, Hart recounted his struggles with Flair and the conversation that changed his career.
“I do know that the second I won the title, I started wrestling Ric Flair again in rematches. And I didn’t have very good matches with Ric Flair… I think he’s purposely not giving me good matches. He’s trying to sabotage my matches. And I remember him saying that he just was having some marital problems, which maybe he was. And he kept apologizing for his lack of effort. But I wasn’t having very good matches with Ric Flair. And he was going to go to WCW anyway.”
He then detailed McMahon’s advice, which empowered him to take control of his matches.
“I remember talking to Vince McMahon — and this is the really important thing because he told me — I think it was the very first time anyone ever said this to me. He said, ‘You’re the champion. You’re the champion of the company. And nobody tells you what to do. You tell everyone else what to do.’ That to me was — like, once he told that, he goes, ‘You’re the top guy. Don’t tell me what to do.’ Like, ‘You don’t have to take orders from Ric Flair.’ But I was being respectful to Ric Flair because he was older, and he was — a lot of wrestlers always used to talk about Ric being, you know, one of the greatest of all time. Which maybe he was, but he sure wasn’t having good matches with me.”
This newfound confidence immediately changed his approach to working with Flair.
“And so I remember being in a dressing room with Ric Flair where he started to tell me what to do. Like I remember, he asked me, ‘So what are we doing?’ And so I said, ‘I got — this is what I want to do.’ Funny enough, this was an Iron Man match with Ric Flair. And I remember I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And I took about 10 minutes to to outline this whole match that I was going to do with Ric Flair. And he looked at me and said, ‘That sounds really good, but how about this instead?’ And he started to tell me all about what he wanted to do. And he went through this elaborate thing. And I looked at him, I said, ‘We’re not doing any of that. We’re doing my match, and this is what we’re doing. I just told you what we’re doing.’ And he goes, ‘But how about we do this?’ Getting started, he always kept trying to change it back to the same old Ric Flair match. And I said, ‘No, we’re not doing any of that. I’m in charge. I’m the champion, and I tell you what to do.’ I remember he just looked at me, and he sat down on the bench in the dressing room like, ‘Whatever you want.’ And he was — I could tell he wasn’t happy when I said that to him. And I remember Scott Hall looking at me like ‘Whoa!’ Like, nobody ever says that to a legend like Ric Flair, you know? That was a turning point for me, because from that day on for the rest of my career, I never took orders from anybody. I told everybody what to do.”
H/T to Fightful for the transcription. Thanks for checking out this article. Make sure to follow Jeff Jarrett and all things GFE on Facebook.
