Bret Hart Buries Goldberg, Blames Him For His Stroke and Losing $15 Million

During Confessions of a Hitman, Bret Hart spoke about Bill Goldberg, and ultimately the injury that ended his career.

On Goldberg’s in-ring skills:

“[Goldberg] was a gorilla. [Goldberg] was a guy that nobody seemed to have taught how wrestling really works. He seemed to think he could just pick a guy up and just slam him through the mat as hard as you could and that was good wrestling. But I always liked Bill as a person. His wrestling, his workrate was 0/10. Like, everything he did hurt – everything! He could tie up with you and hurt you. He’d tie up with himself and hurt himself! Bill was one of those types of guys that I don’t think understood ever that it’s supposed to look like it hurt but it’s not supposed really hurt. And he had so many people praising him because he’d run you over like a car. Like, he’d football tackle you with no pads on.

He’s all jacked up and roided up, and he’s about 280 lbs. You might as well have a real car just drive over top of you. He’d line up and just run you down, knock you down, and hurt guys. I asked, ‘how does he do that without hurting everybody?’ And everybody he worked with would come to the back holding their ribs. Guys would have tears in their eyes from how much pain they were in, and he was a really reckless and dangerous guy to wrestle.”

On Goldberg injuring Haku:

“[Goldberg] did a bodyslam to a guy named Haku, but he bodyslammed him straight down, head first, right into the ring. And [Haku] was out of wrestling – maybe ended his career. I know he got hurt with a neck injury and he was out for a really long time. [Goldberg] was really dangerous to work with. You never knew what he was going to hurt you with. Everything he did was dangerous.”

On the kick that gave him a concussion:

“The kick was the work of a total– like, somebody who had absolutely no skill at all. He literally threw me into the ropes and tried to kick my head off my shoulders. Like, there was no working aspect to it. There’s no way you can do it without hurting somebody, and the thing with Bill was that all the ‘I’m sorries’ in the world don’t mean anything when you hurt somebody for real … It ended my career, and one of the things that always bothered me about Bill was about a year after he hurt me– which he never called me and he never talked to me about it.

He never called to see how I was doing or anything like that, but he did say when I saw him about a year after I got hurt, in fact a few weeks before [WCW] terminated my contract, I remember he said to me, ‘it’s the nature of the business – we all know what can happen out there. It’s the nature of the business. I’m like, ‘naw, it’s not the nature of the business. The nature of the business is to not hurt the guy you’re working with. That’s your first priority.'”

On the amount that he lost due to his career ending from that kick:

“If I hadn’t got hurt when I did– they ended my [contract]. I hung on ’til it wasn’t quite a year; I hung on for 10 months and then they sacked me. But [WWE] bought out WCW and the guys that both got paid out where Goldberg and [Hulk] Hogan. They both got paid out in full in their contract what was owed to them by Ted Turner as part of the deal. I would have been part of that deal. I would have been paid out in full. I wouldn’t have to go back and work for WWE. I wouldn’t have to have had to work for anybody. I would have cashed in and made $15 million.

But because Goldberg’s kick ended my career, they terminated me 10 months after I got hurt and I never got anything. My contract was null and void. If I couldn’t wrestle within six weeks, you’re done. And it’s one of those loopholes in my contract, but my contract was always with Ted Turner – not with WCW, and that was the key. That’s what Hogan had and that’s what Goldberg had. They had their contracts with Ted Turner.”

On his physical condition after that:

“So that little clumsy kick by Bill Goldberg cost me $15 million in like, 10 seconds. And not only that, I mean, I was in a really serious concussed state for almost two years. And a little over two years later, or in that two year span, I suffered a stroke while riding my bicycle and I took an innocent tumble off my bike on the grass. But it was all tied in. I’m sure it was all tied in to the kick in the head. I never had any problems with my head.”

On fighting with Lloyd’s Of London over insurance payouts:

“I had to sue Lloyd’s Of London for my settlement, which they did everything humanly possible to not pay me. I don’t think that’s something common to all insurance companies, but they just flat out refused to pay me and said I had a history of concussions that I had kept secret from them, which was actually never the case. I was never diagnosed with a concussion, nor do I remember ever having any.”