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Bret Hart says he convinced Vince McMahon not to fire a wrestling legend


Bret Hart has revealed he convinced Vince McMahon not to fire Ken Shamrock in the 1990s.

During a recent appearance on The 81 Podcast, The Hitman went into detail on his relationship with Shamrock. Bret Hart also talked about how an impromptu meeting with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon helped Shamrock keep his job with the company.

Hart said McMahon was ready to fire Shamrock due to the latter having a poor reputation backstage. However, the former WWE Champion revealed he convinced McMahon to keep Shamrock under contract with WWE, as he felt the company could “make a lot of money” with the UFC Hall of Famer.

When asked about the reason regarding Shamrock’s reputation behind the scenes, here’s what Bret Hart had to say:

“I don’t know why. Probably more to do with the office,” said Hart. “In fact, I remember Vince was gonna fire him and he called me up. Basically he said, ‘I’m just getting ready to call Ken Shamrock, to fire him.’ And I said ‘Why would you fire him?!’ He was like, a lot of guys didn’t like him, you know, in management. And I remember saying I don’t think you should fire him. I said, ‘We really need a guy like Ken Shamrock. We can use a guy like that, he could be a star. We could make a lot of money with him.’”

Hart continued:

“He [Vince McMahon] ended up changing his mind, and he goes, ‘OK… I’ll keep him.’ And they kept him and he did pretty good. That was all in the early going when he [Ken Shamrock] first showed up and did the match where he refereed me and Stone Cold… I always thought he was somebody who could have been a way better pro wrestling star than what they allowed him to be.”


Bret Hart helped train Ken Shamrock to wrestle

Ken Shamrock, Bret Hart, and Steve Austin (Credit: WWE)
Ken Shamrock, Bret Hart, and Steve Austin (Credit: WWE)

During the podcast, Bret Hart also revealed he helped train Ken Shamrock to wrestle while the UFC star was recovering from a hand injury.

“He told me he broke his hand in the UFC, and he goes, ‘I can’t fight for a while.’ So I said, ‘Why don’t you wrestle? Make some money doing wrestling? You’d be a big star if you did the wrestling.’” Hart added.

Ken Shamrock continued to explore elements of both combat sports and professional wrestling throughout his storied career.

Published 27 Apr 2021, 18:25 IST



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