Debunking Bret Hart's Lies and Smears on Hulk Hogan and Exposing the Hypocrisies of the Hitman

Debunking Bret Hart's Lies and Smears on Hulk Hogan and the Hypocrisies of the Hitman

October 11, 2025

By Ryan Porzl

Bret "The Hitman" Hart is many things and two of which is he's a man of many words and very opiniated. It's no secret Bret has given his 2 cents over the decades and has made no bones about the people he can't stand from Goldberg to Triple H who he believes done him wrong. However, one of the biggest targets of his complaints is Hulk Hogan. Bret and Hogan were no strangers to each other mostly working for the WWF and WCW at similar times. They teamed up and even occasionally faced each other. However, Bret's hatred for the Hulkster stems back to Hogan not losing to him when Bret thought he should've in 1993. It's haunted Bret for over 30 years and it's festered into Bret giving cheap shots and attacking Hogan in various ways, even resorting to lying about Hogan. Even after Hogan's passing on July 24, 2025 at the age of 71, Bret has not taking his foot off the gas and continues to attack him even now at a time when Hogan can no longer defend himself. Even worse, because Bret is loved by many and because many in the Internet Wrestling Community despise Hogan and others soured due to his sex tape controversy, many have just accepted Bret's comments regardless of whether they were true or not. As a Hulkamaniac and as someone who's tired of the Hulkster being treated as a punching bag, I decided to write this article debunking Bret's lies regarding Hogan and we'll even pull the curtain back on Bret's shady history and expose the fact he's not the generous professional he makes himself out to be but rather could be as, if not more, selfish than Hogan was.

We'll start with the first lie that many try to say which is Hogan never elevated or put anyone over. This is not true and history has actually shown Hogan is probably more generous than others who get a pass including Bret. It is true that Hogan didn't lose much in his career and he won far more but that's part of what made Hogan losing special. Would beating Hogan mean anything to a career if he lost to everyone with a pulse? Obviously not. Hogan certainly picked his spots but when he did, a wrestler was better off. Obviously, some of Hogan's most famous losses are to guys like The Ultimate Warrior and The Rock in attempts to pass the torch. Hogan also lost several times to Lex Luger in 1997 including losing the WCW World Championship on the August 4, 1997 Nitro to him cleanly. While Hogan would get the championship back 5 days later, he still gave Luger the biggest win of his career and one his career needed after being labeled a "choker" for so long. Hogan also lost to Luger twice before including the June 9, 1997 Nitro and their tag match at Bash At The Beach 1997 with Hogan taking the torture rack both times. Hogan also gave Goldberg his biggest win on July 6, 1998 for the WCW World Championship which solidified Goldberg as a main event level player. Long before he ended the Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak or sent John Cena to Suplex City, Hogan allowed Brock Lesnar to tear him apart during and after their August 8, 2002 match on Smackdown which would be one of Lesnar's first major wins of his career that set him off to bigger things. People complain about Hogan defeating Yokozuna at Wrestlemania IX but people forget Hogan returned the favor and them some putting Yoko on the map as a main eventer. At King of the Ring 1993 on June 13, 1993, Hogan not only lost to Yoko but gave him everything from allowing Yoko to dominate him to never being able to bodyslam Yoko to needing three big boots to knock him down to Yoko kicking out of the leg drop to Yoko beating Hogan with his own leg drop. Not to mention, the aftermath of Yoko hitting the bonzai drop and Hogan getting carried out. While the loss wasn't clean with the fireball spot, Hogan still made Yoko look like a monster heel and one who was able to claim he ran Hogan out of the WWF for nine years. Along with these losses, Hogan also put over others like HHH (from the June 6, 2002 Smackdown which was clean), the Undertaker, and Kurt Angle (even cleanly submitting to him at King of the Ring 2002). Not to mention, losses to Rock, HHH, and Lesnar saw them kick out of Hogan's leg drop. There's even more losses that weren't clean and obscure like pinfall losses to Vampiro and Mike Awesome in 2000 WCW. Finally, Hogan did lose to Arn Anderson (though not cleanly) and he lost to Sting in just about ever encounter they ever had.

There's also the wrestlers Hogan worked with that didn't get wins over him but still got elevated working with him such as the Big Boss Man, Earthquake, and Paul Wight. While it is true Boss Man worked matches with Dusty Rhodes and had a run with the UWF Heavyweight Championship, he was mostly known as Big Bubba Rogers, Jim Cornette's silent bodyguard. The feud with Hogan easily put him on the map and made him a star as he shot to the main event working main events in Madison Square Garden all the while having the top feud of the fall of 1988. It led to Boss Man also having not only a big run as a heel but a big run as a babyface becoming a popular player in the Hulkamania WWF during the late 80s/early 90s and also had a solid second run during the Attitude Era. Before the feud with Hogan, Quake enjoyed some success in the Vancouver based All Star Wrestling and had a small run in All Japan. However, it wasn't until he got to the WWF and specifically feuded with Hogan that made him a star. To this day, when you think of Quake, you think of his feud with Hogan and him briefly putting Hogan out of action despite having feuds with Jake Roberts, Andre the Giant, the Road Warriors, Money Inc., and a WWF Tag Title run. According to Cagematch, Paul Wight literally had one match under his belt when he signed with WCW and began his feud with Hogan. You can say what you want about the stories at the time of Wight being billed as Andre the Giant's fictional son but working with Hogan immediately put Wight on the map and led to a long hall of fame worthy career that included two WCW World Titles only a year into his career as well as title runs in the WWE. In honesty, Hogan working with these three is not different than Bret's feud with Steve Austin as Bret never lost to Austin in a televised match by pinfall or submission but Austin was still made as a star.

Then there's the lie where Bret accused Hogan of never looking out for others. Words can't describe how bad of a lie this is. For one thing, Hogan got a lot of flak in his career and one of the big reasons was getting his friends jobs in certain promotions. When Hogan went to WCW in 1994, he brought in pals like Brutus Beefcake, Earthquake, Jimmy Hart, the Honky Tonk Man, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, and later, Kamala. One of the big things people complain about 1994/1995 WCW was the promotion demoting certain talent like Steve Austin and Mick Foley while Hogan's friends got big spots. The same was also the case with Hogan when he went to TNA in 2010 and brought the very aging and out of shape Nasty Boys in for a few months before their behavior got them fired. Hogan also went to bat for many names. During his lifetime, Virgil went on record saying Hogan got him hired in WCW in 1996 and even talked Eric Bischoff out of firing him. Kamala, the Ugandan Giant had a brief WCW run in 1995 after Hogan reportedly recommended him. Both members of Harlem Heat in Booker T and Stevie Ray went on record during Hogan's lifetime and after his passing about how they owed Hogan their careers and how he got them their first major push in WCW and recommended them to be WCW's top tag team. After Hogan's passing, D-Von Dudley claimed Hogan saved his career twice, though he didn't go into detail.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Yeah, maybe Hogan wasn't as selfish as Bret made him out to be but I bet he couldn't hold a candle to Bret as far as putting people over. Surely, Bret must've put tons of wrestlers over if he were to make such accusations about Hogan". Unfortunately, the truth is very different. Yes, despite Bret running his mouth on Hogan's selfishness, he was honestly not much better. In fact, in some cases, he could be worse. First of all, if you really want to be technical, from the time Bret became a main eventer in 1992 until his first retirement in 2000, he really only made three wrestlers. One was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the other two happened to be family members in brother-in-law "the British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and younger brother Owen Hart. To be fair, he did lose matches to Lex Luger and Yokozuna in 1993 but they were at non televised live events while he did reportedly want to lose to Chris Benoit in the Owen Hart Tribute match but WCW nixed it. Nevertheless, if you want to be brutal, Bret only really put over three guys and two were family. In fact, once Bret became a main eventer, he almost never lost and the few times he did was by a heel cheating or some controversy. A good example would be Bret's WWF title history. From 1987-1997, Bret won 9 championships (5 WWF, 2 Intercontinental, and 2 Tag Team), only 2 title reigns ended cleanly. Let's look at Bret's title losses.

WWF Tag Team Championship (1) (January 26, 1987 - October 27, 1987)- Teamed with Jim Neidhart and lost the titles to Strike Force (Rick Martel and Tito Santana) cleanly.

WWF Tag Team Championship (2) (August 27, 1990 - March 24, 1991)- Teamed with Jim Neidhart and lost the titles to the Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) after the Nastys used Jimmy Hart's motorcycle helmet as a weapon

WWF Intercontinental Championship (1) (August 26, 1991 - January 17, 1992)- Lost the title to the Mountie with the story being he was battling a 104 degree fever and competing against doctor's orders.

WWF Intercontinental Championship (2) (April 5, 1992 - August 29, 1992)- Lost the title to "the British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith cleanly.

WWF Championship (1) (October 12, 1992 - April 4, 1993)- Lost the title to Yokozuna after having Yoko in the sharpshooter and Mr. Fuji threw salt in his eyes allowing Yoko to escape and cover for the win.

WWF Championship (2) (March 20, 1994 - November 23, 1994)- Lost the title to Mr. Bob Backlund in a submission match after having Backlund in the sharpshooter only for Owen Hart to break the hold, distract Bret long enough for Backlund to get the crossface chicken wing, and trick mother Helen into throwing the towel in.

WWF Championship (3) (November 19, 1995 - March 31, 1996)- Lost the title to Shawn Michaels in an ironman match in sudden death overtime after time ran out while Bret had Michaels in the sharpshooter.

WWF Championship (4) (February 16, 1997 - February 17, 1997)- Lost the title to Sycho Sid after Bret had Sid in the sharpshooter only for Steve Austin to nail him with a chair to break the hold and allow Sid to finish with the powerbomb.

WWF Championship (5) (August 3, 1997 - November 9, 1997)- Lost the title to Shawn Michaels via Montreal Screwjob.

So, out of 9 title reigns, only 2 were lost clean (and once again, one of those losses was to a family member). His first IC Title reign ended after WWF came up with a story he was sick and not 100%. His second tag title loss and his first four WWF Title losses were usually him on the verge of winning only for a heel to cheat or time to run out. How is this any different than Hogan?

It's not just that but when you look at Bret's losses during his main event run in WWF and WCW, he rarely got pinned or submitted as he usually settled for count out and DQ losses. Perhaps a good example of Bret's lack of putting people over was 1995. That year he took on new WWF Champion Diesel at the 1995 Royal Rumble and despite the fact Diesel could've benefited from a win, the match went to a no contest. He then feuded with three newcomers in Hakushi, Isaac Yankem DDS, and Jean-Pierre LaFitte and didn't lose a single match to any of them and won every encounter. Yes, the gimmicks were hokey like Yankem being an evil dentist but even then, how does this help them? Meanwhile, there's no reports that Bret wanted to lose to make them look good or insist on losing. Say what you will about Hogan but even he would lose live events or the occasional Saturday Night's Main Event by count out or disqualification. There's also his feud with the Patriot where he lost to him on the July 28, 1997 RAW after interference from Shawn Michaels only to beat and bury him at the In Your House: Ground Zero in September 7th by beating the crap out of him post match. Then there's his WCW run where again outside his proposal to lose to Benoit in the Owen Hart tribute match, there's no reports that Bret was willing to lose or work with a young guy outside of Goldberg and there were plenty to work with. Most of Bret's WCW run saw him work with fellow generational wrestlers or older talents like Ric Flair, Curt Hennig, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, DDP, and Sting. Once again, whenever Bret worked with a young guy like a Booker T, he only lost by disqualification at best.

Even worse was Bret's last run from 2010-2011. Despite limitations due to career ending post concussion syndrome and a stroke, Bret was able to work eleven matches from March 2010 to September 2011. His record would go 10-0-1. That's right. Bret didn't lose a single match, much less to a young up and coming talent. Even worse, Bret would even defeat future WWE Champion The Miz for the WWE United States Championship on May 17, 2010 and to top it off, he didn't drop the title to anyone but vacated it a week later. So yeah. The near 53 year old Bret with a history of a stroke and post concussion syndrome had no problem beating a young guy for a title and then just vacated it. Can anyone imagine if Hogan did something like that? We never hear the end of it. Hell, Hogan still gets crapped on for not putting over a 40 year old Shawn Michaels at Summerslam 2005 but Bret gets a pass for this? Say what you will about Hogan but when he returned in 2002, he put in an effort to put over the next generation which Bret couldn't be bothered to do in 2010/2011.

There is Wrestlemania IX and Wrestlemania X. Now, this isn't an apples to apples comparison as Hogan famously lobbied for the championship at IX while Bret did not for X. Having said that, the situation is a bit similar. Most know the story for Wrestlemania IX: Bret entered the event as the WWF Champion and figured the event was his big moment only for Yokozuna to win the title and Hogan to win it in an impromptu match. After Hogan lost the championship back to Yoko at King of the Ring 1993 and left the WWF shortly after, Vince McMahon then repackaged Lex Luger as his new patriotic superhero. Throughout the second half of 1993 and into 1994, it was clear that Vince planned Luger's coronation at Wrestlemania X in MSG, ten years after Hulkamania was launched in the same arena. However, poor booking and possibly waiting too long saw Luger lose steam going into 1994 and entering the new year, the decision was made to change gears and go with Bret at Wrestlemania X instead. Now here's where the hypocrisy comes in. To this day, Bret has complained nonstop about how Hogan was wrong to take "his moment" so you would think Bret would be the last person to do something remotely like that but instead, he jumped at the offer. There's no reports over the decades about Bret fighting for Luger or trying to change Vince's mind and stay the course while he would be patient and wait for Summerslam or another day. Even worse was the before and aftermath. Say what you will about Hogan and Wrestlemania IX but Bret had a six month run with the WWF Championship. He was given a chance to sink or swim and reports have said, he sank. Luger, on the other hand, didn't even get a chance to sink or swim and had the bat taken from him right as he was about to step up to the plate for the first time. People blame Luger for "failing" but he wasn't even giving a chance at the title so it's not fair to pin the blame on him when he wasn't even the champion. As far as the aftermath goes, Bret was largely undamaged at IX and went on to win four more WWF Championships over the next few years. Meanwhile, Luger's WWF run suffered heavy damage that he never recovered from. Despite remaining in the WWF for another year and a half, Luger never touched the main event again and was damaged goods for the remainder of his run. It wouldn't be until his defection to WCW in September 1995 that Luger was able to rebuild his main event credibility. Again, I know this isn't an apples to apples comparison but is it really that much different? In the end, Bret complains about Hogan taking his moment at Wrestlemania IX but when he had an opportunity to do the right thing and stand up for someone, he chose instead to not only not fight for that guy but jumped at the opportunity to take his moment for himself.

Look at their 90s departures. Other than Hogan supposedly vetoing losing the championship to Bret and preferring Yokozuna, there wasn't anything else to it. Hogan put Yoko over like a champ in a way that it looked like Yokozuna ran him out of the WWF, did a European tour with him, and quietly left the WWF. Bret, on the other hand, spent the last month of his run being difficult and it was like pulling teeth for him to do the right thing. Yes, Shawn Michaels was a jerk at the time. Yes, almost nobody liked him. However, Bret was leaving for an even bigger deal in WCW and if he was the professional he thinks he was, he would've swallowed his pride and lost at Survivor Series '97. Instead, he complained about losing to Michaels and in Canada and went into his match at Survivor Series thinking the finish would be a disqualification with him possibly surrendering the title the following night which only helped his ego.

Lastly, it's not just Bret but look at the people he looks highly on like Roddy Piper, The Undertaker, and Steve Austin. Again, Bret claims Hogan never put anyone over but what about these guys that Bret holds in high regard? He claims Piper elevated talent but that's mostly a lie. If you look at Piper's career from his entry to the WWE in 1984 to his last matches in 2011, Piper rarely put anyone over and could be one of the more selfish wrestlers out there as he usually never got pinned or submitted. In fact, there's only really two occasions where Piper lost to an up and comer or young talent. One was Bret (what a coincidence) at Wrestlemania VIII while the other was Buff Bagwell in that boxing match at Bash At The Beach 1999. Even in his last WWE matches in 2011, he was getting wins over Tyson Kidd, Zack Ryder, and The Miz. The Undertaker elevated Mick Foley in the WWF and tried with Mabel but again, later in his career, he became selfish. In his last decade in the ring during the 2010s, he only put over Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns while burying many up and comers and/or defeating them such as Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), Bray Wyatt and the Wyatt Family, Rusev, and Drew McIntyre. Even after retiring, we still see Taker bury talent like LA Knight in 2023 and Trick Williams in 2025 all the while getting no comeuppance. Steve Austin isn't known for elevating talent but rather chewing them up and spitting them out. Even after retiring in 2003, when Austin was the Co-GM of RAW and then the Sheriff of RAW, he routinely beat up and hit the stone cold stunner on many young wrestlers and helped no one. Then there was Wrestlemania 38 Night One when Austin broke a nineteen year retirement only to beat Kevin Owens and then went back into retirement. Would anyone tolerate Hogan doing that?

In the end, was Hogan selfish at times in his career? Yes. Was there times when he could've lost to someone but didn't? Of course (Randy Orton at Summerslam 2006). However, is it true Hogan is the most selfish wrestler in history and never elevated anyone? No. Hogan wasn't perfect but for that matter, every wrestling legend isn't perfect and that includes Bret Hart. So maybe the next time Bret wants to bury Hogan for selfishness, he can reminisce about his own career and the times he let his ego and greed overcome him. Same with the legends he praises who were as selfish, if not more, than the Hulkster. Bret Hart is a legend in the business and one of it's greatest competitors and champions. However, when it comes to telling the truth and elevating talent, he's certainly not the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.