WWE commentator's message for 'bitter' Bret Hart: 'What are you mad at?'

Published Jan. 3, 2017 10:52 a.m. ET

Nick Schwartz

WWE legend and Hall of Famer Bret Hart seemed to make his peace with Vince McMahon and WWE more than a decade after the infamous Montreal Screwjob - he re-signed with the company in 2009 to make regular appearances (and even serve as the Raw GM for a short period) over the next year - but in recent years Hart has become one of the WWE's loudest critics. Like many retired wrestlers, Hart tried his hand at podcasting - and was frequently found himself in the headlines for his harsh reviews of some WWE programming and talent.

Hart has been especially critical of former WWE champion Seth Rollins, who Hart says needs to learn to become safer "before someone gets killed." After Finn Balor was injured at SummerSlam in a match against Rollins, Hart responded by saying "clearly you’re doing it wrong."

On the debut episode of WWE's new roundtable discussion show "Bring It To The Table" on the WWE Network, WWE veteran and current announcer John Bradshaw Layfield called out Hart and questioned why Hart is mad in the first place.

“I’d like to tell Bret Hart: Please don’t get hot. What are you mad at, Bret?

Bret, you’re one of the greatest superstars of all time. You’re a multi-millionaire. You’re a legend in Canada, you’re a legend around the world. I personally like you very much. You’ve been very great to me your entire career.

But what are you mad at? You come out and you talk about Michael Hayes and the Freebirds, and you bash Michael Hayes, [saying] ‘he shouldn’t be in the WWE Hall of Fame,’ but you don’t say anything about Sting, who didn’t make his name in the WWE.

…. He got out of the podcasts because he didn’t want to be negative, but he was negative getting out of the podcasts. What about Seth Rollins? He claims that Seth Rollins hurts people… I mean, people get hurt in this business.

Look, Bret was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. People get hurt all the time, I think Bret should understand that. I’m not sure what has made Bret, apparently, so bitter.”

Host Peter Rosenberg pointed out that Hart still may not be over the fact that his career ended prematurely after he took a kick to the head from Goldberg - but JBL argued that Hart should be happy with what he accomplished.

“My career ended because I got my back broke in a match in Earl’s Court. It was just a mistake, over in London. It ended shortly thereafter, I wasn’t to do anything following that.

I’m not mad about that. You know what I’m happy about? I’m happy about the fact that I got to do what I wanted to do since I was a kid, and the fact that I got to live the dream that I wanted to live. And I think that Bret has to understand… he’s an incredible superstar. Could he have had a few more years? Absolutely. But you can’t get hot about the fact that something bad happened. And it was a mistake, it’s not like Goldberg did that on purpose.”