Bret Hart denounced Paul Levesque as a “phony” and was critical of the WWE chief content creator’s in-ring skillset.
Hart was interviewed by Kenny McIntosh for an in-person Inside the Ropes live show and shared his critical opinion of Levesque:
I’m not sure where I stand with Triple H,” Bret Hart reflected. “Just being honest, I never rated him.”
“Everything he’s done, everything he’s created, it’s all stuff he wrote out for himself. I wish I could have sat back in 1992 and said, ‘Well, this is what I’m going to do for the next ten years. I’m going to win every title and I’m going to be champion 55 times, or 500 times.”
“I think Triple H is a phony, like in the sense that he never earned it and he never deserved it. He just married the boss’s daughter. […] He was such a slimeball back in 1997. A guy I had very little respect for.
Hart mentioned his issues with Levesque in 1997, and playing a significant role in how the ending of his match with Shawn Michaels at the Survivor Series was handled.
In the Mr. McMahon series on Netflix, Levesque recalled being on a call with Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels and being told Hart would not lose to Michaels in Montreal. Levesque’s response on the call was, “I was the one that was like, Fuck that. If he won’t do it, do it for him.”
During the Inside the Ropes chat, Hart said he wished Levesque were in the locker room when he punched McMahon immediately after the Survivor Series in Hart’s final WWE show until January 2010.
Hart had initially signed a twenty-year contract with the WWF in 1996, but was informed in September 1997 by McMahon that he could not honor the deal and encouraged Hart to seek out a deal from WCW.
In Hart’s contract, he had a clause for “reasonable creative control” during the final thirty days of his deal. Eric Bischoff has given Hart approval to extend his exit from the WWF and work the In Your House pay-per-view in December before joining WCW.
Hart didn’t appear on WCW programming until December 15, 1997.
Hart and Levesque have had an icy relationship for decades, but were cordial when Hart was invited to Raw in Calgary last year.
