Eric Bischoff Goes Off On 'Whiny' Bret Hart
The professional wrestling business has seen many "What if?" scenarios play out in terrible fashion, with Bret Hart's run in WCW in the aftermath of the Montreal Screwjob being near the top of that list. After being involved in one of wrestling's most talked about events ever, Hart made one of his first appearances in WCW at Starrcade 1997, helping Sting topple the NWO and "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan to become WCW World Champion.
Despite capping off a long-term story between Sting and the NWO that is viewed by many as one of the greatest in wrestling history, the finish came off very poorly, with referee Nick Patrick being a key figure in that. In storyline, Patrick was paid off by the NWO to fast-count Hogan as the victor. Hart then took out Patrick, becoming the new ref and counting three for Sting to become champion. The problem was, Patrick's "fast-count" wasn't actually fast, making it almost appear as if Hogan had legitimately beaten Sting, then been screwed by Hart.
During a special appearance for AdFreeShows, both Bischoff and Patrick spoke about that infamous night, providing a backstory on what went down. The former WCW President asked his co-host, Conrad Thompson, if he ever gets tired of listening to Hart, who described his distaste for his debut in his autobiography, saying if he "thought things were going to get better for me from there on in, I was sadly mistaken." Bischoff responded, calling the multi-time World Champion a "whiny b***h" and "a dirt sheet stooge" for The Wrestling Observer, who leaked the finish to that Starrcade match before it happened onscreen.
Bischoff defends Bret Hart's WCW debut
Although Eric Bischoff was critical of Bret Hart's complaints about the way his WCW debut was handled, he did state that he was a fan of Hart when he wasn't "whining." Bischoff insists that if given the opportunity to go back in time and book Hart's debut again, he would've still tried to "take advantage of a situation," referring to capitalizing on the controversy surrounding the Montreal Screwjob. The WWE Hall of Famer also stated that for him, it was a "controlled situation" where Hart could do the "opposite of what happened to him in Montreal" by doing the right thing and reversing the decision of a crooked referee, calling it a "story or a basis of an angle I still think is really strong."
"It was not a bad idea, it was poorly executed for any number of reasons," Bischoff said. "But the basic idea going in where you had a dirty referee that was siding with the NWO and was going to do the ultimate dirty deed as a referee which was to screw one of the combatants and side with the NWO and have a guy like Bret Hart, who had been on the receiving end of the most notorious screwjob in the history of professional wrestling, actually do the right thing was not a bad way to get Bret over."
"It would've been a good way to establish Bret in my opinion. Others may feel differently. Of course, Bret wanted to come in on a helicopter, save the world, put the fire out, be the white knight and the most just amazing babyface in the world. Given the circumstances and all the elements we had to work with, I'm going to get my ass kicked again for another 25 years over this, but I still think it was a good idea, a good premise."