Smith Hart Talks Triple H Running WWE, Owen, TNA's Shortcomings, NXT, Chris Benoit Conspiracy, More

Smith Hart, brother of Bret "Hitman" Hart and the late Owen Hart, also the first son to the legendary Stu Hart, recently gave a candid interview to Marc Charles of the Outside Interference Wrestling podcast. The interview mostly focused on a recent blog Smith wrote titled, "Top 10 Worst Executives and Authorities in Wrestling History" that included the likes of Hulk Hogan, Dixie Carter, John Lauranitis, Vince Russo and more. He also talked about Owen's death and the Chris Benoit tragedy. They sent us these highlights.

The Bill DeMott controversy:

"It offends me and goes against my grain, when you're hurting guys. I don't know who the hell Bill DeMott is or what he is. Somebody obviously hire him and must of saw something in him to keep him around after he's been bullying people for a long time. There's no point in doing this (bullying) and I don't know why it's been going on for so long. Like I said earlier, what goes around comes around. Somebody will probably kick the s–t out of Bill DeMott and it might come right out of the blue and might not be a huge guy. That's usually what happens to intentional bullies and people who like to hurt people."

"I don't understand, the WWE is always talking about we're entertainers, we're pussies, we're bafoons, we're anything but athletes or killers. Yet they're hurting their talent, it's like a an oxymoron. If they know something about it they should do something about it. It's been well aired that he hurt guys before, there's been lot of complaints, there's been good people good talent leaving because of Bill DeMott, like who the hell is Bill DeMott?"

The Chris Benoit tragedy:

"It didn't change the family at all, I and many of my family don't even believe Chris did it. I think that Kevin Sullivan did it as he promised he would, that is an opinion shared with Chris Benoit's father in Edmonton whom I saw within a week after Chris died. Natalya was staying at the Benoit's house up until about 10 days before the Chris died, and she didn't sense any hostility between Nancy and Chris. He loved his son and was a faithful husband. They tied in roid rage quite a bit, I don't think Chris had anything that would of deranged Chris more than those Flying Headbutts, which I never liked them I didn't agree with them any more than when I saw Harley Race doing them. We're not mountain goats or big horn sheep, to me it's a stupid move. To me that would make you just as much to make you mentally deficient as steroids would as far as I'm concerned."

Why Hulk Hogan made his list of top 10 worst executives and authorities in wrestling history:

"Basically he was all out for himself. His thing was that he got more money than everyone else combined. That's very egotistical. He jumped ship every step of the way. He was Verne Gagne's top guy, and pulled out of a main event with Sgt Slaughter. He may have been very instrumental with all the other guys who pulled out. Then he jumped ship, he went to WCW, then he went to TNA. He let the fans down, he was beloved like no one else before him or after him."

Alundra Blayze, aka Madusa, being inducted into the WWE HOF after her stunt on WCW with the women's title, but Owen Hart not receiving the HOF nod:

"Alundra Blayze is going in there. I'm surprised, I guess it's magnanimous for the WWE to forgive her for cheating on their title, that w?s kind of a slap in the face. If they're inducting Alundra Blayze, why wouldn't they induct Owen Hart?"

Vince M?Mahon's initial settlement offer to Stu Hart after Owen's accidental death:

"Vince McMahon made very generous offer to my dad? close to $100 million to take care of (Owen's wife) Martha and Owen's family and his family. In the end they got far less than that, and all the lawyers got rich off of it. Martha ended up splitting $30 million 3 ways, with the lawyers and her kids."

Why Vince Russo made Smith's list:

"Vince Russo has to be the biggest mark in showbiz or sports entertainment, whatever you want to call it. Whoever hired him are the biggest marks yet. Vince has a kinky streak in him, he was quite tickled when Natalya was accidentally exposed on some show, he made a big deal out of that and said that was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and that she can really count on advancing if that was developed."

Independent wrestling in comparison to the territory days:

"Promoters like to have some control, if they have someone who is absolutely unbeatable, there have been problems sometimes, like Bob Backlund can beat most people handily, like Kurt Angle. You know there were some times when Bob (Backlund) wouldn't put over a homosexual that Vince McMahon's father wanted him to put over. They'd rethink it and say, 'ok how about this guy?' And he (Backlund) would say 'okay no problem, Iron Sheik I respect him'."

Dixie Carter and where he thinks she went wrong in evolving TNA into a viable alternative to the WWE:

"Well I could say they went wrong by not hiring somebody like, me, myself or my brother Bruce to manipulate their talent, you know you can make your own stars. Look at what they've done with Daniel Bryan. It's how you promote it, the promoter makes the wrestler, the wrestler doesn't make the promoter. Vince McMahon made Hulk Hogan, Hulk Hogan did not make WWF or WWE or Vince, they were going long before Hulk and they were go long after Hulk. I don't know it's (TNA) a closed shop, you can't penetrate the wall, they have a lot of flappers who are paid to keep people out of their business. They're running it into the ground, and that lets down the fans, it lets down the network, it lets down the wrestlers to a degree. I guess Dixie, I guess it's a toy for her, a toy and write off for the company."

If he felt he was wronged being stonewalled by TNA when attempting to contact Dixie Carter and TNA with his booking and business ideas:

"Yes I do (feel he was wronged), but it's their choi?e mind you. You can judge somebody by a few minutes of conversation, I would of wo?ked for free just to prove my point with WWE or any of them. I don't have any money to pay them to use me, but if I had a chance I could of just ignited something, and get that spark into a blaze. That's what I would of done I believe."

When asked about pushing the right stars mixed with backstage politics:

"They don't have much patience in some of these big organizations. There's a lot of politicking, I mean 'gay politicking' and homo——- backstabbers and 'toties' that are intimate with their hierarchy, the higher up promoters in the upper echelon of the organization. And you don't get passed some of them, they're pretty good at pretending they're hearing you out and promising stuff, then losing you. Distancing themselves from you, and you can't make contact, doesn't matter how good or funny the skits are, or if you want to use talent that's being overlooked that are worthy, that doesn't matter they don't want to hear about it. They're just worried about their position."

Vince Russo's part in his brother Owen Hart's death:

"Owen would still be alive today if he had gone with the first stunt that idiot Russo had, he was teaming with Jeff Jerrett and fighting over the same girl. Owen didn't like his kids or wife seeing that, he told them wrestling was real and for them to see him flirting with someone else's wife it was detrimental to his family structure, that's why he protested that and that's why he ended up doing that goofy stunt, that needless fall to his death from the cable that he wasn't hitched up to. Seems to me they should of sued Vince Russo as much as they sued everybody else including Titan Sports and every member of Vince's family and the city of Kansas City and the state of Missouri, and the makers of the clasp. Vince Russo should have been in there, it seems to me he wasn't even included in it, he was the whole reason for it."

"He seems to like that kinky stuff, where somebody's wearing a diaper or someone is seen naked or something. He was a distributer of videos, maybe he got into too much pornography, I don't know but it's some pretty sick stuff."

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon running WWE after Vince McMahon passes on:

"I don't know when Vince will pass away, as far as I know he is still in good shape, physically and mentally and I hope he lives forever. I think Stephanie and Hunter should have his and the company's and the family's best interests in mind, and I'm sure they do. Hunter's been around for a while and I like Hunter, I've interactive with Hunter many times at Wrestlmania and at Owen's funeral and various events around the world. I like the guy, he was trained by Killer Kowalski, he knows the ins and outs of being a baby face and a heel and a good size guy and a worthy guy to carry on the McMahon dynasty."

NXT:

"It's a good idea, and there's probably some underlying reason for it, like hogging up a TV slot that some other independent entity might take otherwise, they're pretty good at that. They have enough lawyers there to keep everyone out of the pie."

The entire interview can be heard at the Outside Interference Wrestling Podcast site by clicking here or below. You can follow them on Twitter at @INTERFERENCE316.

Source: Outside Interference Wrestling Podcast

mike matthews contributed to this article.