Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: "road dogg" jesse james, Bret "Hitman" Hart, bret hart, d-generation x, dx, hbk, New Age Outlaws, road dogg, shawn michaels, william shatner, wrestling, wwe, wwe hall of fame

Road Dogg Jesse James Says He Was Better In WWE Than Bret Hart

Oh, you didn't know?  That Road Dogg Jesse James was better than Bret Hart?  Alright, as I duck your flying shoes and garbage, let me explain.  These are the opinions of Road Dogg himself, who, in addition to saying he thinks he was better than The Hitman in the world of sports entertainment, also thought Hart wasn't a great wrestler in general.  Oh boy…

So let's try to dig through this one.  On his Oh…You Didn't Know? podcast, Road Dogg got into the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Screwjob, and that gave way to him discussing Bret Hart in general.  "I never saw what the big deal was with Bret Hart as a performer. I never understood it."  While he conceded that Hart was a better worker than he was, proving he is at least sane during this discussion, he did offer his opinion that he was a better "sports entertainer" than Hart.  "I don't think I was a good wrestler. I don't think Bret was a great wrestler. I think I was a better sports entertainer than Bret was, and I think that's where the money is."

You're going to be very, very hard-pressed to find anyone who legitimately doesn't think Bret Hart was a great wrestler or would even say he's not on the short list of best of all time.  But to argue that he was a better "sports entertainer" than Hart because "that's where the money is," is Road Dogg saying he made more money, either for himself or for the company than Hart?  I'm willing to place a pretty sizable bet that's not true.

Road Dogg goes on to explain that his assessment of Bret Hart isn't personal and is just his opinion of him as a talent. "I apologize, but I want everybody to understand. I don't dislike Bret Hart. I just don't think he's that great of a wrestler, and I'm sorry if that hurts anybody's feelings, especially because I'm not trying to do that. I always thought Shawn (Michaels) was the better sports entertainer, and I still believe that to this day."

Even if his opinion is that HBK was better (and that's a lot of fans' and wrestlers' opinion so I won't begrudge him that), I think it's still objectively silly to say Bret Hart wasn't a great wrestler.  His matches still have people in awe and changed the industry, putting work rate and storytelling over just being a bodybuilder doing feats of strength.  Just his match with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 alone would be more than enough to argue how great Bret Hart was.

I really don't get where Road Dogg is coming from here.  Even if he's diminishing Bret Hart's talent based purely on promos or entertainment factors, I'd love to see a Road Dogg storyline that comes anywhere close to being as entertaining or generating as much genuine heat from the crowd as Hart's heel run in 1997.  But alas, opinions can be complete without much merit, and they're still as fine to have as one considered much more credible.  I do congratulate Road Dogg on doing easily the best heel work of his entire career with this take, though.

Oh, here's a video of Road Dogg getting beaten up by Bret Hart and Star Trek star William Shatner back in 1995.  His negative opinions of Hart are one thing, but I'll be damned if I allow Road Dogg to trash the in-ring abilities of James T. Kirk!

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