The following is an excerpt from an interview with former WWE pro wrestler, Bret “The Hitman” Hart:
“I do like ultimate fighting,” Bret Hart told Hour.ca. “I enjoy watching it, but whenever I watch it I cringe when I see them really hurt each other. You know that they're going to really hurt each other, and I have a lot of respect for the seriousness of it.
A lot of the audience we used to have in pro wresting has moved over to ultimate fighting now, because they get that real fix of violence and blood that they used to get from wrestling. But when I watch what I used to do, let's say my match with Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 13, where he's bleeding – to me there's something more beautiful about that match. The people who used to watch us, they watched that fight and they were happy. They got that violent fix, and we had a real battle. That was the entertainment that they needed to let their aggressions out for when they go to work the next day. Now they get that fix from ultimate fighting, but the difference is that what I did with Steve Austen was a beautiful waltz of two wrestlers pretending to hurt each other. Despite the blood and everything, it was a beautiful match – and 'nobody was hurt in the making of that movie' sort of thing [laughs].
“In ultimate fighting, when you see these guys really punching faces, and drilling guys until the ref usually stops it, I think, always a couple seconds too late, that's an incredible amount of brain damage being done. And at what cost? Do you really want to pay money for this? It's like dog fighting. Do you really feel good about yourself supporting someone getting their brains punched out? I mean, I'm guilty, I love watching it, I'm riveted and I have deep regard for it. But when I watch it I always have a pang. I wish wrestling was like it used to be so we wouldn't need to have this kind of entertainment.”
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