The argument in one line.
Bret Hart says his career-ending injuries against Bill Goldberg came from an inexperienced partner repeatedly abandoning agreed safety plans under pressure, and the real wound is that Goldberg never once acknowledged it.
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READ IF YOU ARE…
- You want the unfiltered, blow-by-blow account of the Bret Hart vs. Bill Goldberg WCW match that ended Hart's in-ring career.
- You're interested in how physical trust between two performers breaks down when one side improvises under pressure.
- You want to understand the gap between wrestling as scripted performance and the real physical risk underneath it.
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- You're looking for match footage or highlights rather than a spoken first-person account.
- You want a balanced, both-sides retelling — this is Bret Hart's version only, and he says so.
The full version, fast.
Bret Hart recounts the 1999 WCW match against Bill Goldberg that ended his in-ring career, describing a green performer who abandoned the agreed safety plan under pressure. Hart says Goldberg gave him three concussions in minutes: an unplanned full-force elbow, letting go of Hart's foot during a rehearsed post spot so Hart's head hit the ground, and an improvised spinning kick to the head. Hart kept working with only an Advil for medical care, couldn't recognize his own concussion, and was told days later by his doctor his career was over. His lasting grievance isn't the injury. It's that Goldberg never once apologized or called.
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00:00 – 00:35
01 · The question
The host asks Bret Hart why he still holds a grudge against Bill Goldberg over the injury that ended his career.
00:36 – 03:23
02 · Trying to mentor a green Goldberg
Hart says he tried hard to teach Goldberg how to work safely, despite Goldberg already having hurt several other wrestlers, including Curt Hennig and Haku.
03:24 – 05:20
03 · The first concussion
In the match itself, Goldberg opens with a full-force elbow smash Hart wasn't expecting, followed by a real running tackle into the corner.
05:21 – 07:39
04 · The foot-hold betrayal
Hart explains the figure-four-on-the-post spot requires a partner to hold your foot on the way down. Goldberg lets go early, and Hart's head hits the ground.
07:41 – 09:33
05 · The spinning kick
Confused about an improvised call, Hart eats a full-power spinning back kick to the head, a third concussion within about 30 seconds.
09:34 – 11:45
06 · Barely conscious, no help
Hart finishes the match nauseous and concussed. The only medical response backstage is an Advil, and he walks through his hotel lobby visibly impaired while fans go quiet.
11:47 – 13:41
07 · Playing through it
The next day Hart can't self-diagnose his own concussion and is put in a match with Chris Benoit anyway, despite telling people something was wrong.
13:41 – 16:03
08 · The car-window stunt
In a scripted angle, Goldberg over-commits to smashing a car window with a safety prop and slices his arm open for real.
16:03 – 17:24
09 · The doctor's verdict
After another concussion in a hardcore match with Terry Funk, Hart's doctor tells him his career is over.
17:26 – 19:08
10 · No apology, no accountability
Hart says Goldberg never called to check on him, and contrasts it with what he says he would have done in Goldberg's place.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Bret Hart says he took three concussions from Bill Goldberg within about 30 seconds of in-ring time.
- The 'figure-four on the post' spot only works if your partner holds your foot on the way down. Hart says Goldberg let go mid-fall.
- Hart says Goldberg improvised an unplanned spinning back kick to his head instead of the agreed-upon spot.
- The only medical care offered after Hart's concussion was, in his telling, an Advil.
- A doctor later told Hart that concussion victims lose the very judgment needed to recognize they're concussed.
- Hart wrestled Chris Benoit and took a hardcore-match bump with Terry Funk in the days after his concussion, before finally being pulled.
- Goldberg's own arm injury during a scripted car-window stunt happened because he over-committed to a prop move meant to look dangerous, not be dangerous.
- Hart says he called Goldberg the day after Goldberg's arm injury to check on him, a call he says he never once received in return.
- Hart had just signed a four-year, $12 million WCW contract before the match that ended his career.
- Hart contrasts his own decision to call Goldberg after his injury with three decades of silence from Goldberg after Hart's career-ending one.
Trust breaks the moment someone abandons the plan
WHAT TO LEARN
Bret Hart's account of the Goldberg match is really about what happens when an agreed safety plan gets ignored under pressure, and how the silence afterward can hurt more than the injury itself.
02Trying to mentor a green Goldberg
- Investing real effort to train an unproven partner doesn't guarantee they'll listen, especially once real pressure hits.
- A track record of hurting others before you ever worked with them is a warning sign worth taking seriously, not a fluke to teach around.
03The first concussion
- A safety briefing means nothing if the other person abandons it the moment they want to look tough.
- One person's need to prove something can override an agreed-upon plan that both sides said they understood.
04The foot-hold betrayal
- The exact safeguard built into a risky task is only as reliable as the partner responsible for holding up their end of it.
- Abandoning an agreed safeguard at the worst possible moment turns a controlled risk into a real injury.
05The spinning kick
- Improvising outside the agreed plan mid-task can cause real harm even when both sides intend a safe outcome.
- Taking a second serious hit within seconds of the first should be the moment to stop, not the moment to push through.
06Barely conscious, no help
- A stated safety plan means nothing if the only response to a real injury is a painkiller and a shrug.
- Being visibly impaired without anyone stepping in shows how easily an obvious problem gets ignored when the show has to keep going anyway.
07Playing through it
- The injury itself often strips away the judgment needed to recognize you're hurt, so self-diagnosis under pressure can't be trusted.
- Getting pressured back into a high-risk task the next day, on your own say-so that you're fine, compounds the original damage.
08The car-window stunt
- Overcommitting to a moment that's supposed to look dangerous, rather than be dangerous, is how staged risk turns into a real one.
- Reacting with more concern for someone after they hurt themselves than they ever showed you after they hurt you says everything about the relationship.
09The doctor's verdict
- A repeated pattern of injuries against the same warning signs, not a single incident, is usually what finally forces the hard stop.
- When a professional tells you the damage is to something that doesn't heal like a joint does, continuing stops being brave and starts being reckless.
10No apology, no accountability
- Silence after causing serious harm reads as confirmation, not neutrality.
- What someone would have done in the reverse situation is the clearest test of whether they ever valued the relationship at all.
Terms worth knowing.
- Figure-four on the post
- A signature-looking spot where a wrestler wraps an opponent's leg around the ring post. It looks painful on camera but causes little real pain; the fall into position is what's genuinely dangerous.
- Green (wrestling slang)
- Describes a performer who is inexperienced and hasn't yet learned how to safely execute or sell moves in the ring.
- Spot
- A pre-planned sequence or move in a wrestling match that both performers agree on and rehearse before it happens live.
- Shoot interview
- An interview where a wrestler speaks candidly and off-script about real backstage events, as opposed to a scripted, in-character promo.
Lines you could clip.
03:00
“Bill, whatever you do, don't hurt me.”
10:41
“All I got is Advil.”
17:00
“Your brain is not like your knee, or you can get a knee replacement.”
18:14
“We all know it's the nature of the business.”
18:54
“I would have gone to Saudi Arabia and given that money to Goldberg.”
Word for word.
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metaphor
Earlier on, you signed one of the figures saying Goldberg sucks. And I wanted to ask you, because obviously injuries are very serious and what happened to you was really bad and you had to retire. And I wondered why, obviously it still hurts what happened.
Is it because Goldberg is not remorseful enough about it and that's why it still is a kind of bugbear? Or what's the reason that you think it still kind of sometimes gets to you?
I carry grudges.
Yeah, I want to say I would have been okay with that. Like, you know, that I'm not okay with that. But I tried really hard to help Bill and looked forward to working with him.
And I knew he was green and all that and that he hurt a lot of guys, but I was like, I'm going to try to teach you. I'm going to try to really educate you, take you up way higher than you are and really teach you how to work because Bill was one of those morons that thought that wrestling was real, that he was really winning all these matches because he was such a phenomenal, tough guy.
I'm not kidding. I think when I hear him talking about this stuff today, it's like, doesn't he know that it's all pretend? Wrestling's not real.
We're not really hurting each other. We're out there. We do hurt each other, but we protect each other, and it's a performance.
Wrestling is a performance art. And I did talk to Bill from the first day I met him. I was always trying to give him advice and help him out, and I really wanted to teach him and sort of...
Because I know he hurt so many guys before he ever worked with me. He hurt Kurt Henning. He almost broke Haku's neck.
He hurt five or six guys in very serious ways where they're like career -ending stuff. And I watched him hurt guys, and I watched guys crawl back. I watched Kurt Henning crawl on his stomach to the dressing room because he got hurt by Kurt, by Goldberg.
And I liked Bill, and I was trying to help him, and I thought he was a guy that could be a good, like a big star in the business, and it would be beneficial to everyone if someone could teach him how to wrestle and somehow explain to him that it's not real. But he's too stupid. And so anyway, you know, I just...
you know, when I finally got in the ring to wrestle Bill, it was a pay -per -view, I think it was. Starcade. Starcade, yeah.
And it's funny, the last word I said to Bill Goldberg before I walked out to the ring was, I stopped him, I said, Bill, whatever you do, don't hurt me. So I just had, I just signed my WCW contract for another four years at $3 million a year. And I'm like, that's 12 million bucks.
That's my, That's my retirement right there. And I had just gone through a divorce, so I got cleaned out pretty good.
And I needed that money and needed that opportunity to make my departure and retire some days, you know, not long after that. And so Bill goes out to the ring, and we go to the ring, and we have our match, and it's all mapped out pretty much.
Bill, the first concussion I got from Bill was he backed me up into the corner. And if you're ever watching the match, he just gives me an elbow smash in the face. Just full -on elbow, full power, everything he's got just elbowed me right in the face as hard as he could.
I'm like almost out cold on my feet. He really rocked me. I didn't expect to get hit.
It was like someone having a... pillowcase filled with like an anvil or something and just swinging that and wham he really rocked me and he knew it he leaned in and goes sorry you know and then he threw me into the turnbuckle I hit the turnbuckle and then he charges me like a train like a freight train like he I don't know if you remember he used to do it all the time but he I moved out of the way by a hair Bill hits his head on the post and splits his head open So he even hurt himself.
He's that stupid. But so then I'm not even sure what happened, but I remember I'm totally concussed, and now I remember, yeah, I went out, dropped on the floor. Maybe I got knocked on the floor.
I can't remember, but I went for the figure four on the post spot, which is... You know, let's be honest. The figure four on the post is not a real hold.
It doesn't really work. Really, when your legs are wrapped around the post, I remember when I did it to Steve Austin in WrestleMania 13 and a couple other times. The truth is it looks great and looks really painful, but it's no different than having your legs crossed like this.
And it doesn't really hurt. But at the time, it was like, wow, that's a good -looking move, you know. And Steve sold the heck out of it.
It was a great move. And I took that to WCW. And I told Bill, I said, because the trick to that move is you have to throw your leg up on the apron and then you have to fall backwards right on your, and it's like, the truth is it's really dangerous because when you fall backwards, the first thing that hits the ground is your head.
And it'll, if you're not careful, it'll come down and whack right on the post. And it's really dangerous. And I always used to tell everybody that I ever did it with, including Bill, I said, remember, you just got to grab my foot.
You got to hold my foot. So Bill holds my foot, which allows me to do like a Roman chair sit -up where I can slowly lean down and fall down without whacking my head on the ground. So when I worked out all this stuff with Bill, I said, make sure you grab my foot.
and hold my foot, like, right on my laces to give me some support so I can slowly ease my way down without whacking my head. If you watch that match, Bill lets go of my foot just as I start to fall. He just lets go of my foot.
I fall all the way down on the ground, whack my head right on the post, and I'm really mad, and I take a pretty good blow to my head right there, which would be my second one. in like 30 seconds with Bill. And so then I ride on the floor and I get up and I'm kind of like, Jesus, this guy's turned out to be worse than Vader, you know?
And so then I get back in the ring and he's selling his leg in the sharpshooter or the figure four on the post that I put on him. And we get back in the ring and he... I don't know, we had like a one -two or something.
And this is, you know, he goes to grab me and he goes, watch the kick. And I'm going, watch the kick? Like it's, the WCW ring is 16 feet.
The WWF ring is 20 feet. So there's a big difference in size in the rings. And when they throw you in the ropes in the WCW ring.
You're right back in the middle of the ring in a second like you're it's so quick like you're it's very and a lot of people thought that it made it faster which I never liked I like the big ring and So bill threw me in the work rope and he goes watch the kick and I remember hitting the ropes and going What's the kick? What kind of kick am I kicking him or is he kicking me or is it a kick in the stomach?
or is it a i didn't know what a drop kick or like i didn't know what it was so i'm coming off pretty slow and bill was standing sideways to me in the middle of the ring i have no idea what he's doing i don't know what kind of kick he's doing and then he just turns and spins and does a spinning back mule kick like it was like right out of ufc or something and i can only compare it to someone it was just As soon as he hit me and I hit the ground, you can see I grabbed my neck.
And it's like, holy shit, I thought he kicked my head off. And when he gave me the kick, it was coming up, and I remember I put my hands up to deflect it, which I wish I'd had that day. But I just missed it.
I remember it went right past my fingertips, and that's when I got the kick. And so I'm almost out cold in the ring. I barely, I can't even, I barely got up.
And then Bill, the finish was he , which was another move that was totally real. There's nothing pretend about it. It's just like some guy running you over with his car.
You know, it's like that's, so he ran me over. I'm lying in the ring and I was really concussed and almost like where I'm going to throw up. get ill in the ring I was like nauseous and I knew something was wrong and that's when WCW the finish somehow Roddy Piper came out and I don't even remember how it was like the stupidest didn't make any sense but somehow Roddy made me the hand to be the belt or something and Goldberg lost the belt to me that night or something I didn't remember it wasn't very logical but when I came back to the dressing room I was out of it.
And I remember it was like, there was no doctor, no one to help me. I remember that they have a doctor or a trainer, WCW did, did WWE. But I remember he goes, all I got is Advil, which is like aspirin.
And I go, like, I need, I need to go to a doctor or something. Like I'm, anyone that was talking to me would go, there's something wrong. You're not right.
Like you're, I was, I was messed up. Goldberg never said anything to me, never came to even thank me or nothing. And I got a ride back to my hotel.
I don't even remember, I just remember getting out of my car and walking into the lobby of the hotel. And I was so, like when I walked in, every wrestling fan knew, uh -oh. he's something wrong with him like and they all just dispersed and backed up and let me walk to the elevator nobody would nobody bothered me for autographs or anything if anything they opened the door for me and got me in the elevator and i went straight up to my room and i was i went to bed i never hard never slept i had like a hot i had a toss and turn all night in my head was just throbbing and i next day i went to the next day of TV tapings, which was in another town about 120 miles from Baltimore.
And Bill Glover never once apologized or said sorry about that or nothing. I get to the building and I'm telling him, I think I have a concussion. And then at the same time, my neck was so sore.
I said, I think I have a concussion. And they, I remember. It's funny because when you're concussed, you lose the ability to diagnose yourself.
I remember my doctor explained it to me. He goes, if you have a broken arm and you can see it, like your arm is broken, okay, your brain says, okay, my arm is broken. Or your foot or whatever you can see, your brain tells you, okay, you hurt yourself and you better go get it.
But when you have a concussion, you can tell yourself you're okay. I remember it was like... I'm okay, but I got a bit of a concussion.
And, you know, that's just the mistake you get from having a concussion. I didn't want to work. I thought I should have had the day off, but they put me in a match with, I think it was Jeff Jarrett or...
Gavin Nash or Teddy Funk? Who was it?
Benoit, that's who it was, Chris Benoit, who was no picnic to wrestle. And, you know, he's a great guy and a great friend and a great wrestler. but you take a lot of bumps and falls with someone like Benoit.
And it's like, I got a concussion. And it's like, he's chopping me and doing all these things to me. And then the match, Goldberg storms, runs out to the ring and interferes in our match.
And the storyline or the script is for me to see Bill. And I like, ah, and I jump out and run back to run out of the, run out of up the aisle and run out of the building. And Goldberg gets into it with.
with Benoit and then comes and starts to chase me chase after me to get me and I run out and they're filming all this and I get in a car I jump in a brand new Lincoln Continental start the car and Bill Goldberg has planned there's all camera they're coming in to film all this it's all set up he's got a like one of those it looked like a stainless steel pencil But it's a little prop that you use for Hollywood movies and stuff where if you punch the window on the car or the windshield, it'll just shatter and break.
And you hold the little metal point just a little outside your finger. So Bill's got one of those. And I'm watching.
I did zip up my window and lock my doors as to the storyline that I'm, you know, afraid of Bill and I'm going to get. you know, I'm the bad guy or whatever. And I remember Bill punching my window three, four times.
And then like an idiot, he tries to put his hand through the windshield. And I watched right from the front window of Bill Goldberg. He smashed and ran his arm up on the glass and the glass broke.
And all of a sudden he cut his arm from here all the way. like just right to the like it was like the i could see the inside of his arm it was like a nasty cut and he you know again hurt himself idiot and uh i saw him look at me or look at look at his arm and his arm was like an open i mean you could have just slashed him with a sword and cut him across the arm and he turned white as a ghost he almost fainted And then I had to drive off.
I had to drive. That's the storyline is that I drive off. I think a bunch of people came to hold him back or something.
But in fact, Bill just disappeared after I saw that. He was gone. Like he just went back to the dressing room.
He had rushed him to the ambulance because he had bled to death. And I didn't even see him really that I can remember. So then Bill.
He never, ever called me. Like, I went home the next day, and within about, I had to wrestle. I wrestled, kept wrestling every day.
I took another concussion, I think, from Terry Funk in a match where it was just an accident, but it was, like, just bad luck where he was, you know, I remember Vince Russo. It's like, I got a concussion, so he's going to put me in a hardcore match with Terry Funk. It's like, that's a good idea.
And so he puts me in, and I'm in a big basket, and he dumped me out on the cement, and I hit my head on the ground. I had another concussion. Anyway, to make a long story short, I went home a couple of days later, and I see my doctor, and as soon as he saw me and talked to me for about five minutes, he goes, I think your career's over.
And I'm like, my career's not over. I had a huge contract, and I got a title match on Sunday. I got a pay -per -view.
He goes, you're not going anywhere. And I'm like, I think I am. And I remember he told me, he goes, this is really important to tell you this, but you have to stop.
Your brain is not like your knee or you can get a knee replacement. He goes, if you don't take care of your brain. You're gonna be this would be the biggest mistake you you got to stop right now You're pretty sure to tell you that your career is over And it was and then that basically that's the end of my that was the end of everything But my point with Goldberg is that he never ever called me once and when he ran his arm through the windshield I called him the very next day and said I'm really sorry about your arm and I always remembered that and it's like I called him when he I thought he was hurt But then it's like my career's over.
I've lost all my contract, all my money, everything, done. I never ever heard from him ever. And then I saw him, I don't know, maybe a year later somewhere.
I think he came to Calgary where he ended up marrying a girl from Calgary. But he never ever apologized or said, hey, I'll bet. You know, he just, he said to me, he goes, we all know it's the nature of the business is what he said to me.
And I remember going. No, actually, it's not the nature of the business. It's actually the other way around.
Anyway, I'll just end it on that, is that I never felt I ever got any kind of apology. And then when Goldberg went to Saudi Arabia and they paid him $3 million to wrestle Undertaker for that bulls**t, the horse s**t match he had, I always thought if it was me and I did that to Goldberg in the same circumstances except for the opposite, I would have gone to Saudi Arabia and given that money to Goldberg.
I would have said, hey, there's $3 million. I'm sorry I cost you your contract. I know it's not $12 million.
But this is what I would have done now.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Someone asks Bret Hart, on stage at a live shoot interview, why he still hates Bill Goldberg more than twenty years later. What follows is nineteen minutes of grievance delivered blow by blow: three concussions in one match, a safety spot Goldberg abandoned mid-fall, and a silence that outlasted the injury itself.
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