Bret Hart: It Was More Of A Bad Day For My Attacker At The Hall Of Fame Ceremony Than It Was For Me

Bret Hart speaks about the Hall Of Fame incident for the first time.

It was on WrestleMania 35 weekend that WWE Hall Of Famer Bret Hart and Natalya were set to induct Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart into the Hall Of Fame as a part of The Hart Foundation. As Hart was delivering his speech, an individual ran into the ring and tackled Bret Hart to the mat. The individual who was later discovered to be named Zachary Madsen was taken out by the likes of Shane McMahon, Travis Browne, Davey Boy Smith Jr., New Day, Dash Wilder and more wrestlers, friends and family of Bret Hart who were in attendance.

The latest update on Madsen came from PWInsider which noted that his court case had been postponed. Bret Hart spoke about the incident when he joined ‘Sunday Night’s Main Event’ radio and recounted the situation. Hart said that he understands wrestling fans can be passionate and very invested in everything within the business and even joked about Madsen having a worse day than he did.

“Well, I didn’t see the guy until it was too late and I could tell something was happening but I thought it was a fight in the crowd or something like that. You never take anything for granted. I consider myself lucky that-that was as insignificant an incident as it was and I know everyone thought I got punched and hurt or manhandled by that guy but it was more of the way other way around I think.” Hart laughed. “More of a bad day for that guy. I feel bad that it happened. It was a stupid thing to do and I know something happened a few weeks ago with Arnold Schwarzenegger where it happened to him. I hope it doesn’t become something that people think is funny to do all the time because at the same time, you take that incident that happened in New York at WrestleMania, it [could be like] John Lennon. He didn’t think anyone would shoot him in the back walking into his house or whatever so you can’t take anything for granted. Wrestling fans are very passionate and we get very caught up in the storylines and things that go on in wrestling and all that’s good but I don’t recommend attacking wrestlers at Hall Of Fames.”

Bret Hart was asked has he heard any reason why Madsen targeted him and Hart said that he has heard varying reasons but nothing concrete. He said the reason he has not publicly spoken about the incident often is because he does not want to bring it attention to it.

“No, I’ve heard various theories. I heard he was a devoted fan of Vince, that he loved Vince McMahon and I’ve heard the other way around that he wanted to do harm to Vince [and] doing harm to me was the way to do that.” He continued, “I don’t know which one of those is true. I don’t really care to talk too much about it because it gives… that’s what they want. The [guy] just wants attention, the headline, they want us all to be talking about it on the radio right now and I just… this is the first time I’ve talked about it so… I feel bad that it happened. Not that I feel bad for him. I don’t wanna see anyone, especially a fan get hurt. He got hurt pretty good I think, and some of the wrestlers that jumped on top of him landed on me pretty hard trying to protect me which [I] appreciate all that too but it’s better left unsaid I think.” Hart concluded.

Bret Hart’s incident at the WWE Hall Of Fame ceremony was made fun of by MJF at AEW’s Double Or Nothing show where Hart was present to reveal the AEW World Championship. The first holder of that title will be determined at AEW’s All Out in August as Chris Jericho and Adam “Hangman” Page will do battle for the gold.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Sunday Night’s Main Event radio with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.