In an interview with ESPN, Bret Hart discussed how he thinks the decision to have him lose the WWE Title to Yokozuna at WrestleMania 9 was made because Hulk Hogan pressured WWE to put the title back on him, and how Hogan never wanted to work with Bret Hart because he was afraid Hart would embarrass him in the ring. Highlights are below.

On how he didn’t expect to lose to Yokozuna at WrestleMania 9: “I expected that I was going to win, I didn’t know I was going to lose that day.

They didn’t tell me until literally the day before and it was quite a shock because they had told me when I had won the title, which had been about three months before, that they were going to keep the title on me for a really long time, we’re talking five, six, seven years.

I only went off of what they had told me. So I was totally not prepared, embraced in mind to lose to quickly, so I was really caught off guard by that, and quite let down by it, it was really, felt like I, part of me thought I failed, maybe I didn’t do a good enough job as champion and we needed to go in a different direction because I wasn’t worthy, then sort of looked back at how hard I worked, I realized that wasn’t what it was.”

On how he thinks Hulk Hogan pressured WWE to put the WWE Title back on him:

“I think it was more of a political thing with Hogan putting a lot of pressure on them to put the belt back on him. It was done almost overnight, the decision was made to beat me and tear me down instead of keep being built up the way they were doing, I think that was all because of Hulk Hogan.

I think that sacrifice, I was a sacrifice made to keep him in the company because they were worried he would go to WCW, that’s my fear, or not fear, but belief at the time.”

On why Hulk Hogan never wanted to work with him: “I think Hulk Hogan knew that someone like me could embarrass him on the ring, or really take the edge off him from a fan perspective because he was so limited as a wrestler, and being so much bigger than me, like 6’8″, wrestling a guy that was six foot,

he was always gonna be the overdog, I was always gonna be the underdog against Hulk Hogan, and that would have been too big a thing, it would have been, Hulk Hogan could never make another wrestler, and especially another wrestler that might end up being bigger than him.

He couldn’t bear the thought of wrestling me and making me so he completely buried the knife in me and made sure that he never worked with me.”