Arn Anderson Discusses What Went Wrong With Bret Hart’s WCW Run

Arn Anderson was recently back on The Arn Show and reflected on his days in WCW. Arn recalled when The Big Show, then going by The Giant, approached him and said he was his favorite wrestler growing up, and he even went as far as telling him a story about being a young kid and riding his bike to the arena but not being able to afford a ticket. Arn said he told him what all he was wearing that day and it was “embarrassing”.

“He really did,” Arn said. “I was embarrassed, humbled, flattered, and everything you could think of all at once. For this giant to be standing there and telling me that story about when he was outside trying to get in and didn’t have enough money, rode his bicycle down there to the show, and how that whole thing came about. He described me to a tee. Everything, from the vehicle I was driving to the sunglasses I was wearing, to the watch, pinky ring, you name it.

“It had to be true, and Show is a good friend and a relationship that has lasted the test of time,” Arn added. “For me, I’m very proud to call myself a friend of his and I hope he feels the same way, and it was a very humbling experience.”

While speaking of WCW, Arn was asked if he had any input on how WCW missed so badly on Bret Hart’s time with the company. He said he was aware they held meetings for quite a while on Bret coming in but those talks happened behind closed doors, and he was not privy to those discussions of what the plans were. He continued on saying it was like being a fan watching from the outside, and acknowledged that big of a miss will be something that is discussed for many years.

“People, this is not my way of copping out when I tell you this – it’s God’s truth,” Arn said. “There were so many meetings that involved that top tier stuff like Bret Hart and him coming over. We heard all these huge amounts of money that he was making, which I could care less about any of that. My only concern was, ‘Okay, how are we going to use him? What do you want me to do to help?’ But it was all behind closed doors; it was so above my pay grade.”

“I had no idea,” Arn added. “I didn’t know what was going to go down until the guys got in the ring. I don’t think the whole thing got started– the whole angle effectively. I think he got hurt pretty quickly. I just think a lot of things just caved in everywhere that were unexpected. I was just like, a fan on the outside looking in.”

“I don’t know what happened there,” Arn continued. “You would have thought it would have been an easy fit walking across. To be honest with you, I don’t know. It’s one of those things in history that everybody will have a slant on that tells the story. I have no idea what happened on that deal.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Arn Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Mehdy Labriny contributed to this article.